Some more Elsa Barsaloux patterns

 Five Elsa Barsaloux patterns appear in the all-too-brief blog "Elsa Barsaloux Patterns" posted in 2014.  They appear to be from one of Barsaloux's self-published books, probably Knitwear De Luxe of 1919.

A selection of photos from Sweater Style (1921) has been posted here.

Indian Slip-On No.13A (1922)

Indian Slip-On No. 13A by Corticelli.

One of the more vivid patterns in the "Corticelli Yarn Book No.18" (1922) is the Indian Slip-On No. 13A, pictured here.  The body is knitted, with the collar and sleeve cuffs in crochet.

This slip-on, one of the newest of the Indian designs, is made of Corticelli Flosola in Sand, with the odd designs in Red, Goldenrod, Marion Blue and Black. The slashes at bottom of sleeves, the collar made of square tabs, and the bone rings worked in the girdle all add to the charm of this slip-on.

There is also a matching tam-like hat pattern. The complete booklet is available at Antique Pattern Library.

Ravelry user Rox has knitted up this garment, and her notes can be found here (membership required to view).

Fair Isle coat, 1924

From "The Australasian" (Melbourne, Vic.), Saturday, 31 May 1924, page 48. Courtesy the National Library of Australia.

This very snappy lady's coat was originally published in Weldon's Sixpenny Series no.58, "Jazz Wear" and reprinted in the Melbourne, Australia newspaper "The Australasian" in 1924.  Note the early use of charted colorwork, the three-needle bind-off, and the imperative "Do not slip first stitch of any row," which clearly implies that the slip-stitch selvage edge was already well-known.  (We might also note with amazement that this injunction means that the entire coat was in stranded knitting worked flat.)

 

It would be interesting to know if Fair Isle was actually known as "jazz knitting" in the 1920s or if that is just Weldon's being au courant!

FAIR ISLE COAT. 

MEDIUM SIZE. 

DESCRIPTION. 

This effective coat is worked in jazz knitting in stocking-web stitch (i.e., one row plain and one row purl), with collar, and borders in garter-stitch (i.e., every row plain). The front and back are made separately, and afterwards grafted together on each shoulder. The sleeves are also made separately and sewn into coat.

 

MATERIALS 

Shetland Floss.-10oz. putty, 1oz. blue, 1oz. cherry, 1oz. brown. 

Four bone needles No. 8 two button moulds, l¼in. across. 

 

MEASUREMENTS. 

Shoulder to lower edge, 25in.; round lower edge, 49in. (back 21in., fronts 14in.); sleeve seam, 18in. 

Do not slip first stitch of any row. 

 

RIGHT FRONT. 

Commence at lower edge. With putty, cast on 80 stitches, and knit 20 rows garter-stitch, knitting into back of each cast-on stitch, then knit 6 rows stocking web [i.e. stockinette]. 

Next 5 Rows.-Work according to chart. Knit 7 rows stocking-web. 

Next 17 Rows.-According to chart. Work 3 rows stocking-web. 

59th Row (1st buttonhole row).-K. 5, cast off 6, knit to end. 

60th Row.-P. 69 cast on 6, p. Knit 2 rows stocking-web. 

Next 5 Rows.-According to Chart. Knit 7 rows stocking-web. 

Next 17 Rows.-According to chart. Knit 7 rows stocking-web. 

Next 6 Rows -According to chart. Knit 3 rows stocking-wcb. 

107th and 108th Rows (2nd buttonhole rows).-As 59tth and 60th rows. Knit 2 rows, stocking:web. Next 17 Rows.-According to chart. Knit 4 rows stocking web. 

132nd Row.-Cast off 6 for underarm, purl to end. 133rd Row (here commence slope for front).-K. 2 tog., knit to end. 134th Row.-Purl to end. Now work according to chart, decreasing at commencement of every knit row until 42 stitches remain on needle, then finish front, according to chart, and leave stitches on needle, ready for grafting. -Break off wool, leaving long end. 

 

LEFT FRONT. 

Commence at lower edge. With putty cast on 88 stitches. Knit 20 rows garter stitch, knitting into back of each cast-on stitch, then knit 6 rows stocking-web. Now work according to right front chart, but omitting buttonholes, until the 132nd row is reached (this being 1st row shown in left front chart).

132nd Row.-Purl. 

