Joyce demonstrating knitted World War I garments in a re-enactment at Fort Nelson.
On Monday 3 April 2023 Joyce Meader of The Historic Knit will be speaking on Knitting History from 1800 to 1920 and showing items from her collection of historical knitting patterns and equipment.
Joyce is a long-term friend of KHF whose collection is almost as extensive as her knowledge! As well as reproducing and writing about historical knitting, she is particularly expert on knitting for the armed forces and is an informative and entertaining speaker whose talks are lively and well-received.
The talk will be held via Zoom on Monday 3 April 2023 at 7.00pm [that’s 19.00 GMT+1 / UTC+1] and last about one-and-a-half hours. Tickets cost £10 Sterling per person. Any surplus will be donated to Sightsavers, a UK charity which treats and prevents avoidable blindness.
On 21st February the Aleksanteri Institute of the University of Helsinki will begin their INREES seminar series for 2023 with a paper on “Hand-knitted Woollen Lace Fabrics in Shetland (Scotland) and Haapsalu (Estonia): A “Wheel-Powering” Mechanism Between People, Place, and Products”. The presentation is by Sophie Qiaoyun Peng, a PhD candidate at Central and East European Studies, University of Glasgow and will be discussing and explaining the “wheel-powering” mechanism in regional knitted lace-making traditions, using Shetland (Scotland) and Haapsalu (Estonia) as examples through which to explore the relations between lace and place, and how hand-knitted lace has developed from being a crucial part of making additional income to a crucial part of leisure and local-branding in contemporary contexts. The paper will explain the “wheel-powering” mechanism in producing hand-knitted lace fabrics, and the role of lace-knitting in forming a shared identity in culturally-distinctive areas, as well as using the “wheel-powering” mechanism as a model for examining why the popularity of lace-knitting is higher in Haapsalu than in Shetland now.
ICON’s Textile Group is hosting an online talk on 20th February 2023 on ‘Identifying loops and other ingredients in evidence for early modern knitting’. Dr Jane Malcom-Davies of the University of Copenhagen and The Tudor Tailor will be discussing the search for terminology for textile analysis. Knitted artefacts are important in expanding our understanding of the craft of knitting, but lack of agreed terminology has led to incomplete or inaccurate cataloguing in museum collections. Identification of structure can be hit-or-miss, exacerbated by the tendency of observers to mix deductions as to methods of construction with reportage of essential characteristics. This in turn has hampered scientific discussion of the extant evidence of knitting, as not all knitted artefacts have been correctly identified. This talk recommends a protocol for evidence-based recording of extant items with the aim of providing reliable descriptive detail for those who cannot view the items for themselves, offering a sound foundation upon which later observers can build further insights. A vocabulary is suggested which is based on English terminology used in textile analysis, craftwork, and in the mechanised knitting industry today.
The Textile Group is one of several special interest groups of ICON, the Institute of Conservation, that support the development of conservation professionals and provide specialised learning and networking opportunities. Establishing a framework in which surviving knitting can be consistently correctly identified and fully analysed is a positive move forward.
Estelle Hughes of Midwinter Yarns will be speaking on ‘Hönsestrik: Radical Knitting’ at the Perth Festival of Yarn in Scotland on 10th September 2022.
Hönsestrik, or Hønsestrik, sometimes translated as hen knitting or chicken knitting, originated in Denmark in the 1970s. It is a distinctive type of stranded colourwork worked in the round, with vibrant, often highly contrasting colours, combined with non-traditional patterns and symbols with political and cultural meaning. Hønsestrik was devised by Danish knitting designer Kirsten Hofstätter (1941-2007) and spread via her books, starting with ‘Hønsestrik‘, first published in 1973. Hofstätter’s intention was to free knitters from reliance on mass-production and to inspire people, particularly women, to express themselves through making. It is a style of knitting at once feminist, anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist, an early form of craft activism enjoying something of a resurgence, encouraged by recent publications.
