Tag: Early instructions

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

A French loom-knit purse

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I’m eager to spend some time away from 19th-century fancywork and am going to wrap up its discussion for now with a French description of purse making on a round knitting loom. It appears in Élisabeth Bayle-Mouillard’s Manuel des Demoiselles ou Arts et Métiers (Young Ladies’ Handbook or Arts and Crafts) from 1826, where the instructions for the French simple looped purse are also given. This leaves a number of European purses in the queue and I’ll get back to them after expanding the geographical and chronological scope of this blog.

There is no significant difference between these instructions and those for the Queen Elisabeth purse from 1823 with regard to the loom itself. However, the French description of how stitches are formed on that device differs in a potentially significant regard. Instead of being worked on the peg, the stitches are worked on the hook. The distinction does not appear to be purely semantic, but as the French instructions are not as detailed, there is latitude for interpretation.

The remark about loom-knit fabric being “ordinarily very loose” suggests what loom knitters now term e-wrap (i. e. twisted-loop) stitching. This is the loosest of the knit stitches produced on a loom and doubtless how the initial row of Bayle-Mouillard’s purse is formed. However, her instructions then prescribe: “For the second row, take a hooked needle…insert it into the first loop. Then turn the silk on this hook to form a new loop…” This can be read as a description of the “true knit stitch,” which is the full loom-knitted equivalent to open stitch knitting on needles. It is the sole means for using a peg loom to produce what can be characterized as loose open stitch fabric.

The instructions for the decorative eyelets (les trous dits à crochets) are similarly insufficient for determining their structure, although they are explicitly worked on the hook and not the peg. Other references to them in the Manuel add a bit more information. Piecing it all together suggests that they may be the picot in the current loom knitting repertoire. The 1826 instructions are nonetheless too terse to enable the eyelets to be made on their basis and it is also possible that they resemble what is now called the “drop stitch.”

If Bayle-Mouillard’s hooked needle was a true hook rather than a needle bent at an obtuse angle (as described in the 1823 instructions), it could presumably have been used to form the eyelets in a more crochet-like manner. It is not clear if she intended it for use in that regard, but a hook illustrated (free from its “wooden handle”) in a chapter on passementerie is well-suited to the all the details of loom knitting she describes.

I’ve translated the French term nœud-coulant as ‘loop’ although it is more literally a slip knot. It can be read as such at some points in the original text but at others it can only mean a loop. Since the latter reading is otherwise appropriate throughout, I’ve used it consistently. Here are the full instructions.

Bourses au crochet

Knitting on a crochet is not only for purses but serves for all other objects, as with ordinary knitting. It is restricted to closed-work stitches that are lifted from the top of a round mold made for the purpose (which some people call a moule turc). It is fitted with pegs that hold the stitches while they are worked with a hook that resembles a tambour needle. You can start a length of knitting by fastening it to one of the points on this round mold. This sort of knitting is ordinarily very loose. It is now rarely used for purses but we will still discuss it in regard to them.

Take a circular boxwood mold fitted with closely set pegs. It does not shape the purse as do the cup molds used for simple looped purses. It therefore begins to taper a fraction of an inch from the top and its tail end is half as wide as the upper opening. The number of stitches is initially determined by the pegs but will be fewer at the end as a result of decreases in the stitching.

bayle-moule-turc

The stitches are mounted on the pegs by placing one loop around each. For the second row, take a hooked needle mounted in a small handle of boxwood or ivory for convenience, and insert it into the first loop. Then turn the silk on this hook to form a new loop, much as a single needle is used for stitching a heel. Continue this looping until you reach the point where you want your purse to narrow. You will see that the number of decreases needed depends on the pattern. A decrease is made by working two stitches into one with the hook.

You can vary the color from round to round in your purse as discussed for netting. You can also make so-called à crochet eyelets by wrapping the silk around the hook twice before inserting it into the previous loop, which produces a solid stitch. However, when working the needle through these longer or heavier stitches it is necessary to use a mesh gauge as is done when making a row of ordinary netting. Before or after each such round, insert the hook into the long stitches produced by the double wrap or on a mesh gauge and resume the knitting. This is all the variety these purses are likely to need. It is also possible to use silk as it is prepared for net purses.

