A Knitted Cotton Jacket in the Collection of the Knitting and Crochet Guild of Great Britain

References

• The jacket is catalogued as 1998/25/6. It can also be accessed online, through the Knitting and Crochet Guild website. Available from: http://www.kcguild.org.uk [Accessed: 13 December 2011]. The collection of the Knitting and Crochet Guild is at Unit 4, Lees Mill, Scholes, Holmfirth hd9 1rj and can be used for research by arrangement. At the time of writing, the future of the KCG collection, which includes publications and artefacts, is uncertain and the whereabouts of the jacket are unknown. Some of the other garments in Table 1 are described and illustrated in R. Gilbert, ‘The King’s Vest and the Seaman’s Gansey: Continuity and Diversity of Construction in Hand Knitted Body Garments in North Western Europe Since 1550, with Special Reference to Armhole Shaping’ (Unpublished MPhil thesis, University of Southampton, 2009), appendix 1.
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• Levey S., ‘Illustrations of the history of knitting selected from the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum’, in K. Ponting ed., Textile History 1968–70: Volume 1 of the Journal Textile History (Newton Abbot: David and Charles, 1971), pp. 183–205. Levey presumed that the body was knitted in rows and gave an ingenious alternative method of arriving at the form, by working the sleeves first and knitting sleeve head stitches with the yoke edges as they were made. The adult garment in the Victoria and Albert Museum (T.61–1939) is shown in A. Hart and S. North, Historical Fashion in Detail (London: V&A, 1998), pp. 185–86.
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• Prown J.David, ‘Mind in matter: an introduction to material culture theory and method’, Winterthur Portfolio, XVII (1982), pp. 1–19. There is no generally agreed consistent terminology for hand knitting and, where unfamiliar terms are used for the first time, explanation is given in brackets.
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• David Prown, ‘Mind in matter’, p. 9.
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• Baumgarten L., What Clothes Reveal: The Language of Clothing in Colonial and Federal America (New Haven: Yale University Press for Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2002), pp. 158–59; H. Nicholson, The Loving Stitch: A History of Knitting and Spinning in New Zealand (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 1998), p. 10.
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• The garment belongs to the Dalyell family of the House of the Binns, Linlithgow. Nothing has been established about this garment other than what is recorded in H. Bennett, Scottish Knitting (Princes Risborough: Shire, 1986), p. 26.
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• Draper G., ‘Oliver Cromwell’s baby clothes?’, Antique Collector, June 1986, pp. 121–27. The cloth jacket in Williamsburg (1958–140) was also associated with Cromwell, the jacket accessioned as Museum of London A21989c with Catherine of Braganza, V&A T.30–1932 with Charles II and the Gallery of Costume MCAG 1953–66 with Charles Edward Stuart.
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• Buck A., Clothes and the Child: A Handbook of Children’s Dress in England 1500–1900 (Carlton: Ruth Bean, 1996), p. 249.
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• Several versions of a garment algorithm are given in B. Brown-Reinsel, Knitting Ganseys (Loveland, CO: Interweave, 1993), each more elaborate than the previous one; indeed, the whole book can be seen as a garment algorithm explained for modern knitters, giving possible choices at every stage.
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• See Sykas P.A., ‘Re-threading: notes towards a history of sewing thread in Britain’, in M. M. Brooks ed., Textiles Revealed (London: Archetype, 2000), pp. 123–35.
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• Burman B., White J, ‘Fanny’s pockets: cotton, consumption and domestic economy, 1780–1850’, in J. Batchelor and C. Kaplan eds, Women and Material Culture, 1660–1830 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), p. 39.
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• Stanley M., The Knitter’s Handbook (Newton Abbot: David and Charles, 2001), p. 32.
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• The ubiquitous Woolcraft is widely used as a reference for normality in knitting practice. See Woolcraft, 16th edn (Patons and Baldwins, 1956), p. 19; Woolcraft, 11th edn (Patons and Baldwins, 1938), pp. 46–47.
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• Stanley, The Knitter’s Handbook, pp. 91, 241–44.
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• Woollen baby vest, c. 1550, 39·108/1, Museum of London. The vest is on display in the museum’s medieval gallery; Gilbert, ‘The King’s Vest’, pp. 78–84, 188–90.
