Table of contents for Fall 2019 in PieceWork

Six years ago, we were putting the finishing touches on a new special PieceWork publication. As with most projects, this one began with a “What if we did . . . ?” The wheels began to turn, and soon we published a newsstand-only issue devoted to the PBS series Downton Abbey, with articles to set the historical stage and projects inspired by the show. Here are the opening lines from my editorial in The Unofficial Downton Abbey Knits: “One evening about two years ago, my husband called to me, ‘Hey, you should check this out.’ I did, and here we are. ‘This’ was a rerun of an early episode of PBS’s Downton Abbey, Season 1.” Like millions of others, we became huge fans of the show and remained true through…

For over 300 years, the elegant lace shawls from Orenburg, Russia beguiled knitters and collectors alike. While many lace knitters may be acquainted with the delicate “gossamer webs” for which Orenburg is famous, in this online workshop Galina Khmeleva focuses on the “warm shawl,” a much sturdier, yet more luxurious cousin seldom found outside the region. Through a series of instructional videos, interview segments, and archival photographs, this online workshop will cover a brief history, tools and materials, 10 basic motifs, the unique construction of the warm shawl, how to wash, block, and finish your shawl, and so much more. Plus, this online workshop also features downloadable charts and 2 full patterns for an Orenburg warm shawl. Learn more about the Orenburg Warm Shawl at Interweave.com…

The infamous Donner Party was one group of several that left Independence, Missouri, in mid-April 1846. They were all headed for Sutter’s Fort, California. The 1840s marked the height of “California Fever,” when thousands left their homes and often their families in search of better, more prosperous lives in the West. The Donner Party is seen as an archetypal American cautionary tale, yet the party was diverse, including Irishmen, an Englishman, a German family, and an elderly Belgian man, as well as Salvador and Luis, two Miwok natives. The two pivotal families at the heart of the Donner Party were the Donners and the Reeds. The Reeds had filled their large two-story comfortable wagon (dubbed “the Palace Car” by their fellow travelers) with all the necessities and a few luxuries…

Bush, Nancy. “The Spectacular Gloves of Sanquhar.” PieceWork, January/February 2014. ———. “The Symbolism of Gloves.” PieceWork, May/June 2000 (with additional information on the Sten Svantesson Sture glove). ———. “Traditional Mittens and Gloves from Kihnu, Estonia.” PieceWork’s Knitting Traditions, Fall 2011. Leighton-White, Sue. “The Needles’s Music: Hand Knitters of the Dales.” PieceWork, January/February 1994 (with additional information on Mary Allen). Pulliam, Deborah. “Gunnister Man’s Knitted Possessions.” PieceWork, September/October 2002 (with additional information on the knitted items). Strawn, Susan. “A Child’s Mitten from Sixteenth-Century London.” PieceWork, January/February 2010 (with additional information on the child’s mittens now in the Museum of London). Thomas, Angharad. “By the Dexterous Use of Two Threads: Gloves and the Handknitting Industry of Sanquhar, Scotland.” PieceWork’s Knitting Traditions, Spring 2014. DR. ANGHARAD THOMAS is a researcher, designer, and knitter,…

For much of Valentina Fedorova’s adult life, she worked in the shadow of her older sister Olga Fedorova, a lace-knitting prodigy. I first met Olga and Valentina in June 1990, during a visit to Orenburg and the Orenburg Regional Museum of Fine Arts. I had the opportunity to develop a close working relationship with Olga, and I was honored to learn from her. At that time, Valentina worked as a bookkeeper for a local gas company, though she continued to develop and foster her creative side. My early attempts to market Orenburg knitted lace shawls in Europe did not meet with much success: Europe’s mild climate wasn’t suitable for this type of lace, and the local Orenburg women never embraced it. After a subsequent show in Paris, I traveled back…

