A March Birthday

I had a birthday! My boyfriend took me to Boston:



Where he had reserved a table for us at Rowes Wharf for an elegant Afternoon Tea overlooking the water:



It was an incredible tea, with rose petals on the table and champagne, along with the best tea and scones with Devonshire cream...

Afterward we wandered a bit down Newbury Street and visited a yarn shop:



and I didn't leave empty-handed:


Koigu, Farm-spun 100% cashmere, and Artyarns Silk Purse 100% silk

(I think I'll make the Linen Stitch Scarf from Churchmouse Yarns and Teas with these yarns)

When I came home I had wonderful presents from my best friends:



Yes, that IS a bar with chocolate and potato chips!!



My friend send me a WHOLE BOX of bags she had made! I love this one especially but they're all wonderful.

I love March.

Crazy Stitch Crazy Love

In many of my oldest needlework manuals, there are several pages of stitch patterns. Over the years, I've noticed an interesting phenomenon. In the earliest booklets - say 1800's through 1905 or so, is crochet stitch called Crazy Stitch but in later years it dies out, never mentioned again.



I find this particularly true of crochet. The stitches wan and wax in popularity and go in and out of fashion. As I've collected books and booklets that span the decades from 1800 through today, I've seen this happen and beautiful stitch patterns that were common 100 years ago are practically non-existent now. I did find one example of the crazy stitch being used about 10 years ago. A blanket posted on the internet as "diagonal crochet" used this stitch, but didn't identify it. Recently, a friend showed me a baby blanket she had made, and I recognized this stitch so it must be around.

As you've gathered by now, I've used this stitch a lot - I've made blankets, scarves, and triangular shawls with it - and each item has an elegant and complex look.



I use the directions from the 1904 Utopia Yarn Book



Make a chain of the desired length.
Row 1 - Make 3 dc in 3 chain; skip 2 chain and fasten with 1 sc. *chain 3; make 3 dc in the same st with the sc; skip 2 ch and fasten with 1 sc. Repeat from * to end of row.
Row 2 - Chain 3, make 3 dc in the last sc made in the first row; fasten with 1 sc in the loop formed by the chain of 3 in the preceding row; ch 3, make 3 dc in the same loop where the sc was just made and fasten as before with 1 sc. Repeat across row.

I used this stitch in my soft merino scarf, pictured:



This scarf is 9 pattern repeats across and 48 2-row repeats long. I used Perle Cotton in two colours for the fringe, knotting it for the lacy look. The yarn is 100% merino sport weight, in a discontinued brand, but any soft yarn of any weight would work well.

I love this scarf because it looks like a vintage artifact, even though it's new. And it looks perfect with my camel-hair winter coat! And that's why stitch patterns should never be forgotten - they are timeless, really.

It National Crochet Month (or International Crochet Month, perhaps?) so I've been featuring crochet, but I've discovered some gorgeous Spring sweaters in my Columbia books from the 1930's and I don't think I can wait until April to show them to you!

Art Deco all around

In my last post, I said I'd have a surprise for you at the end, but then I ran out time and this particular surprise takes a lot of time to type out! I had been planning to pour through my old pattern books and find one of the beaded bag patterns for you but then, as I looked at book after book, I found this in a pattern for a stylish sweater:



and it reminded me so much of this in style:



I took a closer look and both the sweater design and the bag were made within just a couple years of each other so... yeah... these were inspired by the Art Deco era that started in Paris in the 1920's.

This pattern, The Spencyr Sweater, comes from 1923 Fleisher's Knitting and Crochet Manual, Number 106.



I have the complete series of these manuals, in the original, starting with 1890 and going through 1939, as well as several from the 1940's. It took me about 10 years to collect them! Each one is a complete gem. You can find many of these manuals, in reproduced form, through IvaRose.com. So here it is!

The Spencyr Sweater

~ S.B. and B.W. Fleisher, inc. Philadelphia.



Materials ~ Fleisher's Silverglow Yarn - 5 balls White, 5 balls Henna, 2 balls Black. Needles, 1 pair No. 5 (US). Gauge: 6 stitches and 6 rows = 1 inch square.

[Silverglow was a fingeringweight yarn on the thicker side, like Blue Moon Fiber Arts STR heavyweight]

No size for the finished sweater is given, but in other of their manuals they state that the patterns are sized 36 and to size up or down by changing the needle size and yarn weight.

With black yarn cast on 96 inches, Work in stockinette stitch for 1 1/2 inches. Purl 1 row on the knit side to form a hem line and continue in stockinette for 5 rows. Join Henna and start pattern following chart no. 1.



1st row: 1 st henna, *6 stitches black, 2 stitches henna*. repeat between *'s ending with 1 st henna.

Change to chart for body of sweater. On first row of all white increase to 99 stitches by increasing in the 2nd stitch from each end and also in the center of the row.



Follow chart for the 66 rows and repeat pattern from the 1st white row.

When back measures 21 inches from hem line (20 inches from 1st row of 1st pattern) bind off 5 stitches each side and decrease 1 stitch each side every 2nd row 3 times.

