The Stocking and The Garter

I know that it must seem that I rely rather heavily on my customers to inspire my blogs given the subjects of the last few that I have written, but they are so inspiring in their different ways. This week, a lovely person gave me a book, originally published in 1943, called Mary Thomas’s Book of Knitting Patterns. Now I am fully aware that there are heaps of books of knitting patterns out there, and many of you might have them on your shelves (I have been meaning to get the Vogue Book for some time), but this book has been a bit of a revelation to me. To begin with the patterns referred to are not patterns for garments, but the patterns created by stitches and boy are there a lot of them. I think it might have been a text book of some sort, because it is really quite technical, but it also has charming tiny little illustrations all the way through. I love it. Mandy and I leafed through it this morning and think that the designer Stephen West must have a copy because we recognised many that have come up in his patterns such as the Honeycomb pattern and the Welt Stitch which features heavily in his most recent sock pattern.

The suppressed historian in me has enjoyed it very much. There is a photograph of the Knitted Vest in Blue Silk worn by Charles I to his execution. Where is that garment? In the Victoria and Albert Museum? The Tower of London? And now I know that the trade sign hung by the doors of professional knitters was the Stocking and the Garter (as above), which apparently also featured in the heraldic devices of Knitting Guilds because it symbolises the knitters warp and weft, not because they necessarily knitted stockings. And I love the illustrations of the 40’s garments throughout – all those structured jumpers with their narrow waists and exaggerated shoulders.

Another part of me is fascinated by the structure of knitting, Mary Thomas points out in her Preface to the book: “The fact is often overlooked that a knitter in making a garment, or any article for that matter, is really doing two things at the same time:–1. Making a garment. (A dressmaker’s job.) 2. Making a fabric (A weaver’s job).” I had never thought of it this way, but it makes complete sense. You start with a thread and turn it into a garment, often quite structured, using your hands and 2 (or more) needles. She talks about the elasticity of knitting (ribbing used to make cuffs and hems more stretchy) and the fact that the front of a garment knitted in stocking stitch has a different stretch than the back due to the fact that the front stitches are vertical and the back horizontal. I am sure many of you will be wondering at my amazement, but in all honesty I mostly just knit garments because I enjoy it and I have seldom given a huge amount of thought to the reasons for their different constructions. Sometimes the lack of my own knowledge in this area exasperates me. Had I but world enough and time, I would go through the book creating, as Mary Thomas suggests, a sampler of all the different patterns. Or do a Textile Degree.

I have decided to treat you all, on a regular basis, to one pattern which you might or might not be interested in trying out. This time, because it caught my eye, I going to share Knife Pleating with you – a way of creating a pleat by using a wider rib of Knit and Purl – useful should any of you take it into your heads to knit a skirt, for instance. You can find a photo below. Note that in the chart, the black squares are Purl and the white, Knit and you need to read the chart from right to left. Also, note that if you are knitting in the round you only use Row 1. I am being slightly tongue in cheek, but I do find myself wondering what a skirt knitted in Knife Pleating would look like.

Let me know what interesting books you have on the subject of Knitting Patterns (if any), or what patterns you might be interested in seeing in future from this amazing book. I am off to cast on a sampler after all – I cannot resist.