The Library Digitisation Unit of the University of Southampton has a Knitting Reference Library with Victorian knitting manuals and other old and really interesting knitting reference books and instructionals.

They also have, under the section slightly misleadingly titled "Knitting Patterns", a lot of title pages of 1950-ish and onward printed knitting patterns, all of them for men's upper body garments. Unfortunately, it really is only the title pages, so there are no actual patterns to be gotten. However, it is wildly interesting to just take a look at all of the title page pictures with the garments modeled: Some of the sweaters and cardigans look really timeless, and you wouldn't be surprised at all to see them worn today, or a pattern for them sold, or a garment like that on a hanger in a clothes store.

Some others, though? To my modern eyes, they look really, really weird. Some of them remind me of Captain Kirk, some of them loudly scream "Nineteeneighties!!", and some of them made me think "That looks like a dressing gown or pyjama part, that was worn on the street? Wow!"

Mind you, though, when I browse through modern knitting pattern magazines, I sometimes also wonder who would actually wear this. Those things are looking weird in a different, more up-do-date way, though.

So - if you enjoy looking at slightly weird older knitted garments - have a rootle in the Knitting Reference Library's 164 "knitting patterns". You might be as delighted as I was.

I sometimes complain that my knitting projects all take ages and ages - though I know very well that this is not due to my knitting really slowly. My actual knitting speed is more of a medium speed, but I tend to not knit most of the time. And if you let that half-finished pair of socks languish on the needles for half a year... well, then it will take more than half a year to make a pair of socks.

Anyway, current knitting is more or less progressing, for a change - though in the case of this sweater, the wool has already sat around for a long time, so maybe the languishing is all dealt with and I can finish this (astounding thought!) without too much downtime:


It's the Moyen Age sweater, and I really like the cable motif (though I have no clue why it has the name it has). It hits a nice balance for me between mind-numbingly plain stockinette (booooring!) and excitement and fingerwrestling with the cables (tight knitting has its downsides), so I'm happy to knit on it, and I'm already past the waist decreases and starting to increase again.

The other knitting-related thing is not progressed much - the first bobbin of grey Gotland yarn is finished, but the second still is in this sad state:


I haven't gotten around to sit and spin in the evenings these last days (or weeks? Time flies), but it's on my list, and some day, it will be full, and then it will be plied, and then there's a gauge swatch in the future, and figuring out how to combine that yarn with the half-Gotland-half-colourful yarn. And then, eventually, a garment.

Just in case the sweater is finished before the spinning is, though, there's something else hanging out here in the stash. I was accosted by this yarn a few days ago - it sat in the "really really has to go so is really really reduced"-bin in a yarn store I happened to pass. Well, what can I say - it's silk, it's blue, and it was cheap. And obviously, it's now mine.


Also... it should be sufficient for a small jacket. For summer chill. (Next summer, obviously!)

Textile craft stuff just is so versatile, and here's two examples of it. First of all, a really nice article about knitting spies and knitted secret messages - though I'm rather convinced it's not a dropped stitch that actually happened, but something like a yarnover.

Knitting codes is definitely fun - the most patient husband of them all knit yoga socks that morse code spell out "Yoga socks", and he had a lot of fun with that. I've yet to do something similarly geeky, but it is on my list. (Though not very far up the list, I'll admit.)

The second link is not knitting, but crocheting: the clinic in Hannover is giving hand-crafted cuddly snails to children getting cochlea implants (German site). These children are born deaf, and they are getting the implant operation at a very young age - usually still a little less than a year old - which is of course quite exciting and frightening for them and their parents. So the staff of the clinic in Hannover has started a project back in 2015 where each of the about 100 children getting the implant each year gets a hand-crocheted snail to cuddle. It's intended not only as an emotional uplifter for the children, but also as a token of appreciation for this very big step in their lives.

In case you have itchy fingers now, the (German) pdf instructions on how to crochet the snails are linked from their site. And if you love the idea of the snails getting handed to children - all snails are crocheted by volunteers, and the clinic is always looking for snail donations, which are much appreciated.

I've told you about my spinning project, and my glorious decision to ply the yarn spun from the dyed top with nice, grey Gotland yarn, to get more length. Well, it is finished now, and it looks really nice. It also knits nicely, and results in a pleasing fabric. Only problem?

It's not much. I have 278 g of yarn, but this weight only runs to a scant 458 m according to my length-measuring thingie. (Damn you, high twist resulting in high-density yarn!) Which is definitely not enough for something sweater-like... so now I have the usual not-enough-yarn problem again.

Sigh.

Maybe if I spin up some more plain Gotland, ply that, and use the two threads alternatingly?

And here's the promised picture of the other finished thing - the Pirate Robert Hat. As with so many of these things, it's incredibly hard to take good photos of it, which means that the pattern bit is less legible on the picture than in real life, where you can actually make out the crossed sabers. Ah well.


I love that hat, and it fits perfectly. It's almost a shame that it is getting nice and warm outside these days, too warm to wear a woolen hat!

It's the time of finished things at the moment, or so it seems - I finished the gold band weaving this morning, and now I have a bit more than a metre of band. It was really fun to weave, and I am thinking of doing some more of it and maybe even sticking it in the shop...

I also did get some nice buttons for my Vignette a few days ago, and I've since finished the cardigan. Finally! So here's a quickly snapped photo of the thing in action:


It's not perfect, but it fits nicely, I like the sleeve length, and overall I'm quite happy with it. Also... there needs to be room for improvement after a first non-sock, non-hat garment, right?

If you like to knit and would like to do so in the name of science (yay!), or like to spin in the same name, there's a recent project about Knitting in Early Modern Europe looking for volunteers to do just these things. The main task at the moment is spinning yarn to specifications taken from the original items, then knitting small round swatches and fulling them. This is done to test theories on cap construction without having to knit a full cap (which is rather a lot of work compared to knitting a few smaller swatches).

To join the KEME volunteer team, you will be required to fill out an online form, and you can get instructions for spinning and knitting from team member Rosalind. Read more about the project in their first newsletter, and their second one. (These also contain contact data for Rosalind - I'd rather not get her extra amounts of spam by posting her mail address right here...)

Feel free to tell a friend or three if you think they'd be interested, too!