Month: January 2017

Looped Fabric

Flat-hook crochet in 1833

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The instructions for the three crocheted purses in the 1823 volume of Penélopé provide the first known written description of crochet in its modern form. The 1833 volume of the same periodical includes a section headed Something more about crochet.  This provides a number of instructions that introduce additional techniques, all of which will be considered in detail in later posts. For now, though, I’m going to continue with forms of crochet that are generically associated with the type of hook used to make them.

I started this in the preceding post by leaping forward to the 1858 descriptions of the long hook that is fundamental to Tunisian crochet. Those references were among the first to associate the long hook explicitly with crochet, but the same tool had a prior link with knitting that is described in earlier documents — and was generally termed a ‘tricot hook’ or ‘tricot needle’ in the one context, and a ‘hooked knitting needle’ in the other.

Similarly, one of the details about crochet added to the 1833 Penélopé text was the recommended use of a flat hook for work in heavier yarn, as an alternative to the tambour needle that was preferable for finer silk:

penelope-flat-hook

For coarse work in yarn or thick knitting cotton, one uses a copper hook of this formwhich must be very smooth and, from above, must be very thin.

This tool — which is still used in the illustrated form — was commonly termed a ‘shepherd’s hook’ and had an eponymous association with ‘shepherd’s knitting.’ That genre is now more frequently referred to as slip stitch crochet, with an imprecise range of terms taken from ongoing (or imagined) regional slip-stitch traditions applied to the hook. I’m going stay on the safe side and use the generic designation ‘flat hook,’ as I’m also doing with the long hook.

A significant amount of confusion about shepherd’s knitting has resulted from the plethora of names applied to both slip stitch and Tunisian crochet, and the quite different tools used for them. Since the earliest instructions for any form of crochet illustrate flat hooks, clarifying the distinction between the slip-stitched fabric they were used to produce and the altogether different structures made on long hooks is a matter that will be discussed at length on this blog.

Looped Fabric

Long-hook crochet in 1858

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NOTE: The following text is pending modification to reflect subsequently noted references to the simple Tunisian crochet stitch before its first appearance in the British press.

The first description in British publication of what is now commonly called ‘Tunisian crochet’ is generally attributed to Matilda Marian Pullan, who illustrated a long hook used to form a “new stitch in crochet” in two complementary publications dated October 1858. However, it is not known if either went into circulation prior to the release of the first booklet in a series titled Crochet à la Tricoter by Cornelia Mee and Mary Austin, which also illustrates stitches made on a long hook. That text does not indicate its publication date but Mee advertised it as having been “just published” in November 1858. (Technical and bibliographical details of them all will be provided in separate posts.)

Mee and Austin describe Crochet à la Tricoter as a craft of its own.

“The great advantage of Crochet à la Tricoter is, that it combines the firmness of crochet with the lightness of knitting, and can be done in almost any variety of shape, from the ease and neatness with which it is increased and decreased. The edges can always be taken up, so that, if done in small pieces, the work has the appearance of being all worked in one. It is never turned; and every alternate row the stitches are taken up on the needle, and remain on it for the whole row, as in knitting. The variety of useful and ornamental purposes to which it can be applied is almost endless; and in presenting these entirely new and pretty Patterns in Crochet à la Tricoter to my numerous patronesses, I feel it will meet with their entire approval. Those who work for amusement will have the pleasure of numbers of new stitches, and those who make it a source of livelihood will find many things that will meet with quick and ready sale. It is important to obtain the cottons directed; those mentioned are the Knitting, Boar’s Head, and Ingrain Turkey Red Cotton of Messrs. Walter Evans and Co., of Derby, which for many years I have considered the best produced.”

In addition to the directions for the cotton, many of the subsequent instructions specify the hook with a terse reference to what would necessarily have been a readily available item at the time of publication. This indicates that the craft was already in established practice, as is supported otherwise by the wording of the instructions and an anonymous document written in the following year (which will be considered in a separate post about the state of the art in 1859). These are for a range of unnamed stitches and patterns, and many of the accompanying illustrations are intricate enough that even a skilled eye might not immediately recognize them as long-hook crochet (using a generic term that heads a text from 1860, in what appears to have been an attempt at bringing order to a proliferation of more or less fanciful designations that was rapidly developing.

