My friend Cindy Miller asked me to rework and rewrite instructions for a mitten pattern knit by her great-grandmother. Laura Rapin (known as Dora to family and friends) was born November 24, 1870, to Francis Exavier and Emily Ranger Rapin. At age 22, Dora married Paul LeRoux, and the young couple struck out on their own to live in Rensselaer, New York, returning to their families, and their roots, 12 years later. Both the Rapin and LeRoux families lived most of their lives in Ogdensburg, New York, near the St. Lawrence Seaway and Canadian border.
Both sides of Dora LeRoux’s family—that is, the family she married into, the LeRouxes, and her own family, the Rapins—were master-plumber tradesmen. The plumbing shop, which stood at 320 Isabella Street in Ogdensburg, passed from the hands of Francis Rapin (Mrs. LeRoux’s father) to her husband, Paul, which kept the business in the family.
Mrs. LeRoux typed the original mitten pattern, “Directions for Making Sports Mittens,” on the backside of a piece of stationery used for estimates on contract work from the plumber’s shop. One can imagine her sitting down at the desk to look at the invoices for the day, then quickly remembering she promised to type out her pattern. Upon initial inspection, it seemed evident to me that the pattern was typed quickly and was a pattern Mrs. LeRoux had made often (I had to first draw my hand in my notebook to help me visualize what she was conveying between her sentence fragments and rote knowledge).
The pattern was placed in an envelope and labeled “Knitting Pattern” in Mrs. LeRoux’s neat script. Years later, Mrs. LeRoux’s granddaughter, Jacqueline LeRoux Sears, mistakenly labeled the envelope “for Grandma,” instead of “from Grandma.” The untouched pattern remained with the family in a desk drawer or box until Jacqueline’s daughter, Cindy Sears Miller, first brought the pattern to my attention and asked if I might be able to decipher it.
The original pattern, which is over one hundred years old, consists of a few typed lines that have little or no punctuation. The several run-on sentences made it challenging to decipher. There is also a hole in the middle of the fragile page. Three generations of nonknitters stood between Mrs. LeRoux and me as I began to learn her pattern and to try to knit an iconic family pattern.
Mrs. LeRoux knit this pattern exclusively for her family in what the original pattern calls for “Germantown or knitting worster [sic] and using No. 14 needles.” These are not hefty US 14 needles, but rather European size 14s, which are equivalent to tiny US 0 needles! Imagine my surprise at the thought of working a worsted-weight over such small needles, until I recalled the harshness of Ogdensburg winters.
The average snowfall in Ogdensburg is very deep, with overnight temperatures in the single digits during the winter and a dampness from the Seaway that magnifies the season’s bitterness. Mrs. LeRoux’s father, husband, and son—all master plumbers—were working in biting temperatures and carrying heavy metal pipe wrenches (some of them three or four feet long) in that freeze. They needed strong, durable mittens knit at a dense gauge that could stand the work and protect their hands.
Mrs. LeRoux’s original copy of the pattern. Photo courtesy of Cynthia Miller
Twenty-First-Century Remake
I decided to make a mock-up of the pattern using size 7 needles with worsted-weight yarn just to familiarize myself with the flow of the language and the directions. My results were large; however, I wanted a visual example of the mittens. I then decided to quell my trepidation of working a worsted-weight yarn on the small needles as suggested in the original pattern and chose to trust Mrs. LeRoux. I obtained a gauge of six stitches per inch with both size 0 and size 1 double-pointed needles. I opted for the size 1 and was very satisfied with my results.
“Germantown” worsted-weight (a twenty-first-century interpretation of a stalwart historic wool yarn) was selected as a perfect substitute for the original yarn. Cindy Sears Miller picked the colorway of Medium Gray Heather, as it was she and her brother who remembered their great-grandfather Paul wearing a gray pair of the mittens knit by his wife, Dora.
Left: Dora Rapin at age 17. Right: Dora and Paul LeRoux. Photos courtesy of Cynthia Miller
A Family Inspired
Several family members tried on the finished mitten, including Mrs. LeRoux’s great-granddaughter Cindy and her son Matthew Miller. The mitten fit all of us comfortably. Several remarked on the flexible fit in the hand and the warmth the extended cuff would provide. We are all fans, with both old and new knitters eager to cast on for their own pair! The reader may be certain that Mrs. LeRoux’s great-great-great-grandson Leo will be stocked up on mittens from both me and Cindy (Leo’s grandmothers) as we create more wonderful family heirlooms in the years to come.
This article was originally meant to surprise Cindy and her family with the documentation of an obscure part of their family history. I could no longer contain the excitement of Dora LeRoux’s story without Cindy’s invaluable help and confirmation on specific aspects. Cindy contributed photos and provided anecdotes to help me gain a better sense of Paul and Dora LeRoux’s life together in Ogdensburg. This fun project turned into a wonderful bonding experience, and I couldn’t have done this without her.
Interested in making your own pair of mittens? Find the pattern along with this article in the Winter 2022 issue of PieceWork.
Also, remember that if you are an active subscriber to PieceWork magazine, you have unlimited access to previous issues, including Winter 2022. See our help center for the step-by-step process on how to access them.
Karen Penders St. Clair received her doctorate from Cornell University for her work on the original manuscript of the autobiography of nature study educator Anna Botsford Comstock. As the twenty-first-century editor of The Comstocks of Cornell: The Definitive Autobiography, Karen returned Comstock’s original voice to her manuscript and was equally passionate about returning Dora LeRoux’s voice to her family. Karen is a historical enthusiast and fourth-generation needleworker proficient in crochet, knitting, many forms of embroidery, and other handwork.