Subscriber Exclusives

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?

To undertake polar expeditions, then as now, appropriate protection was needed against the elements, some of the most severe on earth.

Author James Brown in History of Sanquhar (1891) describes Sanquhar gloves and stockings in the early nineteenth century as “being woven on wires in a peculiar manner,” which presumably means knitted on fine needles.

I developed this pattern after close examination of the artifact “latrine” hat excavated at the Fortress of Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, Canada. Log in to reveal this subscriber-exclusive pattern.

These instructions are based on the information in Barbara Foster’s Learn Needle Tatting, Step by Step (Paxton, Illinois: Handy Hands, 1998), which provides complete step-by-step needle-tatting instructions accompanied by plentiful photographs.

This design is entirely worked in long-arm cross-stitch, the most common stitch found in the extant traditional embroideries of Iceland.

In the Victorian era, it is not entirely surprising that thick paper, or card, was attempted as a ground material for hand embroidery—an important skill for every Victorian lady.

Notre-Dame shines as an example of early Gothic structure with its massive flying buttresses that offset the weight of the tall walls.

Olga Fedorova designed this Orenburg-style lace shawl in 1991. Her sister, Valentina, has been knitting the pattern from memory since then.