We had some free time in London today and headed to the perfect place to spend a rainy afternoon – the V&A. Most of their knitwear collection requires planning to view, but I did find some rather fascinating knitted lace baby clothes knit at a gauge much smaller than any we’re accustomed to seeing in handknits. I was briefly into knitting miniatures with sewing thread and dressmaking pins around age 13, but it was so slow, I can’t imagine how long these would have taken. Maybe this photo with my hand will give you an idea of the scale!
The bonnet has an interesting detail, a thicker thread was threaded between the stitches and used to outline motifs against the overall background pattern. I’ve come across this sort of embroidery in books, but it’s not something I’ve ever really seen used. Now I’m wondering what applications it could have.
These examples of elaborate work pre-date widely available written patterns, and a way in which they were learnt and recorded is shown in the sampler at the bottom of the case.
This might seem to have been replaced by stitch dictionaries, but I can still see advantages to making such a thing. Sometimes a stitch pattern that looks dull in the photograph becomes fascinatingly textured in real life and it can be useful to actually work different patterns up, both in terms of skill building and to assess how enjoyable they are to actually knit. I love the idea of creating a sampler of stitch patterns, or a library of swatches.
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for sharing!
Simply amazing workmanship. And I was impressed by the book ‘Victorian Lace Today’ and the historic patterns it contained…this has it beat.
That is beautiful. Doesn’t really make our machine knitting of pantyhose and t-shirts look like all that much of an advancement.
What a quaint idea, the thicker yarn outlining. This post is really inspirational.
I love seeing the inventiveness of older knitting and patterns (anything pre-sixties anyway!), particularly the use of small details to create effect. 4-ply is about as low as I want to go, but I know my granny used to crochet Christening shawls in much lighter weights. x x x
wow, such incredible craftsmanship!! I wish those women were still around to show us how it’s done…
My fingers ache just loooking at those bonnets. Imagine knitting that by he side of some poorly lit fireplace.
The thread outline is a great idea to outline simeple motifs ithout adding any bulk or trying to perform to complex a stitch with what looks like very fragile thread/yarn.
I love the V&A, next time I’m home, definitely somewhere I must get back to.
Gorgeous. Must get back to the V&A. I’m tempted to knit a sampler now!
The thicker outlining thread is often used in Bucks Point bobbin lace making where it’s called a gimp, I believe. No, really!
Never seen it in knitting, though – thanks for posting this.
Such a fine job is really impressive, thank you for the close up!
Have you seen the archive at KCG? It might be a good visit your way north, though I think you would need to contact them as I don’t think it’s open for visitors to that section without prior arrangement.
It’s a white-museum-glove-wearing type of archive, but well worth it.
the thicker thread in the bonnet reminds me of how backstitch is used in cross-stitch. used with thought, i imagine it would really pop a pattern! cannot imagine trying to work with such a fine guage, even though the result is beautiful.
Wow that’s really neat. I like the idea of highlighting motifs so that they stand out.
The patience and time it must have taken and so detailed yet delicate just lovely thankyou for sharing:) Hugs Darcy
the use of the gimp thread makes me wonder if the original inspiration was a bobbin lace pattern
Wow. That is amazing. I will never, never, ever knit at that gauge. But I’m now intrigued by what application you may come up with for the outlining technique…
And I love the sampler library idea.
What beautiful, intricate work!
The sampler and the idea of a personal ‘library’ has given swatching new meaning to me.
:) I was just coming to make the same comment as 2ply! – yes, just like a gimp thread in Bucks Point … Amazing to see the same type of highlighting method used in knitted lace as in a type of bbbin lace.
Thanks for the pictures.
Oh my! There is a pair of stockings in the DeYoung museum in San Franciso that wowed me, but this is even better. Thanks so much for sharing this.
There is a Yahoo group who knitted such a sampler in a KAL:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KnitalongSamplerM/
They can be lovely projects indeed!