Blockage, plus inane ramblings

I finally got some stuff blocked - my friend Trixie asked me to block a shawl for her, so while I was in blocking mode I did a couple of other things:

Finally, the Hemlock Ring blanket completed in January 2009:

And I blocked  December Wind by Renee Leverington (purple confuses my camera - I don't know why - so the photos are extra crappy):

 

 

My mother liked this one even before it was blocked, so I gave it to her for her birthday. The yarn was from Susan at the Spinning Bunny, and was lovely to work with. Note that this is the first time my mother has ever liked anything I've knitted.
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And then I blocked Dover Castle, which I'd knitted up in the lightweight version of Berroco's Ultra Alpace - that stuff is also really sweet to work with:

Meh. I have no idea what was confusing my camera. They've been tearing down the building just outside my kitchen window; when I take pix of the Leviathan that's eating the building, they turn out just fucking fine:

So perhaps I should just stick with photos of heavy equipment. Or perhaps I need to display my FOs on heavy equipment. I was going to make some snide remark about "forget those tastefully displayed items in beautiful settings", but since I don't put fuck-all effort into photographing my work such sarcasm would simply make folks spit out their coffee. And I don't want that.

I got an email yesterday, along with my other classmates, offering us temporary positions again with the CIA - since I can't live on the $800/month I'm currently getting on UI, I will be working again starting the 16th of this month. So I need to get a few things posted in the next few days. I mean, I've only had 5-1/2 months to do anything.

No surprise, I spent my last Friday night of freedom in a knitting workshop with Franklin Habit. Honestly, I'd recommend taking anything from him, even if it's a workshop on making mud pies. Smart, funny, and passionate about teh knitting. The class I took was Knitting from Antique Patterns, or some such title (you really expect me to move from my seat and look up the exact title? Really? Well, I'm practicing immobility in preparation of returning to work, so there). There was a woman who brought her grandmother's notebook of knitting patterns - I wish we'd had an hour to look through those babies, although perhaps my drooling on them wouldn't have been the best thing. Oh well, I'll satisfy myself with the 1884 Sampler Books (see link on left side bar) and Nancie Wiseman's "Lace in the Attic". In fact, I've a couple of wrister experiments in the wings using several of the 1884 Sampler Book edgings. Someday they'll be completed and posted... someday....

It's only been 10 months

Finally back on the interwebz, as they used to say somewhere at some point in time.

Apologies if you experience weirdness upon visiting the blog. I've been tinkering with a pre-designed template (because I'm too lazy to master html), but it came with some crap that I didn't want, and I haven't been able to disable it all yet. And I'm not entirely pleased with what I'm getting, but hopefully this is at least legible. Let us all pray to our various deities, or wish really hard (for those who eschew the gods) that I'll find it in me to fix it for once and for all.

The main reason for the long silence was that I was employed from September 2010 until April 2011. The job was a soul-consuming madness-inducing tribulation –but nonetheless I was working my ass off, in addition to the hellish commute (most of that time the round trip from the job was 2 hrs 40 minutes), simply trying to stay employed. All for naught, of course – everyone they hired in September they laid off just over six months later.

It’s taken me a few weeks to get things sorted, and to get in the knitting groove again. So I’ll have some things to post over the next while -- I've had more time to look through Australian newspapers for lots of old crap, er vintage & Victorian knitting patterns and the like, as well as  some 1930s stuff (‘cause that’s when the best designs were done if you ask me, or even if you didn’t).

'The like' consists of a novel written by Mrs Mary Elizabeth Braddon, author of "Lady Audley's Secret", one of my favorite Victorian novels, a rather lurid tale. Elizabeth Klett does a wonderful reading of it that you can access at Librivox. I know that some of the Librivox recordings are painful - in fact, some qualify as torture, but I assure you, Ms Klett does a fine job of reading this tale. It was a wonderful thing to listen to during a cold winter, knitting up shawls.

Good grief, have I digressed and in a most meandering fashion! The point is, I found an 1883 novel of Mrs Braddon's in one of the Australian newspapers, so I'll be posting it over the next few weeks. I haven't read it - it could be a real dog. If so, I'll be sharing the pain with y'all fine readers.