Work even for 5 1/2 inches. This should be the last row of 2nd full pattern. With white yarn work 31 stitches, place on a stitch holder, bind off 21 stitches. On remaining 31 stitches start front, reversing pattern from last row on back.

Work even for 1 inch, then increase at neck edge 1 stitch every other row 3 times and cast on 5 stitches.

Work even on both edges until armhole measures 5 1/2 inches from shoulder, then increase 1 stitch on armhole every 2nd row 3 times and cast on 5 stitches. Finish front same as back to border. Increase 1 stitch at underarm on 1sr row of border and follow chart.

With black, work 5 rows of stockinette, purl 1 row on the knit side and continue in stockinette for 1 1/2 inches. Bind off on wrong side. Make other side to correspond.

Sleeves:
With white pick up 71 stitches around armhole. Reverse pattern of sweater from 28th row of 2nd pattern. When work measures 10 inches increase 1 stitch each side every 2nd row 3 times. Reverse to 23rd row of pattern; this should measure 12 inches; then work border to match border on bottom. Work other sleeve to correspond. Sew up seams and hem bottom.

Band on Front:
With black pick up all the stitches from neck to bottom of sweater. Work stockinette stitch for 3 rows, purl 1 row on knit side, and continue in stockinette for 1 inch. Bind off on wrong side. Make other fromnt band to correspond. Turn both bands on knit line and hem.

Collar:
With black, holding wrong side of sweater toward you, pick up 70 stitches around neck. Work in stockinette for 1 inch. On knit row, knit 25, *knit 2 together, knit 7*, repeat between *'s once, knit 2 together, knit 25. Purl 1 row. Next knit row knit 24, knit 2 tog, knit 6, knit 3 tog, knit 6, knit 2 tog, knit 24.

Join henna. *knit 5, increase 1 stitch in 6th stitch* repeat between *'s twice, knit 27, *increase in next stitch, knit 5* repeat between *'s twice. Work 1 row black as follows: purl 2, increase in next stitch, purl 31, increase in next stitch, purl 31, increase in 3rd stitch from end, purl 2. Join henna. Beginning with 1st row of border chart work 7 rows. After last row of henna, with black work 3 rows of stocinette, purl 1 row on the right side for hem line and 1 1/2 inches of stockinette as before. Bind off on wrong side.

On front edges of collar, holding right side toward you, pick up and knit 16 stitches. Work in stockinette for 3 rows, decreasing at neck end every row. Work 1 purl row on knit side, and stockinette for 1 inch. Bind off on wrong side. Sew hem on collar and hems on edge over the deep hem.

One last note,,,, doesn't the model in the sweater look so like Edith Granville from Downton Abbey?! And this is just the type of sweater that she would wear.

It's in the bag...

Good morning! I hope you have a nice cup of tea, because this looks to be a long and picture-laden post! I'm going to show you my small collection of 1800's and early 1900's beaded bags, show you some of my vintage pattern books with their bag pictures and patterns, and - if my typing fingers hold out - a nice surprise at the end.

I've always been fascinated by those intricately beaded designs on little bags that were popular and useful items for over 100 years. I've seen them in my early 1800's knitting and crochet manuals right up through the early 1900's. Even in the 30's and 40's there were simpler versions of these bags in pattern magazines but their popularity was waning.

These covers from my 1920's Fleisher's manuals show the types of bags still used then, but less as chatelaines and more as project-bags:







Corticelli was another company that produced silk knitting and crochet threads and created pattern books to go with them. This reproduction Corticelli booklet from Iva Rose was originally printed in 1917 and is full of designs in the popular bright colours of that era as well as a few of the earlier bags in bead crochet and filet crochet.



My Heminway & Sons Silk-Craft manual also has a variety of these bags but from decades earlier. Heminway, established in 1849, also manufactured silk knitting and crochet thread - a laborious and exacting science in those years:



I have some original spools of this knitting silk in my collection, and from experimentation I've found that Perle Cotton size 5 might be substituted for some of these patterns, and comes in as wide a variety of colours as the early silks. You need something with a twist for durability (the original spools were called "Silk Twist") but thin enough for threading the tiny, tiny glass or steel beads.

My earliest bags are beautiful examples of the glass and steel bead crochet. Some are simpler geometric designs, like these from the 1800's using cotton twist and faceted bronze-coloured glass beads. I love the big beaded tassel on this small bag:





and this larger bag with its beaded, turned-down collar and celluloid rings that the drawstring loops through:





This cream silk twist bag has rows and rows of beaded swags and beaded diamonds and a tightly crocheted, beaded ball-and-tassel (incredibly, I found it at a charity shop with a $5 price tag in a box of purses. I did tell them it was mis-marked and paid them a fair price for it):





This magnificent example is in navy Silk Twist with steel/precious metal beads:



It's incredibly heavy - like carrying a brick of metal - and maybe that is the reason that there is no wear or flaw of any kind on this bag, even though it is at least 100 years old. An antique appraiser told me that the beads were sterling silver.



This bag also has rings, silver ones, for the drawstring...



But the drawstring is a chain - as delicate and intricate as a silver necklace - beautiful!