The latest paid-for knitting club by Kate Davies Designs is the Bluestocking Club, named after the informal English literary, social and educational movement, originally founded by elite intellectual women of the mid-eighteenth century. The modern sock patterns are accordingly inspired by different eighteenth-century women writers. Possibly of more interest to KHF members is the accompanying online event. Subscribers to the KDD club will be able to attend an online symposium on Monday 24th May at 4.00PM hosted by Prof Nicole Pohl of Oxford Brookes University. The symposium will cover the history and cultural context of the bluestockings and also eighteenth-century sock and stocking knitting. Susan North will speak on eighteenth-century knitting, Lis Gernerd will speak on men’s stockings and Isabella Whitworth will speak on eighteenth-century methods of wool dyeing and worsted processing. Places on the online symposium are limited and though a recording may be made available afterwards, both the live event and the recording will only be available to members of the KDD Bluestocking Club. More information is available at the KDD&Co website.
April may have been the cruellest month in T. S. Eliot’s eyes, but for many in the continuing COVID pandemic, January 2021 is far worse. Here is some good news to help KHF members keep going:
CURATORS’ COLLOQUIUM ON KNITTED TEXTILES
The University of Glasgow is hosting a free online colloquium on Friday 29th January 2021 from 13:30 to 16:00 GMT. This event will share knowledge and practice regarding the collection, conservation, preservation and interpretation of knitting collections. Knitting is often a hidden part of a national or local collection, yet given the importance of knitted textiles to Scotland and to so many very different nations and cultures, it is imperative to raise awareness and share information and knowledge so that garments which carry so much meaning are appreciated, preserved and interpreted. National collections may have specialist curators, but many other smaller museums and collections do not. The aim of the colloquium is to share knowledge and practices amongst curators and custodians. Speakers will include Carol Christiansen, Curator and Community Museums Officer at Shetland Museum and Archives; Jen Gordon and Federica Papiccio, Assistant Curators, Scottish Fisheries Museum, Anstruther, where they are responsible for the Scottish Gansey project; Frances Lennard, Professor of Textile Conservation at the University of Glasgow, who led the University’s Centre for Textile Conservation and Technical Art History until 2020; Lisa Mason, Assistant Curator in the Art & Design department at National Museums Scotland, Trustee of the Bernat Klein Foundation, and Membership Secretary of the Dress and Textile Specialists and Helen Wylde, Senior Curator of Historic Textiles at National Museums Scotland, responsible for European textiles and dress from the medieval period to 1850. Tickets and further information available here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/curators-colloquium-on-knitted-textiles-tickets-133065976919
KNIT BACK TO THE 1920S AND 1930S
The LSE Library is hosting this free online event on Thursday 4th February 2021 from 6:30pm to 7:30pm GMT. ‘For those who enjoy an interesting piece of knitting’, the talk explores knitting patterns in interwar women’s domestic magazines with Dr Ellie Reed, of the year-long project ‘Time and Tide: Connections and Legacies’ at Nottingham Trent University, who will focus on publications in the Knitting & Crochet Guild’s collection. A booklet containing stitch patterns will be available to attendees and there will be a social media hashtag to share the efforts of those intrepid knitters who have a go! Further details and a link to book tickets available here https://www.timeandtidemagazine.org/for-those-who-enjoy-an-interesting-piece-of-knitting
INSIDE THE FACTORY
And finally, there’s still time to catch the BBC’s ‘Inside The Factory’ episode on commercial sock-knitting in the UK. The programme includes visits to a sock factory in Leicester, a cotton spinning factory in Manchester and looks at Kitchener stitch and the First World War, as well as featuring Joyce Meader of The Historic Knit. You may have missed the original transmission, but it’s still available to watch online by viewers in the UK until June 2021 on BBC iPlayer. More details and a link to the programme available here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000r03q
Almost a year ago I spent a fantastic weekend all about knitting in Leiden, taking part in the Knitting History Symposium on the 17th century “Texel Silk Stocking” on Saturday and visiting the TRC Leiden where the KHF AGM was held on Sunday, as well as some of the sights of Leiden. I was so busy taking notes I did not take any pictures at the conference itself but I did in the exhibition on Sunday, which showcased most of the samples and reproduction stockings of the project.