133rd Row.-Cast off 6 for underarm, knit until 2 remain, k. 2 tog. (this commences decrease for front slope). 134th row.- Purl to end. Now work according to chart, decreasing at end of every knit row until 42 stitches remain on needle, then finish front according to chart, and leave stitches on needle ready for grafting. Break off wool, leaving long end. 

 

THE BACK. 

Commence at lower edge. With putty, cast on 120 stitches. Knit 20 rows garter stitch, knitting into back of each cast-on stitch, then knit 6 rows stocking-web. Now work according to chart until armhole is reached. 

131st Row.-Cast off 8, knit to end. 

132 Row.-Cast off 8, purl to end. Work 2 rows stocking-web. 

Now continue according to chart until 3 more patterns are completed, then work 3 rows stocking-web. 

Next Row.-K. 42, cast off 20 for neck, k. 42. Break off wool, leaving long end. Now graft shoulders together as follows: Thread wool into wool needle place the 2 needles containing stitches together, right side outside, hold work so that end of wool is at the back needle, pass wool needle through first loop of front needle purl ways, but do not slip loop off the knitting needle, pass needle through first loop of back needle, as if about to knit, but do not slip loop off. * Slip off first loop, as if for plain knitting, in front row, but keep loop on wool needle [sic] until next loop is worked, pass needle through second loop as if for purling, but do not slip loop off knitting needle. In Back Row.-Slip off first loop as if for purling, keeping on wool needle, pass needle through second loop as if for knitting, but do not slip loop off knitting needle, repeat from * until all loops are worked off. 

 

THE SLEEVES. 

Commence at lower edge. With putty, cast on 100 stitches. Knit 20 rows garter-stitch, knitting into back of each cast-on stitch. Knit 6 rows stocking-web. Now work according to chart until 6 patterns are completed, break off coloured wools. Knit 7 rows stocking-web. Cast off. 

 

THE COLLAR. 

This commences with the facing up right front. With putty, cast on 10 stitches. Knit 44 rows stocking-web. 

45th Row.-K. 2, cast off 6, k. 2. 

46th Row.-P. 2, cast on 8, p. 2. (These 2 rows are buttonhole rows.) 

Knit 44 rows stocking-web, then repeat the 45th and 46th rows for 2nd button hole. 93rd Row.-Knit. 

94th Row.-K. 2. k. 2 into next stitch (by knitting into back as well as front of stitch before slipping it off needle), knit to end. 

95th Row.-Knit. Repeat last 2 rows until there are 40 stitches on needle. Knit 188 rows garter-stitch.

Next Row.-K. 2, k. 2 tog., knit to end. Next Row.-Knit. Repeat last 2 rows until 10 stitches remain on needle. Next Row.-Purl. 

Next Row.-Knit. Next Row.-Purl. Knit 92 rows stocking-web. Cast off. Covers for Buttons.-Cast on 10 stitches. Knit 16 rows garter-stitch. Cast off. 

 

TO MAKE UP. 

Press well on wrong side under a damp cloth with a moderately hot iron. Sew up side-seams. Sew up sleeve-seams, sew sleeves into armholes. Sew on collar, continuing stocking-web facing down each front, placing buttonholes over button holes in coat. Cover the two button moulds, sew on left front to correspond with buttonholes. 

-(From "Weldon's Jazz Wear.")

The cover of "Jazz Wear".  The Fair Isle coat in The Australasian is pictured at lower right.  (Image: Ravelry.)

"A Victorian Knitting Journey: 14 Designs Inspired by 'Jane Eyre'"

Image from the author's website.

A Victorian Knitting Journey: 14 Designs Inspired by "Jane Eyre" by Alexa Tschan-Lustenberger (Alexa Tschan-Lustenberge, 2019) introduces patterns for Victorian garments and accessories, some reproductions of period patterns and others in the style of the period, inspired by Brontë's novels Jane Eyre, Shirley, and Villette. 

161 pp., hardcover.  Also available in the original German, as Eine Viktorianische Strickreise.

Bell-shaped needle gauge, ca.1900

Needle gauge from the Faudel Phillips & Sons Co., London, ca.1900. Image from an Ebay auction.

The Jenny Lind collar

 

Jenny Lind, 1850. (Library of Congress, LC-DIG-ppmsca-38268). Lind was noted for her modest clothing and demeanor, in the days when women on the stage were thought to be little better than prostitutes.

