"The Artist's Mother Knitting in a Flat in Paris"

"The Artist's Mother Knitting in a Flat in Paris" by Albert Ranney Chewett (1877-1965).

Maria Susan Chewett (1836-1918), née Ranney, knits in the English or "drawing-room style," with the right needle extending over the hand, much like holding a pen; this style was the "posh" way of knitting from some time during the Victorian period to the 1940s at least.  Mrs. Chewett was born in England, spent much of her married life in Canada (where her six children were born), and returned to England to live out her widowhood with her artist son and a number of his siblings.

Note that this is not what is now generally called English-style knitting, in which the wool is held in the right hand and "thrown" or wrapped around the working needle (as opposed to continental-style knitting, in which the wool is held in the left hand and "picked" or scooped up by the working needle) -- here it has more to do with the way that the needle itself is held.

This style of holding the needles was almost certainly much earlier than this Edwardian-ish painting, but for the time being this post will have the "earliest known usage" label -- more on the "drawing-room style" to come ...