Celia Dackenberg’s books have given me so much pleasure and inspiration over the years. We both love literature and knitting, and her books provide a wealth of information, stories, material culture, and, of course, lovely designs to knit. The elements in this shawl are all taken from various garments in Dackenberg’s books, particularly her first, Sparat: Små stickade kläder från vår barndom [Saved: Small Knitted Clothing from our Childhood]. The shawl begins with a yoke based on a traditional Swedish garter-stitch side-to-side baby cardigan. The original sweater featured in Sparat is sized for both babies and dolls and was itself based on a traditional construction for an easy-to-knit and easy-to-put-on-baby cardigan. I adjusted the stitch counts and short-row turning points. Because there are no wraps at the turns, each turn…

They were perfect for each other—he had a title, she had a fortune—and so they wed. Devotees of the PBS series Downton Abbey know that Cupid had nothing to do with the 1888 marriage of Robert Crawley, Fifth Earl of Grantham, to Miss Cora Levinson, heiress to her American father’s dry-goods fortune. The plain—and to Robert, the painful—truth was that he desperately needed Miss Levinson’s money to maintain his ancestral estate with its mansion, extensive landholdings, crofts, and numerous dependent souls. A mercenary motive, perhaps, but he had little alternative. Neither had Cora, whose father had pressured her to marry a British aristocrat. Marrying an English lord was a complex endeavor. Between 1878 and 1914, dozens of young American heiresses—aggressive mothers in the vanguard, sisters often in tow—packed their steamer…

MATERIALS • Manos Silk Blend, 70% merino wool/30% silk yarn, DK weight, 150 yard (137.2 m)/50 gram (1.8 oz) hank, 7 (7, 8, 9, 10) hanks of #3214 Oxygen • Needles, size 6 (4 mm) circ 29 inches (75 cm) and sizes 6 (4 mm) and 7 (4.5 mm) double pointed or size needed to obtain gauge • Stitch markers • Stitch holders • Tapestry needle Finished sizes: 31½ (34¼, 36¼, 40¾, 43½) inches (80.0 [87.0, 92.1, 103.5, 110.5] cm) bust circumference Note: Since the garment has an open front, choose a finished size that is 2 to 3 inches (5.1 to 7.6 cm) smaller than your actual bust circumference. Gauge: 24 sts and 32 rows = 4 inches (10.2 cm) in St st, using smaller needles INSTRUCTIONS Notes: .…

The PieceWork Guidebook I would like to thank you for being a guidebook for a traveler interested in all forms of needlework. I was looking for information on Vietnamese embroidery, and there it was about two years ago [“The Amazing World of Vietnamese Silk Embroidery” by Cynthia LeCount Samaké, November/December 2016]. This year I am going to Morocco, and there you have it in the wonderful article about the button maker Amina Yabis [“A Grassroots Feminist Button Maker—Amina Yabis” by Susan Schaefer Davis, Spring 2019]. I hope to find some of her buttons in the form of a necklace. I have been a subscriber for many years, and because I love every form of needlework, your magazine is a treasure. My mother was my teacher, and from her, I learned…

Exhibitions Los Angeles, California: Through September 21. Material Meaning: A Living Legacy of Anni Albers, at the Craft in America Center. (323) 951-0610; www.craftinamerica.org/center. Winterthur, Delaware: Through January 5, 2020. Costuming THE CROWN, at Winterthur Museum. (800) 448-3883; www.winterthur.org. Kansas City, Missouri: Through September 2. Color of Memory: Fabric Art of WWI, at the National WWI Museum and Memorial. (816) 888-8100; www.theworldwar.org. New York, New York: Through September 8. Camp: Notes on Fashion, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. (212) 535-7710; www.metmuseum.org. New York, New York: Through November 16. Minimalism/ Maximalism, at The Museum at FIT, Fashion & Textile History Gallery. (212) 217-4558; www.fitnyc.edu/museum. Madison, Wisconsin: September 5–December 6. Intersections: Indigenous Textiles of the Americas, at the Lynn Mecklenburg Textile Gallery at the University of Wisconsin. www.sohe.wisc.edu/research-development/centers-of-excellence/cdmc/textile-collection. Toronto, Canada: Through…