 These collars are all of the "Jenny Lind" type, named for the wildly-popular Swedish soprano of the 1840s and 50s.  Note the slight differences here and there, which may be due to local fashion, the date, or the ladies themselves.

Said to be dated 1852.

 

Maria L. Smiley, Philadelphia, 1851. (Historical Society of Pennsylvania) 

 

 This young woman has gussied up her collar with a wide ribbon underneath.

 Mrs. Warren published a collar of "Swedish lace à la Jenny Lind" in her Point Lace Crochet Collar Book (Second Series) in 1847 --

The Amazons' red caps

"Swallows and Amazons" (1974)

In the classic series of children's books by Arthur Ransome that began in 1930 with the eponymous Swallows and Amazons, the Blackett sisters usually wear distinctive red knitted caps.  The caps aren't described much, only that they are knitted and that the red color can be seen for miles, as when the four Walker children aboard their beloved "Swallow" can easily recognize "Amazon" as she tacks across the lake, by the red caps of her crew.

"Swallows and Amazons" (2016). Peggy has somehow got hold of a striped cap here, instead of the usual red one.

Because Ransome was so vague about the style of cap that Nancy and Peggy wear, we have more leeway in choosing a pattern.  In 1920s England, a watch cap pattern would be a logical choice, and would certainly have been available to a knitting mother or grandmother who had a relative in the merchant marine or the Navy, who had knitted for servicemen during the recent War as so many women did, or who simply had sailors in the family, as do both the Walkers and the Blacketts.

"Crow's Nest Cap" pattern, probably from the 1910s, from "The Needle-Worker" magazine's booklet Comforts for Sailors, and How to Knit Them. Note that the cap is worked from the top down.

One could also get a bit more elaborate than a simple watch cap, as the costumers did for these two filmed versions -- the 1974 Blacketts wear a longer version more like a ski cap with pompom, while the 2016 Blacketts' caps look very like the voyageur style.

"Girl with ice skates," 1917

 "Girl with ice skates, interior from the school household, Falun" (1917) by Carl Larsson.

Larsson conveys the texture of knitted wool wonderfully even in a small watercolor -- though as knitters we'd perhaps like to see that interesting hem in more detail!  This looks like a typical 1910s jumper, possibly with a finer one in cream underneath, or the grey has a cream collar in addition to the cream band around the wrists and possibly the hem as well.  The cream color matches with the girl's hat, probably a felted knit much like this timeless one from Knit Picks.

"Each rib of the design measures about half an inch"

"Lady's Knitted Under-Vest" from Harper's Bazar [sic], 10 December 1870, pp.789-790.

Anne L. Macdonald, in her No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting (Ballantine, c1988) writes that

The first mention of gauge seen by this author, in Harper's Bazaar in 1870, was a "Lady's Knitted Under Vest ... to be worn under high-necked dresses instead of a vest."  Instructions called for "heavy wooden Needles in the common patent* stitch," the needle size to be determined by whatever produced this result: "Each rib of the design measures about half an inch, 8 rounds in length being 1 1/4 inches."  In 1885, "Jenny June" finally advised knitters to make a swatch (though she didn't use that term): "Knit a few rows, and then measure them carefully.  You will see thus how many rows of your work make an inch and can calculate exactly how many stitches will be needed."

The bibliographic note on p.390 gives the citations as 10 December 1879 [sic], p.789 for the Harper's Bazaar, and "Croly, p.14" for the Jennie June (the pen name of Jane Cunningham Croly), though the only title by Mrs. Croly in the bibliography is her Sorosis: Its Origin and History, and I confess I cannot find the quotation there.  It does, however, appear in her Knitting and Crochet: A Guide to the Use of the Needle and the Hook (Ingalls, 1886), on p.14 --

Gauge, or more accurately the lack thereof in period knitting patterns, is probably the bane of historical knitters' existence -- as it was very likely to many knitters in the past, as well. It seems astonishing now that it took some thirty years' worth of knitting "receipts" and books before a pattern writer took pity enough to include a note on gauge, so let us send a grateful sigh of thanks to the unnamed Harper's Bazaar author who not only included an illustration of the finished piece but gave an idea of gauge!

* For "patent knitting," note Mrs. Croly's "No. 37a. BRIOCHE, OR PATENT KNITTING. Cast on a number of stitches divisible by three. First (and every) row.— Cotton forward, slip 1, knit 2 together," which is not the modern "brioche" stitch but produces a similar thickly-ribbed fabric.