Recently Marie bought two books to add to our antique knitting books collection. They were the first and second series of “The Knitted Lace Collar Receipt Book”. We already had the third. “Book” is a bit of an exaggeration, as really these are very small booklets, containing 4 patterns each, so altogether they contain 12 lace collar patterns with the pattern numbering continuing through the three booklets.
I’ve wanted to knit a lace collar for a while, and these new acquisitions prompted me to cast on with No. 16 cotton on 1.25mm needles (the pattern instructs No. 32 cotton and No. 15 needles). I settled on collar No. 7 (from the “second series”), and after a few repeats following the pattern as written I corrected the errors (lots of misplaced purls) in the pattern, then I swatched the recommended edging for the collar (no errors in that).
The pattern instructs the two pieces (lace and edging) to be knitted separately then sewn together. I of course prefer knitting seamlessly, so that’s what I did; knit a few repeats of edging, pick up sts from it for the main lace, work some short rows to add fullness for the corners, then work short rows to join the edging to the end of the lace. Lots of fun for brain and needles!
I wanted two mirrored collars separated at front and back instead of just one collar for the whole neck circumference. So I also worked out how to mirror the edging (much simpler than it sounds).
At some point I will make a blouse to attach the collars to. So I will have collars based on an 1840s pattern to attach to a blouse made on an 1890s sewing machine. Pure Victorian!
