Saturday 20 April 2019

France Lambert's Opera Cap

Knitting an Opera Cap

As part of my MA History research I've been looking at a 1843 copy of Miss France Lambert's The hand-book of needlework (John Murray: London) held in the Valda Cowie collection within the University of Reading Special Collections. The book contains several wood-cut illustrations. In order to understand how realistic the illustrations are, I've followed the recipe for knitting an Opera Cap that has this illustration taken the from New York Public Library copy digitised by Google and available via the Hathi Trust website:


There are multiple digital copies available on the internet. The New York Library digitised copy via the Hathi Trust website: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433006773919;view=2up;seq=400 The recipe for the Opera Cap is on pages 375-8 in the New York Public Library edition.

The image shows a scalloped edge surrounding 7 pattern repeated stripes in two colour. After following the recipe the finished cap looks like this:


There is similarity to the illustration though if I tried to replicate the illustration without the recipe then the resulting cap would use a completely different recipe.

As with most Victorian knitting instructions there is an element of experimentation and knowledge expected. The instruction to hem the fancy edges created a yfk2tog picot trim that is common in patterns today, but not yet standard terminology back in 1843. Here is a photo of the reverse of the edge showing the picot edge hem, the reverse of the lace pattern, and one of the braids attached to a corner.


Keeping with the heritage of the project the yarn used is Cochno Farm wool available from the University of Glasgow shop. The wool was created as part of the University's Knitting in the round: hand-knitted textiles and the economies of craft in Scotland project.

Here's a copy of my translation of the pattern

4mm knitting needles (strictly speaking no. 10 is 3.5mm but used 4mm as that works best with the DK yarn I’m using).

Double-knit wool – I’ve used 2 balls of 50g Cochno Farm wool in natural and pink. 

Cast on 74 stitches in white

Border
Purl (74)
Knit (74)
Change to pink. Purl (74)
*yarn forward, k2tog*, repeat to end (74)
Change to white. Purl (74)
Knit (74)
Purl (74)
Knit (74)

1st division (pink)
Purl (74)
Knit, decreasing 1 stitch at each end (72)
Knit
*yarn forward, k2tog*, repeat to end (72)

2nd division (white)
Purl, decreasing 1 stitch at each end (70)
Knit, decreasing 2 stitches at each end (66)
Knit, decreasing 1 stitch at each end (64)
*yarn forward, k2tog*, repeat to end (64)

3rd division (pink)
Purl, decreasing 1 stitch at each end (62)
Knit, decreasing 1 stitch at each end (60)
Knit (60)
*yarn forward, k2tog*, repeat to end (60)

4th (white)
Purl, decreasing 1 stitch at each end (58)
Knit, decreasing 1 stitch at each end (56)
Knit (56)
*yarn forward, k2tog*, repeat to end (56)

5th (pink)
Purl, decreasing 1 stitch at each end (54)
Knit, decreasing 1 stitch at each end (52)
Knit (52)
*yarn forward, k2tog*, repeat to end (52)

6th (white)
Purl, decreasing 1 stitch at each end (50)
Knit, decreasing 1 stitch at each end (48)
Knit (48)
*yarn forward, k2tog*, repeat to end (48)

7th (pink)
Purl, decreasing 1 stitch at each end (46)
Knit, decreasing 1 stitch at each end (44)
Knit (44)
*yarn forward, k2tog*, repeat to end (44)

8th (white) 
Purl (44)
Knit, decreasing 1 stitch at each end (42)
Knit (42)
*yarn forward, k2tog*, repeat to end (42)

9th (pink)
Purl (42)
Knit, decreasing 1 stitch at each end (40)
Knit (40)
*yarn forward, k2tog*, repeat to end (40)

You should have 40 stitches

Pick up 30 stitches each side (30 + 40 + 30). Knit a border along all three remaining sides to match the border along the cast-on edge:

Change to white. Knit
Purl
Knit
Change to pink. Purl
*yarn forward, k2tog*, repeat to end
Change to white. Purl
Knit
Purl

Cast-off loosely

Wash, block and steam.
Make up the cap by folding over the edge at the yf2tog row and sew edge to body to make a picot-edge hem.
Make up plaits or use ribbons and attach at the 4 corners. Place over the head and tie behind and under the chin.

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