knitting

Mark your calendars for May's round of classes! (Image from NYPL Digital Gallery)

I was just browsing the Library's May events schedule and am happy to report that Library branches across the city will be offering lots of craft classes for a variety of ages this month. Search the calendar for these keywords--knitting, needlecraft, craft, origami, jewelry, crochet--and you'll find knitting circles, children's needlecraft lessons, my own HandMade Then and Now, origami classes, jewelry making instruction, and more. So come to the Library and join our community of handmakers.

It is cold outside today in New York City, but not quite as cold as in Ohio, where even the trees appear to be longing for warmth. In the Associated Press there is an article titled “Knitters Dress up Trees for Public Art,” by James Hannah, which discusses the art of the “knitknot tree" project on Xenia Avenue in Yellow Springs, Ohio, “known for its offbeat art”.

“Wrapped around the trunk is a colorful, crazy-quilt skin made up of panels of yarn knitted individually by residents and visitors alike. Good-luck charms cling to the yarn. Family photos, poems and jokes peek out of knitted pockets.”

“"What takes this to a different level is it is a community thing," said Corrine Bayraktaroglu, an artist who helped start the "knitknot tree" project. "People are really, really enjoying it. They're coming from towns to have their photograph taken with the tree. They're adding stuff to the pockets."

The following trees were knitted by Carol Hummel, guess which one is call the “Down Under”.

The artists plan to remove the knitting at the end of April and give the pieces of yarn away.

No, not that sort of fishnet. (Image from NYPL Digital Gallery.)

It's relentlessly cold and grey in New York today, and on days like this a pair of cozy wool or cotton tights are just what the meteorologist ordered. But in the days before a lady bought such winter luxuries, what did she do? And what patterns might be available for today's maker?

Not surprisingly, there is a healthy interest in handmade socks and stockings in the knitting world, and first-time sock makers can find many satisfying patterns as well as plenty of helpful tutorials that go over the intricacies of heels and toes. Knitty is just one of many free friendly sources for guidance and patterns, including Cookie A's pattern for lovely lacy ones or these racier stockings that could melt snow on the coldest of days.

For those seeking vintage patterns, there are plenty of options both at the Library and online. An 1880 publication called Stocking Knitting: A Manual of Household Industry offers patterns for stockings in a variety of patterns. And lest the men feel left out, Maud Churchill Nicoll's World War I-era Knitting and Sewing: How to Make Seventy Useful Articles for Men in the Army and Navy offers illustrated patterns for no fewer than ten types of socks and stockings, including trench stockings and seamen's stockings. She also wrote a manual on sockmaking for both "amateur and expert knitters" that offers advice for those making socks and stockings for both men and women.

Online, the Victoria & Albert Museum offers free patterns from the past at a section of their website devoted to knitting in the 1940s. Their pattern for fishnet stockings is impressive. I'm particularly interested in tackling a lace stocking pattern that I found online at Vintage Purls. Be they fishnets or cables, trench stockings or open-work, happy stocking making!

(Perhaps our heroine should have knitted for herself! From the NYPL Digital Gallery.)

Leave to it P. G. Wodehouse, comic genius and creator of The Inimitable Jeeves and Wooster, to bring levity to my growing obsession with wartime knitters. Lately I have been reading The Clicking of Cuthbert, a collection of Wodehouse’s golf tales. And let me add here: even if you, like me, know nothing of golf, you can still embrace these comedies set among the niblicks and mashies. Included in this volume is a cautionary tale about two rival golfing men, one stout and one lean, who attempt to guess which of them is favored by a certain young lady by studying the size of the item she is knitting. The assumption that they make is that she’s knitting for one of them. Of course, since this tale is by Wodehouse nothing turns out as these golfing gallants might expect. And Wodehouse includes the following warning, concerning the risks of amateur knitting:

“With amateur knitters there must always be allowed a margin for involuntary error. There were many cases during the war where our girls sent sweaters to their sweethearts which would have induced strangulation in their young brothers.”

If Wodehouse’s humor is your style, then check out NYPL's holdings for this prolific writer, musician, and essayist. A quick author search for him (Wodehouse, P. G. (Pelham Grenville), 1881-1975.) will point the way. On that note, toodle pip!

(These trading cards, picturing that famous O.N.T., are from the NYPL Digital Gallery.)

Chances are, if you own some spools of thread or hanks of embroidery floss, then you own some products created by the Coats & Clark Company. Their thread—for sewing, quilting, embroidering, and more—is sold everywhere. After picking up a fresh supply of Coats & Clark Dual Duty thread a few weeks ago for a dress, my curiosity was piqued. Who are these Coats and these Clarks?

As I learned, Coats & Clark started out in the nineteenth century as two independent companies, and the two did not merge until 1952. Coats had mills in Paisley, Scotland, and in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, while Clark was based in Newark, New Jersey. And it was George Clark who revolutionized home sewing with the invention of the first thread that would work reliably in sewing machines. Clark marketed this new thread as “Our New Thread,” a tagline that would be shortened over the years to become “O.N.T.”