Coleman, Dorothy S. The Collector’s Book of Dolls’ Clothes: Costumes in Miniature, 1700–1929. New York: Crown Publishing, 1975. Maitland, Julia Charlotte. The Doll and Her Friends, or Memoirs of Lady Seraphina. 1852. Reprint. N.p.: CreateSpace, 2016. Murphy, Virginia Reed. “Across the Plains in the Donner Party.” The Century Magazine, Volume 42, 1891. PENELOPE HEMINGWAY contributed the foreword to the new edition of The Old Hand-Knitters of the Dales (1951. Rev. ed. Lakewood, Ohio: Cooperative Press, 2013) and is the author of River Ganseys: Strikin’ t’loop, Swaving, and Other Yorkshire Knitting Curiosities Revived from the Archives (Lakewood, Ohio: Cooperative Press, 2015). Penelope writes about textile history, re-creates eighteenth-and nineteenth-century knitted items, and is a handspinner and natural dyer. She is descended from wool weavers, clothiers, and pioneer aniline dyers of her…

The history of knitting has been shrouded in mystery, half-truths, and outright lies! Is this because there is so little material, either textiles or documentation, to enable that history to be fully written? Or is it because knitting has been part of everyday life—“just” something women do, often at home—and as such is often overlooked? In the absence of verifiable information, writers and historians have speculated, guessed, and sometimes even made up things. The trouble is twofold: First, much of the available information is inaccurate and misleading. Second, some of it is also beguiling, with wonderful stories that sometimes involve the Bible, shipwrecks, and faraway places. Everyone loves a good story, so these fictions about knitting—what it was used for and how it spread from one part of the world…

The Magpie Gloves owe a debt to anonymous knitters long dead, to those such as Mary Allen (1857–1924), the skilled glove knitter from Yorkshire, and to many makers very much alive! These gloves combine old and new elements—from Yorkshire, England; Sanquhar, Scotland; Kihnu Island, Estonia; and elsewhere—to make a fun-to-knit project. The gloves’ use of color reflects those found in old gloves, mittens, and socks all over Europe that have been knitted through the years—a strong dark-and-light contrast and a touch of red for luck. The techniques include a two-color long-tail cast-on from Europe, a two-color rib from Yorkshire, and knitting in the round with two colors, a technique found all over the knitting world. Because this project is relatively small, it offers a good way to try these techniques…

Celia B. Dackenberg and her sister listened to Swedish family radio programs while her mother knitted. She was eight years old when she learned to knit. Her first project was a pair of golden yellow mittens knitted flat on straight needles and seamed. She was as taken with knitting as with radio programs. Celia later learned of a program that gave out a stocking pattern on the radio in an effort to stimulate knitting for the troops during World War II (1939–1945). As Celia notes, it indicates how important knitting-friendly radio can be. Celia, now living in Umeå, Sweden, was educated at Konstfack in Stockholm, the country’s esteemed and largest university specializing in art, crafts, and design. She trained as an art teacher and taught in high schools beginning in…

The following is excerpted with permission from Estonian Knitting 2: Socks and Stockings by Anu Pink. The author offers this from her Preface: “This book has been in the making for eight years, during which I have closely examined more or less all the traditional Estonian socks and stockings in the museums of Estonia and witnessed the vibrancy and multitude of techniques that characterize our stocking culture. A big thank you to all the museums that made this research possible. . . . I hope that this book provides inspiration and knowledge for both knitting the way our foremothers knitted their socks and stockings, as well as developing 21st century sock fashions. Perhaps some of the sock heels or toe shapings that were well known in the 19th century, but are now…