I have also knitted up a couple of lace patterns found in various fine down-under fish wrappers. One is from the Launceston Examiner dated 28 November 1893; it's from a ladies' column. It looks like shark fins more than anything else. Yes, yes, a variation on sawtooth edgings... but if you hold it with the points pointing upward, it looks like a line of baby shark fins.

A Young Reader: The following is an easy edging suitable for Shetland or other wool shawls. By Butterfly.

Cast on 3 sts.
Row 1: Sl 1, k 2.
Row 2 & every even row: Sl 1, knit across.
Row 3: Sl 1, yo, k2.
Row 5: Sl 1, yo, k3.
Row 7: Sl 1, yo, k4.
Row 9: Sl 1, yo, k5
Row 11: Sl 1, yo, k6
Row 13: Cast off 5, k2.

To continue in this way, do not knit a 'Row 14' but instead start again with Row 2. The instructions said to repeat from Row 2, but didn't include that last bit, so my first time around proved quite entertaining. The slipped stitches at the beginning of each row do not reduce the stretchiness of the edging - indeed, I cannot emphasize enough exactly how freaking stretchy this is. I chose to knit it in garter stitch - many olde timey edgings were, and of course that helped with the stretchy. Sample was knitted on US 6/4 mm needles with some fingering weight yarn. I blocked the bejeezus out of this edging.

The next is from the North Australian Supplement dated Saturday, 28 April 1888, and was found in the "Household" section.

Imitation English Thread Lace

Cast on 9 sts.
Row 1: K2, yo, k3, yo, k2tog, k2.
Row 2: Knit plain.
Row 3: K2, yo, k5, yo, k2tog, k1.
Row 4: Knit plain.
Row 5: K2, yo, k1, k2tog, yo x 3, sl 1, k2tog, psso, k1, yo, k2tog.
Row 6: K4, k1-p1-k1 in the 3 yos, knit plain the remaining sts.
Row 7: K1 ,k2tog, yo, k2tog, k3, k2tog, yo, k2.
Row 8: Knit plain.
Row 9: K1, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k1, i2tog, yo, k3.
Row 10:  Knit plain.
Row 11: K1, k2tog, yo, sl 1, k2tog, psso, yo, k4.
Row 12: Knit plain.

Again, I worked this in garter stitch for the sample. The pattern calls for 'knit plain', which I generally take to mean stockinette, but again, since I've seen many older edgings worked in garter, I decided to start with that. Sample is worked in Knit-Cro-Sheen (probably - unmarked thread, but the same weight) on US 3/3.25 mm needles for that extra-lace look. Actually because that was the first size that came to hand....

I thought this was an interesting lace - I've seen lots with big holes, but the thread/needle combination created something fairly impressive. And I have no idea which is the 'top' and 'bottom' edge of the lace; no illustration was provided, so I chose the side with the most shape as the 'bottom' edge. I didn't try to get a straight edge on both sides; I suppose one could use it as an insertion but since the pattern is different on the two edges I chose not to try that experiment.

I've also pulled some recipes from the Launceston Examiner, and hints for a woman about to be engaged from the North Australian Supplement in case someone out there is seeking personal advice from 1888.

Woman's World (by Butterfly.) Pudding Recipe.

I am told that the pudding you require is an Austrian (...); its name is Weichzel(?) strudel. The paste is made with egg and flour, and rolled out to the thinness of paper on a clean linen cloth. Have ready cherries (stoned), and spread them on the paste; sprinkle with fine sugar, nutmeg, and a little cinnamon. Then roll as for a "roley-poley" until the roll is between 2-1/2 in and 3 in thick; bend or twist it into a coil; place on a baking-tin well buttered, and put a little butter on the roll. This is often made with apples, sliced and cut into small pieces, when cherries are not in season.  {NB - the type was difficult to read at the beginning of the recipe, hence the parentheses.}

I suspect one could simply go to the grocery store and purchase some filo dough to use instead of experimenting with pastry recipes, but I haven't tried this one, so experiment at your own risk, folks!

Rice Waffles. - One cup of boiled rice, one pint milk, two eggs, butter the size of a walnut, half a teaspoonful of soda, one teaspoonful of cream of tartar, one teaspoonful of salt, flour, sufficient to make a thin batter. Bake in waffle irons.

