tresses vol. iii

Extraordinary. 
These sorts of photos remind you that the Victorians were real people too.
They mucked around with cameras and took silly photographs just like we do.
See more of that kind here.

wool foot vol. iii

Image 1 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Image 2 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Image 3 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Image 4 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Image 5 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Image 6 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Image 7 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Image 8 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

We were at a small village market the other day and there were hand-made socks on sale on one stall for 5 Euros. My friends were balking at the price, but I feel I have to lead the defensive on this - do you have any idea how long these things take to knit? And you have to make two of them…

While rummaging around on the V&A Search the Images I stumbled across these beautiful images of socks and stockings from across the centuries. Once you start to learn just how to make these things, you start to appreciate them as small but wonderous (and somewhat unappreciated?) works of art. 

Images 1 and 2 have bible mottos woven into the upper part of the stocking. These were both most likely produced for the Great Exhibition to show the high quality that manufacturers' machines were capable of. 

Image 3, 4, 5 show socks produced in Egypt in 250-420 AD, 410-540 AD and 200-499 AD respectively. They all use the single needle method of knitting which was much more time consuming than knitting with two needles and more like a form of sewing to knitting with two needles. The double-toed design meant that they could be worn with sandals, although the patching shows that wear and tear was common, though the socks were repeatedly mended.

Image 6 has little information but was knitted  in England in 1838.

Image 7 shows a pair of women's stockings made of knitted silk, in Spain, during the mid 18th century.

Image 8 shows a pair of hand-knitted men's stockings in coloured wools, produced in Kashmir in the 19th century.

it grows vol. iv

Modeled by Peter Pan himself, the sock is complete. Finished a couple of days ago but forgot to photograph it. It comes complete with grass and other small scraps of nature and smells of sheep and hedges and woodsmoke. Perfect for a boy who would rather not wear socks at all, but this way gets to spend all year round treading on meadows.

Now, onward with the much larger shadow. And the writing…

it grows vol. iii

it grows vol. ii

it grows vol. i

So imagine you are looking at the top of a sock…

The left image is as if you were looking at the sock from its toe towards the heel, the right image is looking from the heel towards the toe…

You will note that I have managed to knit in a round…

And how to shape what is the beginning of the heel…

Onward.

I actually feel like I'm learning something.

(From this pattern here, using these tutorials here.)

night work

Knitting by lamplight: never a good thing… And it turns out I'll need bigger needles anyway, so a trip to Helsinki tomorrow is well timed. At least I now know how to knit in a round with double-pointed needles, so all is not lost. First challenge: check! 

(I realise that to anyone who doesn't knit, this seems meaningless and mundane. But I can assure you that it's no mean feat. A lot of swearing at you-tube videos late last night is testament to this. It's a good reminder for me in my lecturing role that telling people that something looks really complicated 'but is actually soooo easy' is utterly irritating and guaranteed to wind them up…)

dear, dear shadow…

 

Trying to get a sense of what this piece might 'be'…
A day just spent drawing.
Easier (more fun? more therapeutic?) to draw than write.
Sometimes.

But it's been a long time since I drew. 
And I need to do it more.

So. Like this. Only knitted. Full size. 
And the socks part will stand upright, whilst the shadow part will lay flat.

wool foot

  

 

 

Looking around trying to find good patterns for socks, to develop my Shadows of a Man project… This will be one of a series of three-dimensional and drawn pieces that will fwork in conjuction with The Paper Museum. (At some point I will try to actually explain this whoel project, when I've managed to formulate the words - and the idea - myself.)

Have never knitted socks before. Looking at all the variations out there I am now reasonably skeptical that I'll be able to pull it off. Always just fumbled my way through before, or made it up - but this looks intricate and complex. Deep breath.

These images all from this site.

scout. felt. patch

Pre-war handmade girl scout badges. 

I want to make some myself for a project…

pressed whites / pressed ghosts

I have such marvelous friends who seek out such treats for me. This one from H who found it over two years ago and has only now been able to meet up and give it to me. A book of stitchery with the finest plates. Reminds me of this, from way back.

'With these simple stitches the needle has plied its way, at once the most useful, intimate and democratic of all implements, uniting people of every class, colour, creed, and country… and so the wonder-working needle, with its many-tinted threads in all kinds and qualities of textures, has woven the thoughts, feelings, hopes, fears, doubts and aspirations of countless millions of people, young and old, in making and decorating the simplest homely garment, the grandest ceremonial vestments, or the highest imaginative symbols of Church and State.'

A good sentiment for the season. 

Mostly though I was interested in the crisp, pressed white forms on the black backgrounds, and thought back to my old Ghosts of Stockings work from ages back.

passing time vol. i

Jumper knitted by Philip Furse for his friend Gordon Partridge

Lighthousekeeper Harold Taylor and his knitted jumper of the Trinity House crest. 

From Woman's Own  April 1977

A birthday trip on a real howler of a day: Falmouth's National Maritime Museum. Can't believe I never made it there before now. Excellent tea-towels for sale depicting an array of knottage, formidable views and awe-invoking boat displays. And a good show about lighthouses, particularly the bit that explored how lighthouse keepers filled their long days.

So, a return to those ganseys and knit-frocks. 
But also some of the thoughts the other Lizzie and I had about passing time for Tanks & Tablecloths ages ago. There's a long, long history of this sort of stuff. Will try and dig a bit more of it out soon.

studies in indirect communication vol. xiv: a device to frame a mouth

Fancy-dress leftovers.

a maker of cloth

I've just finished listening to this on the Radio 4 website: Ismini Samanidou, a colleague and friend here in Falmouth, talking to Sandi Toksvig on Excess Baggage about narrative in weaving. An erudite and passionate interview, that certainly states the case for traveling.

the duties of cloth

Cotton sleeve puff stuffed with down © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Cage crinoline © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Dress fabric from Robinson's Mourning Warehouse © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Some more visible spaces / voids / absences / vacancies all found in Search the Collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. 

two undulations

All images © The Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences (St Petersburg), The State Hermitage Museum & the State Russian Museum, University of Amsterdam.

the wild things

All images © The Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences (St Petersburg), The State Hermitage Museum & the State Russian Museum, University of Amsterdam.

We went to see Where the Wild Things Are the other evening. I loved it despite what some of the critics have said. These images from The Paper Museum of the Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg reminded me of the beasts and of Max's animal suit.

ghosts of stockings revisited

   

I've become interested in the idea of the 'paper museum' lately and will upload a series of images from The Paper Museum of the Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg over the next week or so. Chiefly my interest lies in the idea of a museum that exists as it's own documentation: a record of items collected, drawn on paper. I'm not sure whether my idea of a paper museum is a well-coined concept, but I certainly need to look into it when timetables allow. In the meantime, enjoy some stocking and foot-related attire - and if you ever find a copy of The Paper Museum (it's in limited supply and expensive to buy) then do spend some time with its contents. Absoloutely lovely.

All images © The Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences (St Petersburg), the State Hermitage Museum & the State Russian Museum, University of Amsterdam.