The 1858 Mee and Austin publication was intended to add a number of new stitches to a pre-existing repertoire. What is now called the Tunisian simple stitch appears in a few of the twenty instructions but is not ascribed any particular significance nor is it clear if it is among those that are new. In contrast, the purpose of Pullan’s texts was to present that one stitch, naming it the “Princess Frederick William Stitch.” She makes no claim of having created it and presents it as “a new stitch in crochet [that] has recently been given to the world,” without mentioning long-hook crochet as a distinct craft under any of its various names.

Mee and Austin were Pullan’s competitors. Assuming that they were all aware of each others doings, it seems likely that if Pullan had devised the simple stitch rather than simply calling attention to it, she would have claimed full credit. Similarly, if Mee and Austin had devised it, they might have been clearer in indicating which of their new stitches were original creations, and which were simply appearing in print for the first time.

There is nothing contradictory in the wording of their texts but they still leave an open question about the actual source of what was to resonate in the literature as the New Stitch. In any case, it is clear that long-hook crochet as practiced in 1858 included a number of stitches and was not characterized by any single one of them. Although the New Stitch may have flagged a wave of popularity for long-hook crochet, it did not mark the appearance of the genre itself.

It seems possible that Pullan was deliberately highlighting a single versatile and easily made stitch with the intention of capturing the interest of a broader group of potential practitioners, while Mee and Austin were also explicitly addressing a professional clientele. Either way, the fancywork literature — which devoted no attention to long-hook crochet prior to 1858 — developed an interest in it after that date which then spread at a wildfire pace with many of the major authors of the day joining in.

Looped Fabric

A Cinderella-style purse

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The last of the three instructions for crocheted purses in the 1823 volume of Penélopé — a Cinderella-style purse — introduces crochet that is worked in a flat spiral. This is in contrast to the cylindrical construction of the other purses considered thus far. A disc crocheted in this manner requires regular increases in the number of stitches in successive rounds in order to be kept flat. If these increases are placed at the same points in each round, as the following instructions specify and has since become the prevalent technique, they form a star-shaped pattern. For this reason, early descriptions often refer to this pattern and the disc itself as a star. The “half star” in the following text is one of two needed for the purse.

A CINDERELLA-STYLE PURSE

penelope-cinderella

This is round and consists of two half stars made with the double stitch. It creates a beautiful effect in white silk with a garlanded star of silver, steel, or gold thread. Crochet 9 stitches in silver thread and close the round. In the second round, stitch through each stitch twice. In the third, increase again at every point [of the star]; and proceed in this manner until there are 9 rounds, or 12 if the thread is fine. Now the silver points are narrowed again with the white silk filling the spaces between them. After the [silver] star is finished, continue the increases from the second round, and frequently spread the purse out to test if it lies flat. Now work in a garland of silver thread, and a few straight lines, or dots at the very end. You must also carefully remember how many stitches you have increased, so that both sides can be made the same. When the purse is wide enough, divide it into 5 even segments, preferably marked with needles, of which 2 are enough for the opening. Make holes in them to stitch the cord through, or sew a cord onto them as with the Charlotte purse, or crochet a few semi-open rows through them. The rest of the two parts are crocheted together.

Looped Fabric

A purse in semi-openwork crochet

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The second of the three instructions for crocheted purses in the 1823 volume of Penélopé — a Charlotte-style purse in semi-openwork — includes structural elements that are not shared with any other craft. It therefore documents crochet in its present-day form without the latitude for discussion about classification that attaches to chain stitch mesh. That is the only structure in the preceding openwork purse but also appears earlier in other crafts.