Looped Fabric

Purse in the style of the Queen Elisabeth

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The second of the named purses in the 1823 volume of Penélope is made on a circular peg loom. The instructions for it refer to techniques that are described in the preceding volume, which in turn refer to other instructions there. Merging these cascading fragments into a single text (as in the following translation) gives directions for producing fabric with an open-loop knitted structure. The described technique remains fundamental to loom knitting and is currently termed the flat stitch, here with an e-wrap cast-on. When worked with inelastic thread, the fabric displays prominent laddering.

A purse in the style of the Queen Elisabeth

penelope-elisabeth

This requires a second mold as shown in fig. b, made of boxwood and fitted along the top with 44 small pegs that point slightly outwards. Since these break easily, it is better to replace them with copper or steel.

penelope-moule-turc

Fasten the thread to a peg and then lead it behind the next peg in counter-clockwise order. Wrap it loosely around the front of that peg and then behind the following peg, and so forth until a loop has been wrapped around each peg. Bring the thread through the space between the first and last pegs and place it on top of the loop on the first peg. Now take a bone or steel pin that is somewhat bent at its tip and lift the loop over that thread and drop it behind the peg. Continuing in this manner, the fabric will fall automatically through the opening in the mold and need only a gentle stretch to assume the desired form.

The pegs should be very closely spaced. This works best with gold or silver [wrapped] thread, or for variety, gold thread and green silk, silver thread and blue silk, etc.

Looped Fabric

French instructions for a looped purse

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Élisabeth-Félicie Bayle-Mouillard (writing as Élisabeth Celnart), gave detailed instructions for using a cup mold to make simple looped purses in her Manuel des Demoiselles ou Art et Metiers published in Paris in 1826. They include general remarks about the tool and illustrate them with a specific purse. This has the same basic stitching pattern as the second variant of the Louisiana purse but is covered with a festoon decoration that isn’t found in any of the Dutch instructions. A few sentences in the text from 1826 were revised in later editions and the following translation merges them all.

It is intended to enable the adventurous reader to make the purse and therefore places greater value on clarity than on being rigorously literal. Two details still require separate mention. The one is that the shifting of the stitch pattern in alternate rows to support the festoon decoration in fig. 78 depends on the number of holes in the mold. The original instructions give a useful first approximation but additional tweaking can easily improve it. Also, the instructions emphasize that each block of lilac stitches is square. As with the 1823 instructions, allowance is made for achieving the intended shape by adjusting the number of stitches but nothing is said about the similar use of twisting. (On the basis of other observations I believe that loop-and-twist was an option that simply went without saying.)

Bourse en feston

Take a hollow wooden mold. This is a kind of box shaped like a purse, rounded at the end, with two circular rows of holes at the top where the start of the purse is fastened. These rows are spaced a few lines apart [one line = 1/12 inch] and their purpose is to make the purse shorter or longer. The holes are placed in small grooves and separated from each other at equal distances (fig. 77).

bayle-cup-mold

Because this is an old style purse, it is made either in silk and silver, or silk and gold, or gold and silver, or else with two threads of different colors, such as orange and green, blue and white, green and pink, etc. Since it is a mesh of small contrasting squares, the colors are normally matched to complement each other pleasantly. However many people use only one color or use so-called cordonnet thread.

Having chosen the colors of the silk (I will assume green and lilac for the purposes of this description), thread one large needle with the green, and another large needle with the lilac. Use four times the regular length of thread on the one needle this first time (let us assume it is the green but it does not matter which), and from then on double lengths. Take the needle with the green thread and tie its ends together with a good solid knot. Use your left thumb to press the knot into one of the holes in the mold, wrap the thread around it along the groove, and run the needle through the knot between the two strands. Pull this ring of thread tight and wrap it back in the opposite direction without loosening it. Redouble the circle three, four or five times, depending on the size of the thread. End the final round with a simple looped stitch and slide the needle behind it.

Then run a third thread through a hole in the mold. It is not important how this is done since this thread will be removed. Start by tying a knot in it that is too large to pass through the hole. Thread a needle with it and then pass it through the hole from the inside to the outside of the mold. Wrap it around the ring of silk threads from above to below and [return the needle through the hole to] secure all of them. Repeat this in each following hole until you have worked around the mold back to the starting point. Then stop and then cut the excess thread.

