On Friday Marie and I again examined the Dales gloves in the Gawthorpe Hall textile collection. This time we learned that the way the floating yarn is trapped in the name-band differs from the method used in two-handed stranded colourwork. We’ve worked out that the only way to efficiently replicate the way floats are trapped in these gloves requires knitting with both yarns held in the working hand, aka ‘English knitting method’.
Knitters may think that surely it should be obvious that a Yorkshire Dales knitter in the 19th and early 20th century would knit this way? Well, not necessarily. In the 1890s Henrietta Ryder of Swaledale recommended the two-handed method of colourwork that I long ago adopted myself. She also described how to trap floats without dropping the yarns when knitting this way. However, Miss Ryder was a wealthy member of the gentry writing for middle class hobby knitters, not a working class Daleswoman using knitting for personal survival. It is apparent that there were significant differences between what Miss Ryder taught and how knitters in the Dales cottage knitting industry worked.
Because of what I have learned from examining her work, I am now certain that Mary Allen, knitting with a Dentdale knitting sheath, knitted her beautiful Dales gloves with both yarns held in her right hand. She always stranded light yarn below dark, even in the ribbed cuff. How the hell then did she purl?
Here’s my answer!
I’ve only knitted this way for a total of about two hours in my whole life, so am not yet proficient, and I am not working with a sheath. Mary will have been much faster than this.
I do two-colour knitting this way, both stocking stitch and ribbing. I worked it out for myself about 3 years ago so am interested to see it has a history. Continental-style knitting aggravates a left shoulder problem I have, so the two-handed stranding method isn’t comfortable for me for long periods.