A CHARLOTTE-STYLE PURSE IN SEMI-OPENWORK

penelope-charlotte

Sew the ends of a waistband together, of the width desired for the purse. Then sew 204 chain stitches along one side of it by stitching through the band with the needle from below to above and pulling the thread into a knot against it. Now hold the thread under your left thumb and stitch through the loop from which the needle just emerged, forming two further threads (in the band), and pull the thread through. This forms a loop on the band, and repeating this forms a kind of chain. These 204 stitches are the start of the purse. Now insert your left hand into it and hold the working thread in the right. Take a light shade of red for this. Make 6 à jour [chain] stitches, just as with the previous purse. However, the 7th stitch is made into the chain stitches, pulling the thread through that stitch and the newly formed loop. Proceed like this until the 12th stitch, continuing through the entire round, alternating 6 stitches crocheted à jour, and the following 6 crocheted as closed work into the preceding round. This creates work that is half open and half closed. Do four rounds of this with a very light shade, followed by another 4 with a second, 4 more with a third, and finally a further 4 with a very dark red or fourth shade. Crochet 6 rounds over this with silver thread (always à demi jour, half open and half closed) and repeat it all again. Then begin the star. However, this requires another stitch consisting of two colors that are alternately exposed and hidden. In the red areas the silver must not be visible, nor the red in the silver. For this one uses:

THE DOUBLE CROCHET STITCH

As with the closed stitch just described, insert the needle through the previous round and wrap the thread around the needle. But instead of leaving two loops around the needle as with the simple stitch (the loop from the previous round, and the loop that is now on the needle) first draw the thread through the stitch in the previous round. Then wrap another around the needle and draw that through the two loops that are on the needle.

The thread you want to conceal is held straight out by the left hand, whereby it is worked under [the other thread] and thus becomes invisible. I am very much afraid here, that those who are entirely unfamiliar with this work will best understand it if they, as I myself who is making this description with a pen in the one hand and the work in the other, would also have the work in hand with the description in front of them, following it step by step.

Decreasing is self-apparent. Starting each time from one point in the star, work through two stitches instead of through one. For greater stiffness, sew a cord along the top edge of the purse, and so that there is no cupping, balance it with another into which you work eyelets through which the cord is drawn.

Looped Fabric

A purse in simple openwork crochet

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The 1823 volume of Penélopé is frequently cited as the first document that has yet come to light using the word crochet to designate the craft now commonly known by that name. Preceding occurrences of the term in similar contexts designate a hooked tool. The first mention of the new craft was in a German publication from 1809 where it was named after the tool, Häkeln (literally, “to hook”). The Dutch derivate, hekelen, appears side by side with crochet in Penélopé, as synonyms. Earlier fabric structures that would now be identified as crochet were categorized in the literature of their day as elements of other crafts, typically as varieties of knitting.

The simple openwork crochet purse presented here is the first of three that are crocheted in the sequence of six purse instructions from Penélopé that I’ve been translating. The source text includes a plate illustrating five of them. A comparison between the instructions and the illustrations reveals several errors in the way they are cross referenced. The author confirms and corrects this in a separate note following a later instruction for a knitted purse. This emends the associations between the plate and the instructions, and indicates the one that is not illustrated.

There is a mismatch nonetheless between one of the drawings and the instructions keyed to it. Illustration A, which appears below, is linked with the Louisiana-style purse described in an earlier post. However, that purse is made by simple looping, which produces a horizontal rather than a diagonal mesh, nor do the instructions for it result in anything that otherwise resembles illustration A. The openwork crochet purse was initially keyed to illustration E in obvious error and re-identified in a later footnote as the one that is unillustrated.

The instructions produce a chain mesh that remains a basic form of openwork crochet (and also appears in earlier passementerie). Its appearance is fully consistent with illustration A — matching it far more closely than do any of the other instructions — although the image includes ornamental detail not described in the text. (Illustration E will appear in a later post about the purse to which it properly belongs.)