This procedure is called attaching the purse and is used for all purses made on a mold. When it is done, think about working the purse. Take the needle with the green thread and make five simple looped stitches around the ring of silk and temporary threads, between the hole where the green thread already is and the next one. Take the needle with the lilac thread and make four simple looped stitches between the two holes preceding the one where the green stitches start. Carry the lilac thread across the green stitches, forming a visible bar, and make another four simple looped stitches on their other side. The bar should be slack and worked with the needle to form a small downward arch. The lilac simple looped stitches need to be loose enough to allow the needle with the green thread to pass through them, which you then do. Make five more green simple looped stitches up to the next hole and a further five after that hole. Then take the lilac thread as before and make four simple looped stitches with it, and so on around to the starting point.

This first round will be a series of small lilac squares between the holes in the mold, with a curved bar of lilac thread crossing in front of the green stitches that separate the squares. The simple looped stitches in the following rounds will be worked inside [i.e. behind] these bars in the order already indicated; four in lilac between ten in green. It is no longer the holes in the mold but the lilac squares that guide you.

The second round is started by passing the green thread through a lilac square (concealing what would be a green bar). Then make five green simple looped stitches [under that square], then four lilac, then five green to form a new square, then five more green to make ten in all, and so on. The successive lilac squares are connected by curved bars that are joined with the following round (fig. 78).

bayle-festoon
The entire mold is covered in this manner without changing the stitching procedure until the purse becomes a little too wide to follow the curvature of the mold. As soon as this is perceptible, gradually make the bars shorter. Decrease the number of stitches by two green and one lilac as you progress, and then even more. As you near the end this will become insufficient, and some adjacent pairs of lilac squares will need to be worked into one, underneath a corresponding square in the preceding round. This will alter the shape of the mesh but at the end this is not noticeable.

Pay attention to two things when making a purse with simple looped stitches. The first is to adjust the individual stitches so that the mesh is uniform with elements that are all the same size. Do this by tugging the middle of the previous stitch with the tip of the needle when you are about to make a new one. Then look closely to see if the thread runs on a straight line. Where it does not, tighten or loosen the stitch to make it so. Take care to make all stitches loosely enough to permit this sort of adjustment.

The second precaution regards the way a new length of thread is affixed to the one on the needle when it is almost depleted. Doing this badly can cause a number of problems. First, it can cause ugly disruptions in the flow of the mesh, which must always be even and flat. It will also stretch out of proportion and finally rupture if the join between the new and old threads fails. Make a so-called weaver’s knot to prevent this. [A lengthy description of it follows but is omitted here.]

Many people attach a new simple looped stitch to the small bar hidden in the lilac square but this distorts it and makes it heavy and coarse. Others incorrectly work the green silk into the lilac silk with visible stitches that produce a very disagreeable effect.

The number of stitches should not be calculated without considering the specific silk being used. For a mesh of a given size, more stitches will be required if the thread is thin. We calculated an average size, which is the one that is normally used. Fine silk requires too much time and makes large purses too stiff. Gold or silver wire abrades more quickly than silk does when worked into simple looped stitches and much shorter lengths of it are threaded onto the needle. It is of primary importance to keep the two working threads from knotting up or becoming entangled with each other.

When the purse is completed, cut the stitches that attach the first round to the mold, turn it upside down, and pull it free of the mold. If it is then lined, it is usually with satin that matches one of the silk colors but this is a matter of taste. Sew a tassel at the end, with gold or silver thread if these materials were used in the purse, and silk. Steel is even better if the purse is all in silk, especially if that metal is used for the clasp or chain. [Four general ways to close and fasten purses are then described but not included here.]

Looped Fabric

Louisiana purse, 3rd manner

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Here are the instructions for the final variant of the Louisiana purse from the 1823 volume of Penélopé.

The third manner with pearls, wire-coil or other beads

“String a long silk thread with beads, pearls, or small cut pieces of wire coil as used to make the gold chain in vol. II, no. 3. Then begin just as in the two preceding instructions. Make 5 simple looped stitches over the thread that is wrapped around the mold. Place the thread strung with the beads, etc., to the right without working into them. Make a stitch with the silk thread over both it and the thread wrapped around the mold. Slide one or two beads, a pearl, or a wire purl up against it and fasten them there with another stitch. Put the thread with the beads back down to the left and make another 5 stitches with the silk thread, until you reach a hole. Make another 5 on the other side of it, another pearl, and so on until done. If you want this purse to be more prominently ornamented, make a separate border for it in silk or beads as in fig. B, working in the round with crochet or knitting on four needles. Then sew the two pieces together from bottom to top.”

Fig. B is an enlarged detail of a decoration that is central to the crocheted Cinderella-style purse and is described further in the instructions for it.