A Compendium of Historical Knitting: July 2021

Thursday, July 1, 2021

Canadian cloud (1874)

In honor of Canada Day, here is a pattern from The Lady's Knitting Book (1874) by Elvina M. Corbould for a cloud, a fluffy sort of scarf worn draped over the head when outdoors, sometimes over the shoulders --

Canadian Cloud.
Wooden pins, No. 1; 10 skeins of white and 2 of scarlet Shetland wool.
Cast on 200 stitches, and knit backwards and forwards for 2½ yards. Cast off. Now with the scarlet crochet a border at the two sides. Double the cloud lengthways, and then draw up the two ends and finish off with a large tassel, made in the following way : -- Double a skein of white wool twice, then tie it round very tightly with strong wool about two inches from the end; cut the other ends, and join the cloud and tassel together with a crochet cord made of Berlin wool. It makes the cloud prettier to add a little scarlet crocheted cap to the tassel.

Two and a half yards (2.25 m) by 200 sts, even when folded in half, would be a Canadian-sized cloud indeed!

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About this project

This page is a compendium, not the compendium, and makes no claims to be definitive. That said, we will attempt to provide a broad spectrum of examples of knitting patterns, techniques, and stitches across the years.

The label "Pattern links" indicates that a link to an outside webpage is given in the post, directing the reader to the pattern (sometimes for purchase from the designer or adapter, but often free), and the label "Patterns" indicates that the pattern is given here in the post. Both categories are subdivided into historical periods.

The label "Historical patterns in modern terminology" gives either patterns themselves or (more usually) links to historical patterns rewritten for the knitter of today. (It can be very illuminating and educational to compare the original with an updated version!)

Note that although ordinarily we far prefer to refer to authors as they wished and presented themselves to the world on their books' title pages, in the case of knitting authors who were known -- sometimes known only -- by their husband's name, we have decided to here use their married names, e.g. Mrs. G.J. Baynes is here listed as Anne Baynes.

Weights of the more common historical yarns

Andalusian falls between modern fingering weight and sport weight; Jamieson & Smith's 2-ply "jumper weight" Shetland can also be used.

Crewel is the same as modern crewel wools.

Double Berlin is equivalent to a modern DK or a three-ply worsted.

Fleecy could come in a range of weights, probably from fingering weight to a soft bulky weight, but was most commonly from DK to soft bulky; the modern knitter will have to experiment to achieve the desired result.

Germantown is equivalent to a modern worsted (18-20 sts per 4"/10cm).

Knitting floss is probably a modern lace-weight.

Lamb's wool or worsted equivalent to modern sport weight; it is not a modern worsted, but refers to the way the wool was spun.

Pyrenees is a lace-weight wool with a slightly tighter twist than Shetland.

Saxony is equivalent to modern fingering or baby yarns (about 32 sts per 4"/10cm).

Shetland can still be found today; a two-ply lace-weight can also be used.

Single Berlin, like its relative double Berlin, was traditionally of merino wool; single is a needlepoint or fingering weight.

Worsted or lamb's wool is equivalent to modern sport weight; it is not a modern worsted, but refers to the way the wool was spun.

Zephyr is probably a light fingering weight wool.

A detailed table of discontinued vintage yarns (i.e. mostly 20th-century) and their respective weights can be found here, and a very helpful table of specific modern equivalents to historical yarns can be found here.