The Heminway Silk-Craft book has a pattern for a silver-bead style bag, not as elaborate in design, but a pretty example:



It also shows patterns for the cotton crochet bags, with beads used just for the poesy design:





But the King and Queen of my little collection are the silk "beaded picture" bags:





These bags use such tiny crochet stitches and the glass beads themselves are minuscule. There are at least 45 beads to one inch in this example, and hundreds in a round.





The Heminway booklet has one pattern for this type of bag. I imagine it would take a year to complete it - the pattern alone is 11 pages long! The Oak Leaf and Acorn bag:



It uses 2 and 1/2 spools of silk twist, 7 skeins (beads threaded on string) of black beads, 5 skeins of bright yellow beads, 5 skeins of dark yellow beads, and 2 skeins of red-brown beads. The directions that follow give exact instructions for threading every single tiny glass bead onto the silk twist in a colour configuration that will result in the design pictured, similar to hand-painting yarn before knitting it. Then a tiny crochet stitch is made in between each and every of those thousands of beads to create the fabric and the beaded design. Each bead has to be threaded in exactly the right sequence in order for the "picture" to materialize - Amazing!

Well, I do have a related pattern for you, but I've run out of time so that will have to wait for the next blog post. If you have ever tried beaded crochet, let me know - I'd love to see your projects!

Button, button

This has been a weekend of memories. A dear friend, who was a roommate in my youth, has lost her husband after a short and violent illness.

O furious Wind, I am only a straw before you;
How could I know where I will be blown next?
Whoever claims to have made a pact with Destiny
Reveals himself a liar and a fool;
What is any of us but a straw in a storm?
How could anyone make a pact with a hurricane?

Love Is The Master
~Rumi

This evening I felt at a loss and wanted comfort from the turmoil in my mind. I remembered that Erik Erikson called his wife's, Joan's, bead collection "the eyes of the Mother". So I pulled out my button collection and it cheered me to pour through my favorites and admire their beauty and endurance.

I keep my best buttons in my Sajou sewing box that my friend gave me last year for Christmas. It's a wonderful box full of French sewing items: a square of marking chalk, little scissors, threads, needles, tapes and things:



...and I love the cover especially, with its picture of a dog and cat winding yarn:



Here are some of my favorite buttons, though the photos aren't very clear.

These are a set of green Bakelite toggles, softly shiny and marbled:



And these are Bakelite of a rare clear amber colour:



These three are flat Bakelite, brown... but they're elongated hearts and I love them:



and these are tiny little amber-coloured early celluloid:



These sweet little buttons are porcelain pressed into dog heads and hand painted:



and, finally, my swallows in teal green and coral pink:



So charming! I'm saving these for the perfect garment. Do you think it will ever materialize?

Another thing I find comforting when my mind is troubled is crochet. I don't know whether it's my association of crochet with loved relatives long passed, or the soothing ease of the hook's work, but I always keep a crocheted blanket project on hand for trying times.



After 32 squares of my brilliant variegated Socks That Rock yarn, I've started on a few of the shaded-solid colourways...



This is (left to right in 3 rows) Winter Solstice, Ramalaba, Help Us, Rhonda!, KMBFLA, Brick, Buttah, Saffron Jungle, and Nyame, Sunstone, and Mossay...

When I started this traditional Granny Square blanket, I couldn't find exactly the pattern that I wanted, with a four-petaled flower in the center and a balanced contrast with a dark background that would show off the colours...



So, I made up my own:

Sophia's Memory Garden Blanket (Traditional)

Each square takes just a couple of yards of bright fingering weight yarn, and an equal or very slightly longer amount of dark yarn.

The hook is a US D/ 3.25 mm size - I use a Skacel Addi Swing Hook.

Start with the bright yarn and make a chain of 5 stitches. Join to make a round.

Chain 4, and into this circle make 2 DC, ch1, 3 DC, ch1, 3 DC, ch1, 3 DC, and ch1. Join this last chain to the 4th ch of the chain 4 that began your flower. Slip st across the top of the 2 DC to the center Ch1.

Change to the dark yarn. Into the ch1 space chain 4 and then 2 DC, 1ch, 3 DC. *Do not chain one. Skip to the next Chain 1 space and make 3 DC, ch1, 3 DC.* Repeat from * twice more. End by connecting with a slipped stitch to the 4th chain in the chain 4.

Slip st across the top of the 2 DC to the center Ch1.Change to the bright yarn. Into the chain 1 space, chain 4 and then 2 DC, 1ch, 3 DC. *Do not chain one. Skip to the next Chain 1 space and make 3 DC, ch1, 3 DC.* Repeat from * into each chain 1 space. End by connecting with a slipped stitch to the 4th ch in the first chain 4 of the round. Repeat another round with the bright yarn.

Repeat two rounds with the dark yarn and fasten off.

I found it best to fasten off each round after finishing a bright or dark sequence and crochet over the tail to weave it in. When I've finished enough squares - and the 32 I photographed above appear to be only about a tenth of what I'll need - I'll probably slip stitch them together and then crochet a small shell stitch border all around.

It is comforting to make. But I think it will be even more comforting to curl cosily under it at the end of a cold, sad weekend.