Shetland Lace and Roman roads
Janin made a comment on my last post, which got me remembering old discussions and I wanted to address it at some length. Stand by for few pictures and lots of words... If you hate that, feel free to exercise your right to navigate elsewhere! :)
At Camp last year, I had a long conversation with various lace knitting gurus, including Meg Swansen and Bridget Rorem, about Shetland lace, and square shawls.
At the time I was concerned (I forget just why at this point) that the shawl I was thinking about knitting be "authentic." What does that really mean, authentic Shetland lace? To me it means, knit by Shetlanders of Shetland wool in Shetland, truly. More to the point, then, is not "What is authentic?" but, "what do I want to produce in my own 'honor-those-brilliant-Shetland-knitters' rendition of a square shawl?"
The Shetland knitters were (are) realists and brilliant make-it-happen knitters. They had a few basic tools and their wonderful minds and skills, and made truly gorgeous lace. Examining the stunning shawls that were produced in the Shetland lace heydays, one can see that all of it is produced from a few foundational building blocks of stitch constructions. (My appreciation of this is due in part to Hazel Carter's delightful book, Shetland Lace Knitting From Charts. If you are interested in Shetland lace, understanding and working with its building blocks, I highly recommend this book. Sharon Miller's book on lace knitting is a massive and wonderful tome, and I love it, but something about Hazel Carter's book helped me really dig into and appreciate the minds of those Shetlanders and their lace.)
Sorry, long red herring there.
Shetlanders used long double pointed needles and, often, a special belt to hold one end and speed their work. This knitter happens to have access to circular needles; can't I use them? to be authentic do I have to use the same tools they did? Do I have to follow the method they did, working the edging first and then one border and then the center and then another border and so on, ultimately grafting the edging together and possibly the various borders? And only garter lace because, working lace sts on every row, it is way way WAY easier to avoid purl rows? After all, knitting is much faster for some of us than purl; knit decreases are easier than their purl-rendition version (well OK, P 2 tog is way easy. P 2 tog tbl or whatever one calls it (I call it a purled ssk) is slow and annoying) (Uh oh, I just caught myself thinking about ways to make that maneuver easier...) Oops, another bit of wandering off down the garden path.
I think I do not have to do all of that.
There is an old story, and honestly I have no idea whether it is true because my brother told me and, to be funny, he'll say nearly anything. (He does work for a railroad) The story is essentially this: the gauge of railroad is made the gauge it is (size, essentially) because it matches the wheel ruts from the Roman war chariots, which for a time raged all about Europe and, for the story, especially England. Thus the gauge specifications (width between rails, for those who are thinking gauge means stitches per inch) are based on the separation of the wheels of a Roman war chariot, which is the size it is to fit two horses in the traces. Because, of course, early transportation was horse based (and heavy or speedy horse drawn carriages tended to have the horses in pairs)... which produced the wheel axle lengths for early chariots and thus rail road carriages, and so on. Here's Snopes' scoop on it. It does make intriguing reading, humorous as well. But there is a similarity of thought process. The choices of construction and size, method and organization of work, are based on some fundamental items... like tools available, sizes of users, limitations of equipment, etc.
Given that I have circular needles, the ability to chart and keep straight in my head the miters growing on my borders, and that I knit for my own delight: these will affect my choices.
So, since it is my knitting, what do I care about? I do care that it is a lovely pattern. I care that the lace sts I choose live in a symbiotic relationship, that the various parts flow and go together in a pleasing way. I care that it drape and be lovely and warm, that I use only "traditional" Shetland sts (more on this in a minute) and that it be a knit that goes together logistically in a manner pleasing to me. For instance, to choose to do all purl, still producing garter stitch, would be a crazy variation, with no benefit to me as knitter, nor the project. (I do know that some folks would love to work it that way: some people find purl sts faster and easier) To me that would be a nonsensical variation.
But to knit the center first, with a provisional cast on and then do the borders, that makes sense to me with form and function agreeing.
