Knitting question

[black_hound]

Does anyone know if garter stitch is appropriate for 18th century use? Reason: I have a knitted hat pattern that I would prefer to do in garter. I have a sneaking suspicion that stockinette was the go-to stitch in that century, but I don't really know enough about the history of knitting to make that call.

Anyone?

Comments

[sharpiefan]

Haven't a clue, sorry - I ended up cheating and buying a stocking cap from Jas Townsend... and needing to shrink it. (It practically felted itself in the process. Oops. Oh, the trouble you have when you have a smaller than average hat size!)

Just popping in to say I haven't seen you around in a while and good luck with your project, when you do settle on what stitch type to use. *hugs* (Also, don't forget to post pics of the finished article. :D )

[black_hound]

This is "high" season in regards to reenacting around here. Historically the Philadelphia Campaign started in the late summer of 1777 so I have lots of distractions. *g*

Today was Battle of Germantown, as a matter of fact.

One of these days I have to post a photo of my 'new' carbine. Scored a Pedersoli carbine and it's just .... sweet.

[msmcknittington]

It is, but as far as I know, it's only for edges, not entire garments or other items. Stockinette is the usual ground stitch. The items should also be knit in the round (unless they're frame knit, which is an entirely different beast), which is just knitting round after round.

[marashar]

It was used for small things like ... well, garters obviously, and I think I have seen caps and a muffler in pure garter stich, probably because it is warmer. It was also used for decoration, see for example the Gunnister man's gloves.

I would do the hat in garter stich anyway. Fashion was rather wild back then and we have only few real finds from that period and most of them are from only a very small stratum of society. If it looks good, then I'm sure somebody might have done the pattern in garter stitch as well.

Only I have a sneaking suspicion that it might have been considered lower class knitting, not done by a professional knitter.

[msmcknittington]

Do you have a cite for those caps and the mufflers? I haven't found any reference to knitted scarves for the 18th century -- they're very, very prevalent in the 19th century, but mufflers prior to that seem to be of woven cloth.

I would do the hat in garter stich anyway. Fashion was rather wild back then and we have only few real finds from that period and most of them are from only a very small stratum of society. If it looks good, then I'm sure somebody might have done the pattern in garter stitch as well.

Er, there are tons of finds for the 18th century. I usually do medieval and Renaissance era stuff, and compared to that there's definitely enough finds from the 18th century to come to some idea about what they did. And, sorry, but saying to go ahead and knit a hat in garter stitch when there's really very little evidence that it would have happened is making a tremendous leap, when the preponderance of extant knit caps are done in stockinette.

[marashar]

Re caps: I'll look up those caps. I seem to recall that they were from some latrine complex in Lübeck, but I don't have the book at hand at the moment; I will check and post the results.

Re finds: There are lots of knitted things in museums or other collections, but from what I can see archaeological finds datable to this time and complete enough are few. And things that end up in collections ... Well, they tend to be collected for a reason, and until quite recently this was usually not because it was a mediocre example of an everyday item.

You are of course right that stockinette was by far the predominant stitch. But since the middle of the 17th century other stitches were used. The garter stitch was often used for decoration and decoration on hats was used often enough. Therefore to decorate a whole hat with Garter stitch is not improbable. If she wants to do the hat in garter stitch because she likes it more that way, I would think it is justifiable. If the question had been whether this would produce a typical hat for this period, then of course the answer would have to be no.

I think our difference here is caused by the degree of purism we want to achieve. My point of view is: If justifiable and more to your liking, then do it, because they would have done the same in the past, only that they may have had other points of reference for justifiability. I'm not aware of any source that indicates that garter stitch was considered downright vulgar. That it was used only rarely is probably explained to a large part by the fact that it is more difficult to do when knitting in the round.

If you don't share this point of view, then of course the safe way period-wise is stockinette.

[black_hound]

I was hoping you'd chime in!

*nods* Yeah, from examples I've seen online that appears to be the case.

[msmcknittington]

What pattern are you using? There are lots of funky hats to make for the 18th century. Those double-layer hats are pretty cool.