The keynote lecture of the symposium was about the reconstruction of the 17th century Texel stocking finds by a citizen science community, under Chrystel Brandenburgh.
The stockings came from wreck number BZN17, and we now know it was an armed Dutch merchant ship that sank about 1645-1660.
The two goals for the project were to involve people who are not normally part of archaeological research but have the expertise needed for a reproduction, in this case experienced knitters, and to be able to repeat the experiment. More than a hundred people volunteered!
The original stocking was made from reeled, not spun, silk, and knitted in the round. It was examined with a Dino-Lite microscope. All information was gained from that examination, the stocking was not turned or otherwise disturbed.
The citizen science project involved knitting test swatches with different types of silk (some already de-gummed, some still containing the sericin, and different size needles, 0.7mm and 1mm, to find the right material and gauge for the reconstruction. The original measured 83 stitches and 100 rows for a 10cm square! The test pieces measured 5x5cm and took on average 5 hours to complete, and required 15m of silk, which means a stocking would need 1080m.
After the test swatch stage, about 40 people continued with the experiment by knitting a complete stockings, and as of the date of the conference 27 stockings were finished. Knitting with the silk that still contained the sericin proved easiest and quickest, and blocking the stocking after removing the gum also brought the most uniform result.
Using a wooden former to shape the stockings after washing (and de-gumming) was based on the existence of an extant example of the period in Denmark, and English records mentioning wooden stocking formers. Uneven knitting and a certain amount of difference in gauge did not matter after removing the sericin and blocking the stocking.
It is impossible to tell how long it would take to knit a stocking in period. Those knitters that knitted more than one stocking reported that the time it took to knit the second one was almost half of the first, showing how much familiarity with the material and the way to knit speeded up the process.
The papers in the Knitting History conference itself were all connected to the Texel Stocking project. The first section was about stocking production in Europe, showcasing current research in knitting history:
Lesley O’Connell Edwards’ “A hidden workforce: hand knitters in 17th century England” focused on evidence of who was knitting and what was being produced, and the research is centred on Norfolk and Suffolk. There is less information available on this topic for the 17th century than for the 16th century, and council and probate records are so far the best sources. Items produced by knitting included caps, gloves, petticoats (short jackets), stockings or hose, and waistcoats. There was no guild for knitters, but knitting was something taught, not necessarily learned in the family. Interestingly, although men were listed as teachers, very few men were listed as being taught. Silk hand knitters are mentioned in 1619 but there is not much more information about this aspect of knitting.
Sylvie Odstrcilova’s paper “Early modern stockings from the Czech Republic and neighbouring countries: The story continues” offered a fascinating glimpse into the variety of extant stockings in this area, and built on her research published in NESAT and ATR. Her findings of the similarity of the stockings of Imrich Thurzo in Orava Castle to the Texel stocking opened questions regarding manufacture and import of silk stockings throughout Europe.
Hanna Backstrom’s paper “The earliest printed knitting patterns” compared what the printed patterns looked like and who they were made for, to a hand written 17th century notebook, possibly from a knitter’s workshop. This was one of the highlights of the conference for me. It raised lots of interesting questions as to how they used the charts, diagrams and sketches contained in this book, especially in contrast to the printed books which seem to have been designed for a different audience.
The first afternoon section was dedicated to projects inspired by the Texel Stocking project:
Art Ness Proano Gaibor’s “Dye experiments on the Texel Stocking” was an interesting paper on how period dye recipes can have an impact on our modern lives, and how diverse the period recipes for dyeing black were – some doing more harm to the fabric than others.