Helen and Warren may be the most famous American couple that you’ve never met. However, every week for more than thirty years from 1910 to 1944, newspaper readers across the United States, Canada, and Great Britain followed every detail of their lives. Their creator, Mabel Herbert Urner (1881–1957), based the fictional couple’s exploits on her own life, which included frequent travel with her husband, Lathrop Colgate Harper (1867–1950), a member of a prominent New York City family. She wrote of their travels, of trying new cuisine in Manhattan, of their Persian cat, and even of the more mundane experiences of married life, including visits from in-laws. The first installment of the column, “The Disillusionment of the Honeymoon—The Eighth Day,” ran in the Minneapolis Tribune in July 1910. Eventually, the column…

MATERIALS • Handmaiden Swiss Silk, 100% silk yarn, fingering weight, 437 yard (399.6)/100 gram (3.5 oz) skein, 1 skein each of Wine (A), Brown Sugar (B), Beet (C) • Needles, size 2 (2.75 mm) circ 24 inches (60 cm) or size needed to obtain gauge • Glass seed beads, 6/0, square, about 550 of a clear honey color • Tapestry needle • Scrap yarn for holders • Removable marker • Stitch markers • Crochet hook, steel, size 11, for beads Finished size: Lower band, 38¾ inches (98.4 cm) circumference; length, about 20 inches (51 cm); sides are completely open to allow for a range of bust sizes Gauge: 29 sts and 32 rows = 4 inches (10.2 cm) in Fair Isle patt; 28 sts = 4 inches (10.2 cm) and…

Tatter’s Helper Don’t let a dropped ball of tatting thread spoil your craft time. Handy Hands Lizbeth Thread Holder keeps even your finest threads contained. Just twist to open, insert your thread, and lock it closed. Use a cord or ribbon to suspend it from your wrist or neck so that it will always be within reach. Shown in Purple Lt. www.hhtatting.com. Classic Wool Thread your needle with one of the many shades of Brown Sheep’s Waverly Wool, and you will be stitching with a timeless 100% wool yarn designed for needlepoint. Just separate the plies and work with the number appropriate for your canvas. Shown in colors (top to bottom) #4012, #2101, and #5001. www.brownsheep.com. Stitch for a Cause A portion of the proceeds from each of Treenway Silks…

• Dales Countryside Museum, Hawes, North Yorkshire, England; www.dalescountrysidemuseum.org.uk. • Fashion Museum, Bath, England; www.fashionmuseum.co.uk. • Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands; www.friesmuseum.nl. • New Walk Museum, Leicester, England; www.leicester.gov.uk/leisure-and-culture/museums-and-galleries/museums-and-historic-venues/new-walk-museum-and-art-gallery. • Sanquhar Tolbooth Museum, Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland; www.visitscotland.com/info/see-do/sanquhar-tolbooth-museum-p251181 (open from April to September). • United Kingdom’s Knitting & Crochet Guild; www.kcguild.org.uk. • Wordsworth Museum, Cumbria, England; www.wordsworth.org.uk. • The Worshipful Company of Glovers (online galleries: www.glovecollectioncatalogue.org/bymaterial.html; a selection of gloves from the Glove Collection Trust is on view at the Fashion Museum in Bath, England).…

When I first looked through my Weldon’s Practical Knitter series, I was fascinated by the engraving of the French Trellis Border in Weldon’s Practical Knitter Edgings, Fourteenth Series, published in London in 1890 (and compiled in Weldon’s Practical Needlework, Volume 5). It didn’t look like anything else I had seen in other stitch dictionaries. I was sure this wide dramatic border would make a distinctive edging for a lovely large shawl. When I knitted up a swatch of the border the first time, I clearly saw that there was a mistake in the instructions that was not visible in the engraved image. I always love a challenge, so any errors found or yardage restrictions just add to my enjoyment of the designing process. I envisioned a design that had a…