Chocolate Cake. - Beat up 1/4 lb castor sugar with two eggs, then add very gradually the yolks of six eggs, two small cakes of chocolate grated, a little lemon peel, 1/4 lb of ground almonds, the whites of six eggs previously whisked to a stiff froth and 1 oz of flour; pour the mixture into a buttered mould, and bake.

 I haven't cooked up these either - the chocolate cake recipe certainly isn't the typical modern chocolate cake; I'm certainly curious to make that one. As for the rice waffles - well, let me know how that one turns out, okay?

The advice for engaged women (jpeg on the right, bottom row) is rather long & fairly uninteresting unless you have a mind sufficiently dirty to render the phrase "with a servant behind" mildly entertaining.

Jpegs are included below in case you think I've made a typo (or in case I have made a typo).

  

Victorian Knitted Stocking Tops - The Sequel

From the 1887 edition of The Belding Self-Instructor in Silk Knitting, Crocheting and Embroidery.  You can find the entire book at the Antique Pattern Library if you're so motivated.

Enjoy!

By Special Request

I've plenty to blog about - mostly about how I didn't accomplish shit last month.

No FOs.

A Knit Olympics 'Fail' - disqualified for abusing Benadryl. That's what happens when we get Spring in February - I sneeze, my eyes water all the time, and I end up one of the living dead on nasty antihistamines. (Please don't write me and testify to the efficacy of some new-fangled one out on the market; I fell for the Claritin scam a couple of times and still ended up brain dead.)

But I'm not going to write about that, or anything else right now. I'm just posting some lovely stocking tops from this 1884 classic:

 

Compiled and Edited by Marie Louise Kerzman, Published by Henry Bristow, Brooklyn, New York 1884.

I love this little book, full of nifty designs. I mentioned some knitted tops for stockings in a comment on Severina's blog, the Omnigraphic Blogopticon. Sev's been one of my favorite bloggers for years, and in fact, someday I'm going to make a necklace out of chicken bones - just you wait. In fact, I might gift one of my lucky readers with such a fantastic creation, heh heh. But I digress.

I mentioned I had these patterns, and she requested them. Never say I don't try to be accommodating, eh? So without further ado, five mediocre scans of knitted stocking tops (I miss the HP scanners we had at work - those babies rarely let me down). A good click on the images will take you to an even larger version, for those who hate tiny print.  Enjoy!

PS - I actually did finish one thing last month. I wasn't kidding about the Benadryl. Who knows what else I did last month that I slept through? And under the category of "De Gustibus Non Disputandum", I wrote this post listening to the soundtrack of "Dune" - The Lynch "Dune", the Toto s/t.

For the Industrious of the Fair Sex - 1882

{From the South Jersey Republican, Hammonton, NJ Saturday, April 29, 1882}

French Lace

cast on 15 sts

row 1: knit 3, yo, k2tog, knit 3, yo, knit 1, yo, knit 6

row 2: knit 6, yo, knit 3, yo, k2tog, knit 3, yo, k2tog, knit 1.

row 3: knit 3, yo, k2tog, , k2tog, yo, knit 5, yo knit 6.

row 4: cast off 4, knit 1, yo, k2tog, knit 3, k2tog, yo, k2tog, knit 1, yo, k2tog, knit 1.

row 5: knit 3, yo, k2tog, knit 1, yo, k2tog, knit 1, k2tog, yo, knit 3.

row 6: knit 3, yo, knit 1, yo, sl 2, knit 1, p2sso, yo, knit 4, yo, k2tog, knit 1.

begin first row.

Below are photos of a few repeats of the pattern, unblocked and still on the needles. I used some really old Knit-Cro-Sheen, needles sized 2.75 mm.




This last photo is mostly to show that, at one time, Knit-Cro-Sheen really did have a sheen:

Vintage Goodies - Ladies' Stockings

This is from a book dating to the 1870's-1880's (I can't recall the exact date, and I'm not going to get up and look right now; I'll post a correction later). It's been awhile since I scanned these photos in; hopefully they all belong to the same pattern ;-)

Click on the images to see a larger version, please.

1884 is the year of this pattern, I believe. I can verify it if needed - just leave a comment!