Anyway, that brought me to the borders question: the mitered sections that frame the center. Traditionally, a Shetlander did those in garter-st based lace, knitting 4 trapezoids. But then, they only had those long double pointed needles. The Romans built their roads to match their war chariots; should we continue to build our roads to match their war chariots just because the roads were so strong and wonderful and the wheel axles made massive ruts? Of course not. And so it is with my knitting.
Having a long circular needle that lets me do all the borders simultaneously, with no joining necessary, I find that an easy decision (it is my knitting after all). And I am going to make a choice to work it in a way that makes it functionally logical and approachable, and pleasing to me.
Which forces the garter vs Stockinette question on me. Knit endlessly in a circle (yes, I know, a square, really) or actually purl every other row to produce garter stitch?
Since my shawl (and many if not most Shetland shawls) has lace worked on every row, and I don't want to do every other row with purl decreases, I reject the purl-every-other-row choice. I'm sorry, but if there is one thing that makes me feel like I am building my modern road to fit a Roman chariot, it is to intentionally choose to do purl decreases instead of knit ones. Also, and I am being honest here, I enjoy lace far more when I knit it all.
What I realized is-- I want to do the borders all in once piece. I want to knit every round. I like both st st and garter based lace. I know I am producing a shawl with one right and one wrong (not really wrong, of course) side. I know the lace will look slightly different in St St. I am fine with that. I can block it flat and the gauge difference on 6 inch wide borders is not terribly significant. This is a lace shawl, after all where gauge (not of railroad track nor Roman roads, but of sts per inch) is dramatically less crucial.
On the other hand, I am getting the lovely mitered corners I want, that require no grafting or picking up of sts, at the miters, nor knitting two together to attach the corner sts at each end of the trapezoids nor any of that. I am getting the joyful pleasure of knitting that flows round and round in a pleasurable way in my hands.
Hence my choices!
I said I'd say more on Shetland stitches, but I am way out of time and space here so that will have to wait. Sorry!
At Camp last year, I had a long conversation with various lace knitting gurus, including Meg Swansen and Bridget Rorem, about Shetland lace, and square shawls.
At the time I was concerned (I forget just why at this point) that the shawl I was thinking about knitting be "authentic." What does that really mean, authentic Shetland lace? To me it means, knit by Shetlanders of Shetland wool in Shetland, truly. More to the point, then, is not "What is authentic?" but, "what do I want to produce in my own 'honor-those-brilliant-Shetland-knitters' rendition of a square shawl?"
The Shetland knitters were (are) realists and brilliant make-it-happen knitters. They had a few basic tools and their wonderful minds and skills, and made truly gorgeous lace. Examining the stunning shawls that were produced in the Shetland lace heydays, one can see that all of it is produced from a few foundational building blocks of stitch constructions. (My appreciation of this is due in part to Hazel Carter's delightful book, Shetland Lace Knitting From Charts. If you are interested in Shetland lace, understanding and working with its building blocks, I highly recommend this book. Sharon Miller's book on lace knitting is a massive and wonderful tome, and I love it, but something about Hazel Carter's book helped me really dig into and appreciate the minds of those Shetlanders and their lace.)
Sorry, long red herring there.
Shetlanders used long double pointed needles and, often, a special belt to hold one end and speed their work. This knitter happens to have access to circular needles; can't I use them? to be authentic do I have to use the same tools they did? Do I have to follow the method they did, working the edging first and then one border and then the center and then another border and so on, ultimately grafting the edging together and possibly the various borders? And only garter lace because, working lace sts on every row, it is way way WAY easier to avoid purl rows? After all, knitting is much faster for some of us than purl; knit decreases are easier than their purl-rendition version (well OK, P 2 tog is way easy. P 2 tog tbl or whatever one calls it (I call it a purled ssk) is slow and annoying) (Uh oh, I just caught myself thinking about ways to make that maneuver easier...) Oops, another bit of wandering off down the garden path.
I think I do not have to do all of that.