The Library holds several small pattern books published by Clark between 1916 and 1919, and each includes O.N.T. in its title. For instance, there’s Clark’s O.N.T. “Woolsaver” Knitting and Crochet Book” (1918), in which I learned that Woolsaver Cotton, available in military hues of “olive drab, navy blue, and grey,” was made to be used along with wool “to strengthen and prolong the life of knitted articles” while there remains an “urgent need to conserve the wool supply for Our Boys at the front.” You can find the other Clark’s O.N.T. books by searching in Catnyp for “Clark’s O.N.T.” as a title.

And if you are curious, you can learn a bit more company history at the Coats & Clark website. The site offers free patterns as well.

I've recently entered what looks to become an annual knitting frenzy, as I work against the clock to make holiday gifts. While my fingers fly, my mind wanders to the history of this craft. And so, perhaps not surprisingly, when I put my sticks down and come to the library, I seek knitting history resources in NYPL’s collections.

The invention of knitting remains a mystery, but, according to Vogue Knitting, the earliest knitters were probably men, while women spun the thread and yarn used in knitted goods. The Mediterranean has been called “the cradle of knitting” because sailors and traders of this region spread knowledge of this craft far and wide. The earliest example of knitting to have survived is a pair of socks uncovered in Egypt, dating from 1200-1500 AD.

The history of knitting remains largely undocumented until the creation of knitting guilds throughout Renaissance Europe. These guilds demanded that a new knitter spend six years in training. The proof of a new guild member’s mastery was shown when he could, in the course of 13 weeks, create “a felted cap, a pair of stockings or gloves with embroidered decoration, a shirt or waistcoat, and a knitted carpet” elaborately decorated with flora and fauna. From here, it’s a short trip to a discussion of the rise of fancy lace hose, the creation of the knitting machine, and knitting for patriotism, all covered tidily in Vogue Knitting.

Here are two additional book recommendations for you. Come in and read No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting at NYPL’s Humanities and Social Sciences Library. It’s stored offsite, so order it ahead of time (learn how here!). History of Knitting Before Mass Production is another useful source, and it can be found at NYPL’s Science, Industry, and Business Library.

(from the 1909 edition of Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management. Image from NYPL Digital Gallery.)
In just a little over a week, we are all invited to take a daytrip to Rhinebeck, NY, to take part in the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival. It’s sponsored by the Dutchess County Sheep and Wool Growers, and it will be in full swing Saturday Oct. 20th from 9am to 6pm, and Sunday Oct. 21st from 10am to 5pm.
The weather is right (at last), the leaves should be turning to red and gold, and the opportunities to ogle handmade stuff will be countless. Events and activities include felting, spinning, using a sock machine, cooking, tasting of local cheeses and wines, wood carving, rug making, and wool shopping. And in addition to sheep, there will be other wooly mammals like goats, rabbits, llamas, alpacas, and even sheep dogs at the festival too.
When you aren’t gawking at the woolen goods or peeping at the sheep, you might stop by NYPL and read up on the path wool takes “from sheep to shawl.” A few books to get you started include Hand woolcombing and spinning, Handweaver’s instruction manual, and Spin your own wool and dye it and weave it.

Fingers fly in World War I homefront. (Image from the NYPL Digital Gallery.)

Every crafty person has probably been asked to help with, or perhaps has organized, charitable knitting projects: blankets and warm hats for the homeless, caps and scarves for children in need, and fancy goods for sale at fundraisers. What we don’t do so much of today is knit for the troops. But in World War I and World War II, the knitting of wool sweaters, hats, gloves, socks, bandages, and other items was a common activity that kept fingers flying on the homefront.

NYPL has many books and pamphlets from these wartime eras that guide the knitter in what to make and how. The Red Cross’s World War I Wartime Manual offered guidance to “what you can do at home.” Two others are the Khaki Knitting Book, printed in 1917 by the Allies Special Aid, and Knitting and Sewing: How to Make Seventy Useful Articles for Men in the Army and Navy, published in 1918. World War II resources include Knitting for the Army, published in Great Britain in 1941.

Additionally, check out the online Red Cross Museum for more wartime knitware patterns and history. One of their promotional posters promoting wartime knitting commanded, “Knit Your Bit.”

(Florence Silk Mittens from NYPL Digital Gallery)
Although it might not seem like it considering recent temperatures here in New York, autumn will be here soon enough. With the season’s arrival my thoughts turn to warm knitted goods, and this weekend I got a start on what I suppose you could call fingerless mittens, or perhaps wrist warmers, knitted with a fuzzy mohair blend. I’m trying a new stitch that I learned in Vogue Knitting–it’s called the purse stitch, and it’s very easy and works up quickly because it is lacy and open. Here’s the basic stitch (found on p. 145, in the book’s oh-so-helpful Stitch Dictionary):
Work in multiples of 2 stitches plus 2 extras.
Row One: Knit 1, * yarn over, purl 2 together, repeat from *, end with Knit 1.
All rows follow the same pattern as Row One.
If you are new to knitting and want a primer in order to understand knitting instructions, you can’t turn to a better source than Vogue Knitting, with its great illustrated explanations, stitch dictionary, and patterns both simple and complex. You’ll find plenty of other contemporary knitting guides to check out at the NYPL Branch Libraries, too (just search for the subject keyword “Knitting”). At NYPL Research Libraries, you can examine over one hundred knitting guides published over the last two hundred years. And finally, two online resources that I especially recommend are: Knitty and The Daily Knitter.