A HOOKED PURSE, IN SIMPLE OPENWORK CROCHET

penelope-simple-crochet

There appears to be a special knack to working with a crochet or a tambour needle [alternate names for the same implement]. There are young people who manage it very well; others almost never learn to do it with any ease or speed. Works made with it are currently very popular. We want to describe a few, but first a few words to describe the stitch itself, as clearly as possible.

For this you need a tambour needle, with a small hook at the front, which you screw into a handle. This is held in the right hand along with the thread being worked, about as though you were knitting. Now make an ordinary loop in the thread, hold the end firmly in the left hand, insert the needle through the loop, wrap the thread over it with the forefinger, and pull the needle through. Repeat this until there are 180 stitches. Then stitch through the initial stitch to close the purse. Make another 7 stitches, first putting the needle through the loop, as always. Then through the seventh stitch [error: should be ‘fourth’] of the first round from below, lay the thread over the needle and pull it through both stitches. Again crochet 7 stitches, and so onward. When the purse is long enough, make a few rounds of 6 stitches, then of 5, and so forth, until the purse is fully closed. You can make this in bands with silk of two different colors, or with gold and silver wire. If you prefer, you can make the arches 5 stitches long.

Looped Fabric

A purse in star netting

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This blog is focused on looping but will still touch upon a few topics that are really knot problems in that context. The classification of simple looping and its related forms as “knotless netting” (noted in the preceding post) is a hybrid issue and will be considered in greater detail in a later entry.

In contrast, the next in the sequence of six purse instructions that I’m translating from the 1823 volume of Penélopé is for classic fancywork netting (knoopen — knotting — in the original Dutch). A corresponding section on purses in the 1822 volume of Penélopé is devoted entirely to netting and is as relevant to the early documentation of that craft as the 1823 purse instructions are to their respective looped crafts. I’m therefore going to split the difference and provide a link to the plate in the 1822 material (which is the second page in the section on netting) but translate the 1823 instructions in full. The 1822 plate also illustrates a basic net purse at full scale, rather than in the enlarged detail shown immediately below.

A Purse in Star Netting

penelope-starnet

This is very simple and easy to complete. Make a net purse of heavy cordonnet silk, plain and simple, without a pattern, around a fairly large mesh that gives the full width in 40 or 50 stitches. When the purse is finished, pull it onto a form or a rolled piece of heavy paper and stitch it firmly in place. Now sew very finely twisted silver or gold wire around each of the stitches, first from top to bottom, then crosswise from bottom to top; and then the same way around. Do this four times. The round silk eyelets and the wire crosses create a most pleasant effect. This can be done in all colors, even black and white. Untwisted black silk prepared with silver wire is also appropriate. This also creates a very good effect with gold wire, as long as you keep in mind to use very heavy silk and very fine wire.

Looped Fabric

Dilly bags

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Carrying bags were made by simple looping for a very long time before the advent of the European bourse en feston. Descriptions of widespread local traditions began to appear in the ethnographic literature toward the end of the 19th century, with authors coining their own designations for the newly recognized looped structure. A description from 1908 of small simple looped bags made by the Nguni people in South Africa details their production and says that it is “best regarded as netting without a knot.”

That term matured into its presently recognized (and frequently criticized) form in an article by Daniel S. Davidson in the 1933 volume of The Journal of the Polynesian Society, titled Australian Netting and Basketry Techniques. This classifies simple looping and loop-and-twist as subcategories of “knotless netting” and maps all of its forms into the areas of Australia where they are found, alongside a similar range of “knotted netting” techniques (placing them all under the top-level heading of “netting”).

The first specific item Davidson mentions is the simple looped “dilly bag,” which also appears as an archetype in earlier texts. The following photograph is taken from a post on the CIM:Resource blog:

cim-pic18

Regina Wilson describes the production of the dilly bag in a video that was publicly accessible when this post first appeared but has since been restricted. (It was initially at https://www.facebook.com/129175417153247/videos/855499541187494/ .) She credibly presents it as a millennia-old tradition, forming loops without a needle or other tool, and gauging them on the index finger. Of particular interest is the simultaneous twisting and plying of the palm fibers on the thigh, and the use of the same technique to extend the length of the string while the loopwork is in progress.