There is an old story, and honestly I have no idea whether it is true because my brother told me and, to be funny, he'll say nearly anything. (He does work for a railroad) The story is essentially this: the gauge of railroad is made the gauge it is (size, essentially) because it matches the wheel ruts from the Roman war chariots, which for a time raged all about Europe and, for the story, especially England. Thus the gauge specifications (width between rails, for those who are thinking gauge means stitches per inch) are based on the separation of the wheels of a Roman war chariot, which is the size it is to fit two horses in the traces. Because, of course, early transportation was horse based (and heavy or speedy horse drawn carriages tended to have the horses in pairs)... which produced the wheel axle lengths for early chariots and thus rail road carriages, and so on. Here's Snopes' scoop on it. It does make intriguing reading, humorous as well. But there is a similarity of thought process. The choices of construction and size, method and organization of work, are based on some fundamental items... like tools available, sizes of users, limitations of equipment, etc.
Given that I have circular needles, the ability to chart and keep straight in my head the miters growing on my borders, and that I knit for my own delight: these will affect my choices.
So, since it is my knitting, what do I care about? I do care that it is a lovely pattern. I care that the lace sts I choose live in a symbiotic relationship, that the various parts flow and go together in a pleasing way. I care that it drape and be lovely and warm, that I use only "traditional" Shetland sts (more on this in a minute) and that it be a knit that goes together logistically in a manner pleasing to me. For instance, to choose to do all purl, still producing garter stitch, would be a crazy variation, with no benefit to me as knitter, nor the project. (I do know that some folks would love to work it that way: some people find purl sts faster and easier) To me that would be a nonsensical variation.
But to knit the center first, with a provisional cast on and then do the borders, that makes sense to me with form and function agreeing.
Anyway, that brought me to the borders question: the mitered sections that frame the center. Traditionally, a Shetlander did those in garter-st based lace, knitting 4 trapezoids. But then, they only had those long double pointed needles. The Romans built their roads to match their war chariots; should we continue to build our roads to match their war chariots just because the roads were so strong and wonderful and the wheel axles made massive ruts? Of course not. And so it is with my knitting.
Having a long circular needle that lets me do all the borders simultaneously, with no joining necessary, I find that an easy decision (it is my knitting after all). And I am going to make a choice to work it in a way that makes it functionally logical and approachable, and pleasing to me.
Which forces the garter vs Stockinette question on me. Knit endlessly in a circle (yes, I know, a square, really) or actually purl every other row to produce garter stitch?
Since my shawl (and many if not most Shetland shawls) has lace worked on every row, and I don't want to do every other row with purl decreases, I reject the purl-every-other-row choice. I'm sorry, but if there is one thing that makes me feel like I am building my modern road to fit a Roman chariot, it is to intentionally choose to do purl decreases instead of knit ones. Also, and I am being honest here, I enjoy lace far more when I knit it all.
What I realized is-- I want to do the borders all in once piece. I want to knit every round. I like both st st and garter based lace. I know I am producing a shawl with one right and one wrong (not really wrong, of course) side. I know the lace will look slightly different in St St. I am fine with that. I can block it flat and the gauge difference on 6 inch wide borders is not terribly significant. This is a lace shawl, after all where gauge (not of railroad track nor Roman roads, but of sts per inch) is dramatically less crucial.
On the other hand, I am getting the lovely mitered corners I want, that require no grafting or picking up of sts, at the miters, nor knitting two together to attach the corner sts at each end of the trapezoids nor any of that. I am getting the joyful pleasure of knitting that flows round and round in a pleasurable way in my hands.
Hence my choices!
I said I'd say more on Shetland stitches, but I am way out of time and space here so that will have to wait. Sorry!
Comments
So, your concerns about being real? Maybe you couldn't replicate what they did, BUT, the validity in having the skills YOU have is that you can now keep alive what the knitters knew and produce something beautiful now for us to see and enjoy. More importantly you can pass on your skill to those who want to learn. Keep on knitting!!!