Proto Vegan Fox

I found this pattern in a collection of patterns from Godey's Lady's Book; I consider it the Victorian Vegan Fox (for those familiar with the Knitty pattern). In truth, it looks like some sort of weasel-snake crossbreed; when I get around to making this one up, I'm going to at least give the thing some legs so that it will look 100% mammal. I thought about adding fangs but if I end up with bitemarks in my neck, no one will believe it was from my scarf. I can imagine some mishap that would have the damned thing sever a major vein or artery in my neck - "Woman Bleeds to Death After Deadly Bite From Knitting Project."



Muff Crocheted in Imitation of Fur

The following articles crocheted in imitation of fur are recommended for the warm winter toilets of young girls, as they are not expensive.

With a fine bone hook, No. 12 Bell guage (sic), and the grey wool, single Berlin (of which you require six ounces), make a chain of 78 stitches.

1st Row: Dc (double crochet), at the end 1 ch.

2nd Row: 1 dc in the first dc, taking up the back of the loop, which is done throughout the work, take up the back of the 2nd loop, draw the wool through, pass the wool round the needle, take up the same loop again, making 3 loops on the needle in this one stitch, draw the wool through these 3, then trough the 2 on the needle; take up the whole of this row in this manner.

3rd Row: Plain dc worked from the back of the loop as before.

Repeat the 2nd and 3rd Rows.

Work a piece wide enough for your muff, then make it up; for this you require blue silk in the piece, two pair of black tassels, some blue ribbon to run in the runner, and a sheet of wadding. Lay your wadding the size of the piece of crochet you have worked, cover it on both sides with silk, then sew together; make a slot at each outer edge, sew up the piece of crochet, place it over the silk, run the edges of the crochet to the extreme edge of the slot, then pass your ribbon in; add the tassels by the join.



The Boa

This is also crocheted in the same stitch as the muff. You require five steel knitting needles, No. 12, for the head as it is knitted, 2 jet buttons for the eyes. For the length of the body make a chain of 117 stitches. Commence with a row of double crochet, then a row of pattern, always working a ch stitch at the end of each row. Work about 8 inches of this crochet for the width of the body. Sew it together, and stuff it with wadding covered with silk.

The Tail

The tail is worked separately, and is crocheted in looped crochet. Make a ch of 20.

1st Row: Dc.

2nd Row: Take up the back of the loop, pass the wool three times round a mesh one and a quarter inch wide, or your 2 fingers of the left hand, put the needle under these loops, loop the wool over, then take up the st again, draw through, then draw through the 2 on the needle; work the row in this manner. Work these 2 rows until you have ten rows of loops; then work 2 more rows, decreasing one stitch on each side now, cut the loops in the middle and comb them with a fine comb. Sew the tail together, then to the body.

The Head is Knitted

Cast on 10 stitches on each of the 4 needles; knit a round. Then 3 rounds knit plain.

4th: Knit 17; You now commence the increase for the forehead. In the 18th st work 2 st thus: knit 1, then purl 1; work the 19th st in the same manner; 20th st, knit plain; the 21st and 22nd st like the 18th and 19th; the rest knit plain.

5th: Knit plain.

6th: Increase like the 4th round in the 2 st on both sides of the 22nd st.

7th: Plain.

8th: Increase like the 4th round on both sides the 24th st; rest plain.

Knit 6 plain rounds.

14th: K 7, k2 together; k 1, knit 2 together; knit plain until the last 12; then k 2 together, k 1, k 2 together.

15th: Plain.

16th: K 5, knit 2 together 3 times; knit plain until the last 11, when knit 2 together 3 times; knit 5.

17th: Like 14th.

18th and 3 next rounds plain.

21st: K 5, knit 2 together twice, knit plain until the last 9, then knit 2 together twice, knit 5.

22nd: Plain.

23rd: K 7, join the black, knit 2 together in black until the last 7, which knit plain in grey.

Knit 8 rounds plain, knitting the black stitches with black and the grey with grey; cast off.

Wad the head to the shape, stitch on the buttons for the eyes, add some shreds of black wool for whiskers, then stitch on the ears, the directions for knitting which follow.

The Ears

Cast 12 st on 1 needle with grey wool. Knit back.

2nd Row: Purl.

3rd Row: Knit 2 together, knit 8, knit 2 together.

4th Row: Purl 2 together, purl all but the last 2, which purl together.

Repeat the 3rd and 4th rows until you have only one stitch left, then cast off, and sew to the head.