knitting

A view of San Quentin. (Image from NYPL Digital Gallery)

I've been reading World War I-era newspapers lately (using America's Historical Newspapers, a full-text database available at NYPL), in a search of mention of famous knitters on the home front whose flying fingers supported the war effort. And yesterday I found a small article from the Daily Alaska Dispatch that painted a vivid picture of such efforts. A report from San Francisco published Dec. 7, 1917, begins: "Knitting needles are flying in the cells and workshops at the San Quentin and Folsom state penitentiaries, and a big assortment of socks, sweaters and other sartorial comforts are being turned out for the American troops in France and in the domestic service." As the article goes on to explain, both men and women inmates knit their bit, via programs administered by the Red Cross.

I'll continue reading and with luck will report on other knitters of note in the future.

Wishing they knew how to keep their tea warmer, no doubt. (Image from NYPL Digital Gallery)

After reading a recent article in Australia's Age about the demand for unique handcrafted tea cosies made by volunteers in Pascoe Vale, Australia, I became curious about the past and present status of the cosy.

According to Richard Rutt in A History of Hand Knitting, the first documented use of a tea cosy was in 1867. Tea cosies flourished during the Victorian era, a period in which homemakers were obsessed with the decoration or covering of any and all available objects.

Tea cosies had their heyday on this side of the Atlantic as well, as the newspapers of the late nineteenth century reveal. An Oct. 20, 1892 article in the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that "cosies are enjoying a sudden and unexpected rise in public favor" among women who hosted afternoon teas in their reception rooms. In Boston, a town with quite a reputation when it comes to tea parties, an issue of the Boston Journal (Nov. 25, 1879) included in its women's advice column an explanation of just what a tea cosy is--"simply a wadded covering for your teapot"-- and hints on making one: "Some very handsome ones are made of remnants of heavy brocade, but linen is generally used, embroidered or not, according to taste, as these covers are washable. Make the covering large enough for your teapot and provide a ring at the top to lift it off with." I read these articles in America's Historical Newspapers, an excellent database which enables you to find what you want fast in old American newspapers--it's available at all Library locations.

What is happening in the world of contemporary tea cosies? Teapotmania: The Story of the British Craft Teapot and Teacosy provides some answers. This exhibition catalog for a 1995 show at the Norfolk Museums and Archeology Service on contemporary British artists' and artisans' embrace of the teapot and teacosy as artistic forms provides both historical context as well as plenty of illustrations of the objects included in this exhibition. Artists of both pottery and needlework will find inspiration in the work of the artists represented here. Additionally, this museum's teapot collection now numbers almost three thousand teapots that can be browsed at their website. And if etsy is any guide, then there is both an interest and a market for handmade cosies today--search tea cozy AND tea cosy to be sure that you don't miss out.

It turns out that you need not drink tea in a cold drafty home to appreciate a fine cosy, after all.

Have "modish travelling-costume," will travel! (Image from NYPL Digital Gallery)

Connecting with enthusiastic craft-loving people is a big part of why I enjoy teaching my Handmade Then and Now class at the Library. And this weekend I will have the good fortune of talking with even more yarn devotees at Knitty City, where I've been invited to teach knitters and crocheters how to get the most out of the Library's collections. I'm more than glad to take my little Handmade show on the road.

Knitty City is a bright and cozy shop on the Upper West Side. It is brimming with books, yarns, hooks, needles, patterns, and friendly staff. The staff is knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and very welcoming. They know their fiber arts and have given me great advice and encouragement on sock making and yarn choice. In my class I will provide helpful hints on navigating New York Public Library as a whole, I'll share tips on searching for patterns (both new and vintage), and I'll bring along some examples to share. And if I've gotten far at all in my first attempt at socks (I'm following Cookie A's Hedera pattern, I'll bring my work along to share with you all. So please bring your own knitting too, and join us!
 
 
 
Saturday, June 21, 1:00pm
Knitty City
208 West 79th (between Broadway and Amsterdam)

Father's Day is just hours away. Have you ever offered to make dear old dad a handmade sweater, one sure to become a treasured part of your father's wardrobe? If you were contemplating making such a sweater in 1904, you might have chosen this pattern, from Stitches, a handicraft periodical that you can find at the Library.

After all, as the introductory paragraph explains, what man doesn't yearn for "a knitted house jacket, snug and warm, to be donned in the evening after dinner, when an armchair and a pipe and a blazing fire in the hearth are the acme of happiness? Or what more welcome at the office on chill days?"

Of course, Father's Day didn't even exist in 1904*, so you'd not have felt the pressure for that particular holiday. If any of you brave knitters out there tackle this pattern, I'd love to receive reports back on it. Enjoy! Stay tuned for more patterns from a century ago.

*Britannica Online reports that the first Father's Day celebration was held in 1910.

Staten Island's Halloran General Hospital, home of crafty recovering soldiers during World War II. (Image from NYPL Digital Gallery).

A few weeks ago at a Handmade Then and Now class (I'll teach this class next on July 16th at 2:15pm), I met a number of creative people, including a knitter named Maxine Levinson. Maxine works at the Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department of the Kravis Children's Hospital at Mount Sinai, where she teaches young patients and their families how to knit. I learned from Maxine how knitting, like other creative arts therapies, can reduce anxieties and provide a sense of security during sometimes long and stressful hospital stays. Maxine told me, "I am very fortunate to be able to share my love of crafts in such a unique way."

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.