Wilson summarizes that tradition and discusses a bridge between it and the modern gallery context in a second video, which contains snippets from the earlier one.

The size and significance of purse molds
Looped Fabric

The size and significance of purse molds

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Several of the instructions discussed in earlier posts explicitly state that round purse molds were made of boxwood. This was widely preferred by the European woodturners of the day and therefore an obvious choice.

The 1823 instructions for the Louisiana purse provide detailed dimensions for a cup mold. They specify that this “turned boxwood mold … should be 7 centimeters in diameter ,” which was about the largest diameter boxwood that was then normally available to woodturners. It was obviously acceptable to the purse makers, as there were less restrictive alternatives. (The dwindling availability of larger diameter boxwood can be traced over the preceding centuries in categories of turned objects that are heavily represented in museum collections, such as woodwind musical instruments.)

The knitting loom used for the Queen Elisabeth purse in the same 1823 series was also described in detail, and subject to the constraint on the maximum diameter of turned boxwood. (It is worth noting that the two molds illustrated in this post’s banner are also similarly sized.) In consequence, the specified 1 cm interval between the 22 holes around the second row of the cup mold (7 cm diameter = 22 cm circumference) permits the determination of the spacing between the 44 pegs on the knitting loom. The simple looping associated with the former counts both the stitches anchored to the holes and those fixed to the lags between them, while the stitches on a knitting loom are counted on the pegs only.

Both tools therefore provide a 5 mm spacing between the attachment points. The alternating alignment of the simple loops with the guide holes and the lags intrinsically produces openwork. Conversely, the continuous vertical rows of cross-knit looping are directly amenable to closed work. The knitting loom cannot be used for simple looping but the cup mold can be used for both closed and openwork with equal ease. Nonetheless, the instructions for purses considered here use the cup mold exclusively for simple looping and don’t mention any other use. The peg loom is used in the same basic manner as it is in present-day loom knitting and the stitches described in the 1820s instructions remain in the loom knitter’s repertoire.

The source documents include interesting remarks about the growing obsolescence of purse-making using molds. The 1826 presentation of bourse au crochet made on “a circular boxwood mold fitted with closely set pegs” states:

“Knitting on a crochet is not only for purses but serves for all other objects, as with ordinary knitting … It is now rarely used for purses.”

The same volume includes a description of the cup mold that was extended in the 1830 edition to note that making purses on it was outmoded. The 1842 text accompanying the logo illustration applies this to both implements (presumably with specific reference to purse making):

“Since the introduction of crochet, however, these moulds have not been much used.”

Nonetheless, the 1890 edition of the Caulfeild and Saward Dictionary of Needlework includes the following entry:

“Purse Moulds:  There are two kinds of these moulds, which are made of ivory and wood; one is called a “Moule Turc,” and has small brass pins fixed round the edges of the largest circumference; the other is shaped like a thimble perforated with a double row of holes, like a band, round the open end, a little removed from the rim. Through these perforations the needle is passed, to secure the Purse to the Mould where the work is commenced.”

This is well past the date when 7 cm diameter boxwood had fallen out of commerce, to say nothing of similarly sized turnable ivory. Photos of 18th-century knitting looms made of both materials are reproduced in Mary Thomas’s Knitting Book from 1938; the ivory one mounted on horn, and the wooden one of an unspecified variety (although it is safe to assume that it is boxwood).

thomas-looms

The summary indication of their dimensions (“the larger … being 3″ in height”) places the diameter of the latter at about 7 cm. It also has 44 pegs and thus instantiates the pegged purse mold described in 1823.

The 1890 dictionary entry may primarily have been retrospective, but if it did describe contemporary practice, the forced limit on the maximum size of purses made on such molds would no longer have been applicable. Knitting looms are currently available with the 5 mm pitch that appears to have been something of a standard. They are marketed as “extra fine gauge” with varying peg counts, and adjustable ones permit experimentation exactly at the 44 peg ‘boxwood limit.’