Knitting terminology in the 1840s

Here are glossaries from four early knitting-book writers, three of them English and the other American. 

Note that Mrs. Copley is the only one to not use or even mention the word "seam" for the purl stitch!

From My Knitting Book by Frances Lambert (1843), using English terms --

Explanation of Terms used in Knitting. 

To cast on.—The first interlacement of the cotton on the needle. 

To cast off.—To knit two stitches, and to pass the first over the second, and so on to the last stitch, which is to be secured by drawing the thread through. 

To cast over.—To bring the cotton forward round the needle. 

To narrow.—To lessen, by knitting two stitches together. 

To seam.—To knit a stitch with the cotton before the needle. 

 To widen.—To increase by making a stitch, bringing the cotton round the needle, and knitting the same when it occurs. 

A turn.—Two rows in the same stitch, backwards and forwards. 

To turn.—To change the stitch. 

To turn over.—To bring the wool forward over the needle. 

A row.—The stitches from one end of the needle to the other. 

A round.—A row, when the stitches are on two, three, or more needles. 

A plain row.—That composed of simple knitting.

To pearl a row.—To knit with the cotton before the needle. 

To rib.—To work alternate rows of plain and pearl knitting. 

To bring the thread forward.—To bring the cotton forward so as to make an open stitch. 

A loop stitch.—Made by bringing the cotton before the needle, which, in knitting the succeeding stitch, will again take its own place. 

To slip or pass a stitch.—To change it from one needle to the other without knitting it. 

To fasten on.—The best way to fasten on is to place the two ends contrariwise, and knit a few stitches with both together. For knitting, with silk, or fine cotton, a weaver's knot will be found the best. 

To take under.—To pass the cotton from one needle to the other, without changing its position. 

Pearl, seam, and rib-stitch—All signify the same.

 

From Miss Watts's Selections of Knitting, Netting & Crochet Work (1844) -- English terms.

From Lonely Hours: A Textbook of Knitting by "An American Lady" (1849).

From The Comprehensive Knitting Book by Esther Copley (1849), using English terms. The explanation on p.12 for "take in from the back" reads, "By reversing the right hand pin, so inserting it in two stitches, not in front but in the back of the left hand pin, and knitting them off as one" -- a modern K2tog tbl, or "through back loop".

"Lonely Hours" by An American Lady

"The need which the writer has felt in common with many others, of a work on Knitting, adapted to American usage,

 combined with several years experience in and close attention to that beautiful and useful art, has emboldened her

 to place before the public, the following little book, with a sincere wish that it may be found to meet the wants

 of her fair country-women" -- from the preface.

Beth Chamberlain, knitter and librarian/historian, has tracked down what may be the first American knitting book -- not the first knitting book published in America (which was a reprint of Mrs. Lambert's The Hand-book of Needlework in 1842), but the first knitting book written in America for American knitters.

This is Lonely Hours : A Text Book of Knitting, by An American Lady, published by E. Gaskill of Philadelphia in 1849 -- you can read Beth's post about her research and discovery here. What is distinctive about Lonely Hours is that the patterns seem for the most part to be completely original to the author, not re-workings of existing ones.

There are not many libraries in the U.S. that own a copy of this book (see which ones do here), but happily, the Boston Public Library has digitized their copy, which can be viewed online at The Internet Archive.

Being an inveterate librarian myself, I followed one trail among the clues uncovered by Beth, and surmise that "E. Gaskill" was Edward Gaskill of Philadelphia (1811?-1866).  Sharp eyes will have noticed that unlike the copy that Beth located, the Boston Public Library's copy was published by M. Bywater, also of Philadelphia -- Maurice (or Morris) Bywater (1817-1870) was in fact Edward Gaskill's brother-in-law, who had married Mary Matilda Bywater (d.1879) in 1843.  It is unclear why the book would have two different publishers in the same year.  (The meaning of the title is also a bit of a mystery.)

It is certainly possible that the "American Lady" was Matilda Gaskill -- although sources indicate that she and her brother were born in Wales -- though of course it is also possible that the "Lady" was someone unrelated to either Edward Gaskill or Maurice Bywater.

 

Authorship aside, there are curiosities even at a first glance throughout the book -- see for example page 52, in which an "opera cap" is defined, either simply or dismissively depending on how you read it, as "merely a long and wide scarf, one hundred stitches wide, and two yards and a half long" in what would now be called a light fingering weight wool.  Also on page 52 is instructions for "zephyr balls" in what is still a common way of making what are now known as pompoms (the earliest-known use of the latter word is 1873!)

Note that the author has included a page of her knitting terms at the back of the book -- it will be interesting to compare, in a future post, these terms with those of other writers of the same period!

"Phillipa" jumper (1941)

The "Phillipa" jumper appeared on the cover of the Saturday, 8 March 1941 issue of "The Australian Women's Weekly" magazine. The pattern (which appears on p.35 of the "Knitting Book" supplement) is only one of many in the "Weekly" available free through Trove at the National Library of Australia.

Doortje of "Just Skirts and Dresses" hosted a "Phillipa" knitalong in 2013 -- her posts include her thoughts about resizing this pattern and adjustments for the wearer's figure.

"Spitalfields Nippers"

Today's post on the blog "Spitalfields Life" is another selection of photographic portraits by Horace Warner, about which the Gentle Author writes,

Around 1900, Photographer, Wallpaper Designer and Sunday School Teacher Horace Warner took portraits of children in Quaker St, who were some of the poorest in London at that time. When his personal album of these astonishing photographs came to light six years ago, we researched the lives of his subjects and published a book of all his portraits accompanied by biographies of the children.

A number of the children are wearing knitted or crocheted garments -- Jeremiah "Jerry" Donovan, aged about five, has a dark woollen chest-warmer knitted in horizontal ridges, Adelaide Springett, aged about seven, is wearing "all her best clothes," including a crocheted shawl in a simple net stitch.  Dolly (Lydia) Green, age twelve, is also wearing a crocheted shawl, this one with wide stripes, perhaps in a simple treble crochet (double crochet in US terminology).

Jerry's scarf would have been knitted something like this: K 1 row, P 1 row, K 2 rows, P 1 row, K 1 row, repeat to desired length, which on every 4th row of the repeat turns the purl "ridge" to the other side.

Adelaide's shawl is very like the Square Mesh stitch from the 1940s Complete Guide to Modern Knitting and Crocheting, available at Free Vintage Crochet (adapted here to include both UK and US terms):

Make chain foun­dation to desired length, plus 5 more ch for turning.

Row 1: 1 TC (US = DC) in 7th ch, * ch2, skip 2 ch, 1 TC (US = DC) in next ch. Repeat from * across row, ending with 1 TC (US = DC). 

Row 2. Ch5 to turn, * 1 TC (US = DC) in TC (US = DC) of previous row, ch2, skip 2 ch of previous row. Repeat from * across row, and end with 1 TC (US = DC) in 3rd ch of group of 5 ch of previous row. 

Repeat Row 2 to desired length.