• Sparat: Små stickade kläder från vår barndom [Saved: Small Knitted Garments from Our Childhood]. Stockholm, Sweden: Rabén Prisma, 1996. • Ylle & Bläck: Essäer om poetkoftor och annat författarylle [Wool & Ink: Essays on Poets’ Sweaters and other Author Wooliness]. Stockholm, Sweden: Prisma, 2001. • Sagornas Stickbok: Sticka sagobarnens bästa kläder [Fairy Tale Knitting: Knit Fairy Tale Children’s Best Clothing]. Stockholm, Sweden: Norstedts, 2015. • Kulturkoftor: Livet, konsten och saker att sticka [Culture Cardigans: Life, Art and Things to Knit]. Stockholm, Sweden: Norstedts, 2017.…

Estonian Knitting 2: Socks and Stockings is an exceptional book. In this sequel to Estonian Knitting 1: Techniques and Traditions (published in 2016), Anu Pink brings Estonia’s longest-standing tradition to life. The gorgeously illustrated, oversized book is filled with historical details on and photographs of socks and stockings from the seventeenth century to the present. The substantial Construction and Techniques section will benefit any sock knitter. Charts, in-process photographs, tips, and instructions for more than 200 patterns will keep your needles clicking. Estonian Knitting 2: Socks and Stockings by Anu Pink; Türi, Estonia: Saara Publishing House, 2018; 384 pages; ISBN 978-9949-7268-2-0. Available from a variety of sources online.…

Higgins, Rosalie Armistead, “The Colorful Pep of Mabel Urner’s Stories Comes from Plodding,” Editor & Publisher, June 11, 1921. Hofer, Margaret K. “Cross-Stitched History: Artistry and Ambition in Christina Arcularius’s Tree of Knowledge Sampler.” Common - Place, July 2004; available online http://common-place.org. Standen, Edith. “First Efforts from an Infant’s Hand,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series, Summer, 1958. Urner, Mabel Herbert. The Journal of the Neglected Wife. 1909. Reprint. London: Forgotten Books, 2017. ———. The Woman Alone. 1914. Reprint. London: Forgotten Books, 2012. ———. The Married Life of Helen and Warren. Boston: Small, Maynard and Company, 1925. BONNIE-LYNN NADZEIKA is an avid knitter, crocheter, and needleworker living in northern New Jersey. She enjoys combining her love of needlecrafts and history to find stories like Mabel's.…

MATERIALS • Jamieson & Smith 2-ply Jumper Weight, 100% Shetland wool yarn, fingering weight, 125 yard (114.3 m)/25 gram (0.9 oz) ball, 2 (3) balls of #202 Off-White (MC) and 1 ball each of #FC34 Aqua (A), #14 Light Blue (B), #FC55 Dark Plum (C), #43 Medium Plum (D), and #72 Light Plum (E) • Spud & Chloe Fine, 80% wool/20% silk yarn, fingering weight, 248 yard (226.8 m)/65 gram (2.3 oz) skein, 1 skein of #7814 Shitake (F) • Needles, size 3 (3.25 mm) circ 16 inches (40 cm) and set of double pointed or size needed to obtain gauge • Tapestry needle • Stitch marker • Bowl or plate for blocking • Crochet hook, size C (2.75 mm) for optional tassel keepers • Strong binding yarn (parcel string,…

18th-Century Fashion in Detail Susan North New York: Thames & Hudson, 2018. Softbound, 224 pages, $40. ISBN 978-0-500-29263-1. 19th-Century Fashion in Detail Lucy Johnston New York: Thames & Hudson, 2016. Softbound, 240 pages, $34.95. ISBN 978-0-500-29264-8. 20th-Century Fashion in Detail Claire Wilcox and Valerie D. Mendes New York: Thames & Hudson, 2018. Softbound, 224 pages, $40. ISBN 978-0-500-29410-9. Pictorial Embroidery in England: A Critical History of Needlepainting and Berlin Work Rosika Desnoyers New York: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2019. Hardbound, 184 pages, $80. ISBN 978-1-350-07175-9. Threads Around the World: From Arabian Weaving to Batik in Zimbabwe Deb Brandon Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing, 2018. Hardbound, 256 pages, $24.99. ISBN 978-0-7643-5650-6.…