Geeske Kruseman’s findings of her report “wearing 17th century knitted silk stockings” really surprised me. Two people wore two pairs of the stockings produced by the citizen science project with period reproduction shoes in everyday life and recorded their subjective and objective observations. Although the experiment was cut short, they still got some data. The stockings showed no signs of wear after an accumulated 139 hours of wear, kept their shape after washing, and were comfortable to wear in hot and cold weather. Afterwards everyone with the right foot size (European 38) got a chance to try the stockings , and I personally loved the experience! The stocking is very light and smooth to wear, you sort of forget you have it on, and the lack of stretch that we have come to expect from wool stockings wasn’t missed due to the garter holding the stocking up, and the fact that the stocking fitted me perfectly. It would be interesting to repeat this experiment with a wider range of participants.
Sally Pointer reported on her experience of making a replica for the re-enactment market based on the Texel stocking and using a 19th century knitting machine. She started with a wool version to test the design and then made a version with spun silk. She had to alter the key features to work with the much lower stitch count possible with the knitting machine, reducing the patterns produced by the purl stitches by about one third, and producing a stocking with a similar pattern but clearly different to the original. key question: “Though we can do it, should we?” The stocking she produced is much quicker to produce than the hand knitted ones, but still took a considerable time to make and it leaves the question how it would compare being worn to a non-patterned, machine-knit silk stocking and the replica hand knitted ones.
The last section consisted of papers based on Citizen Science Projects:
In “How not to knit: Sourcing silk, research and reconstructions reviewed” Susan North shared with us her insights into the problems encountered and mistakes made when making reconstruction silk stockings for the Original Practice at the Globe Theatre, and how difficult it was to find any information on tools, materials, and methods.
Jane Malcolm-Davies’ paper “Modern Slavery and the early modern work ethic: Lessons learned from volunteer participation in knitting in early modern Europe” gave insights into the experiences made by her and the volunteers in the Knitting in Early Modern Europe (KEME) project. She discussed how using volunteers in knitting (a notoriously underpaid work activity) raises the question to what extent Citizen Science is exploitative, and how much can be learned from the knitwork produced, and the process of knitting it. The focus has to be on what the benefits for the volunteers are as well as the researcher/scientist, and it is interesting that the KEME volunteers listed a similar range of benefits as the Texel stocking project participants.
The following panel discussion followed along similar lines, and I loved the new-to-me emphasis on the social aspect of taking part in a Citizen Science project, and the emphasis on being mindful of the nature of these experiments versus lab experiments, and that there have to be mutual benefits for the researcher and scientist as well as the volunteer.
My stay extended to Sunday for the Knitting History Forum AGM, and so I had a chance to visit the exhibition about the stockings in the Textile Research Centre, showcasing all the finished stockings, the former, all the samples and the ingenious holders some of the knitters had come up with to keep the cone of silk from unravelling while being able to knit off it easily. Also part of the exhibition was a treasure trove of patterned socks and stockings, and sample boards of different heel and toe varieties, as well as other knitting samples. I came away with so much inspiration!
We also were given a short tour of the facilities, making me want to come back to study some of the beautiful knitted and crocheted items in the collection. In the afternoon we visited the weaver’s house and the Laakenhal museum, all places I am looking forward to visiting again!
Un-Convention 2020 is the Knitting & Crochet Guild’s first virtual convention. Running from this Wednesday 9th September to Tuesday 15th September 2020, the convention has a broad range of free events across the seven-day schedule, including speakers familiar from KHF conferences. Videos with closed captions (subtitles) will be available on Youtube and you can also join in on the Guild’s Facebook group, Ravelry KCG or follow the hashtag #unconventionkcg on Instagram. Visit the Un-convention 2020 website to see the exciting programme in full.
The School of Textiles in Essex has announced new events for 2018. The talks, short courses, study days and workshops cover many topics including Tapestry, early Coptic and Peruvian textiles, Artist-designed Textiles 1900-1930, Orla Kiely and Images from Nature: Textile Art. Visit the School of Textile’s Events page to find out more http://www.schooloftextiles.co.uk/events-page.html.