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• Many books discuss construction. See, for example, R. Compton, The Complete Book of Traditional Knitting (London: Batsford, 1983), pp. 33–34, 61, 85, 101–02; S. McGregor, The Complete Book of Traditional Scandinavian Knitting (London: Batsford, 1984), pp. 85–89, 124–27.
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• Levey, ‘Illustrations’, pp. 189–91, pl. v; R. Rutt, A History of Hand Knitting (London: Batsford, 1987), pp. 239–41.
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• Faroese jerseys, A.300·1 and A.1904·117, National Museums of Scotland. The sweaters were bought new in Thorshavn for the collection.
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• Baumgarten, What Clothes Reveal, p. 159.
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• ‘Pinching’ patterns by careful observation was common among gansey knitters. G. Thompson, Guernsey and Jersey Patterns (London: Batsford, 1955), p. 29.
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• Warburg L., ‘I silkestrikke fra top til tå’, in A. Kruse, B. Bogild Johannsen, C. Paludan, L. Warburg and E. Østergaard eds, Fru Kirstens Børn: To Kongebørns Begravelser I Roskilde Domkirke (Herning: Poul Kristensen and Copenhagen: National Museum, 1988), p. 265. See also P. Brears, North Country Folk Art (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1989) for use of such crosses in England.
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• Henson G., History of the Framework Knitters (Newton Abbot: David and Charles, 1969), p. 212; H. Bonney, ‘The first machine knitting pattern’, Slip Knot, xl (1988), pp. 41–42. I knit socks for myself from a memorised algorithm developed by trial and error.
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• Rutt, A History, pp. 93–94.
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• Warburg, ‘I silkestrikke’, p. 131.
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• Buck, Clothes and the Child, pp. 24, 32.
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• Levey S., ‘Bess of Hardwick’s first account book’, Costume, XXXIV (2000), pp. 13–24.
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• Clark G., ‘Infant clothing in the eighteenth century: a new insight’, Costume, XXVIII (1994), pp. 47–59.
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• Hart and North, Historical Fashion, p. 186; Baumgarten, What Clothes Reveal, p. 156.
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• ‘Thread’ stockings were common from the sixteenth century, gradually superseded by cotton. S. Llewellyn, ‘‘Inventory of Her Grace’s things, 1747’: the dress inventory of Mary Churchill, Second Duchess of Montagu’, Costume, xxxi (1997), pp. 49–67; B. Lemire, Fashion’s Favourite: The Cotton Trade and the Consumer in Britain 1660–1800 (Oxford: Oxford University Press and Pasold Research Fund, 1991), p. 215.
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• London Port Book, 1567–68: nos 1–99 (September–November 1567), no. 46, John of Lee, from Antwerp, in B. Dietz ed., The Port and Trade of Early Elizabethan London (London: London Record Society, 1972). Available from http://www.british-history.ac.uk/source.aspx?pubid=154 [Accessed: 16 December 2011]; W. Page ed., Victoria History of the County of York, iii (London: Archibald Constable, 1907–25), pp. 468–69.
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• Henson, History of the Framework Knitters, p. 359; T. Rath, ‘The Tewkesbury hosiery industry’, Textile History, vii (1976), pp. 140–53.
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• ed., The Illustrated Journeys of Celia Fiennes, 1685–1712 (London: Macdonald, 1982), p. 190.
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• Henson, History of the Framework Knitters, p. 359; M. Atkin, ‘Post-medieval archaeology in Gloucester: a review’, Post-Medieval Archaeology, xxi (1987), p. 5.
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• Rath, ‘The Tewkesbury hosiery industry’, pp. 141–42.
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• Clabburn P., ‘My small child bed linning’, Costume, XIII (1979), pp. 38–40; Burman and White, ‘Fanny’s pockets’, pp. 35, 45–46; F. M. Montgomery, ‘John Holker’s mid-eighteenth century Livre d’Enchatillons’, in V. Gervers ed., Studies in Textile History in Memory of Harold B. Burnham (Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum, 1977), pp. 219–20, 225.
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• Rutt, A History, pp. 108–10; M. A. Garry, ‘‘After they went I worked’: Mrs Larpent and her needlework 1790–1800’, Costume, xxxix (2005), pp. 91–99. Upper-middle-class Anna Larpent apparently learned to knit from a friend’s servant and made useful things for her sons.
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