Travellers to South America in the 1800s brought flowers made from feathers home to Europe or the USA. Feather flowers were displayed in the London Great Exhibition of 1851, and over the next few years instructions for making your own appeared in various ladies’ magazines. The Victorians had a taste for novelty crafts that ornamented [more...]
Once upon a time the answer was always “No”. Strictly speaking, Fair Isle knitting is one particular kind of multi-colour stranded knitting from the Shetland Islands and nearby Fair Isle. Nowadays the name is spreading and you may find Fair Isle, or fairisle, used to mean almost any style of stranded knitting. Click through to [more...]
Fair Isle and the neighbouring island group of Shetland, on the northern fringes of the UK, have their own traditional styles of multicolour knitting. Local experts can tell the difference between the two, but the designs are so closely related that most people treat them as one single tradition. The early history wasn’t written down, [more...]
Lopi comes from the distinctive Icelandic sheep. Their fleeces have two layers, each with its own kind of wool. The sheep’s outer coat is water-repellent wool made up of long, tough fibres (called tog) and the under coat is highly insulating, made up of fine, soft wool (called thel or þel). The two fibres are [more...]
A bonnet made of wood? Yes, the chip in 18th and 19th century chip bonnets and hats was actually made from thin strips of shaved wood. It was used by hat-makers in a similar way to braided straw, and so was sometimes called “chip straw” or “chip braid”. But it was still wood. It could [more...]
Lace knitting is often at its best in shawls. It drapes nicely round the shoulders, while the lacy patterns show up clearly across the back. The design, skill, and hours of work have created a beautiful, easy to wear, warmly luxurious wrap. Although knitted lace can also be used for other projects, delicate, elaborate, lacy [more...]
The most delicate Shetland shawls can indeed be pulled through a wedding ring. Knitted in cobweb lace patterns, from finely-spun wool, a shawl 6 feet square (1.8 metres) may weigh as little as 2 ounces (57 grams). To make one the traditional way, you need to know that the finest fleece comes from the sheep’s [more...]
Every rag rug is a unique hand-made piece of craftwork, and so it seems ironic that new industrial methods of textile production gave rag rug-making a big boost in the 19th century. Rugs made from strips of cloth existed well before factories began producing cheap fabric, but not in anything like the same quantity. Even [more...]