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Estonian Lace Part 2 - S1E4
127 Plays5 years ago
In the first half of this episode we delve into the specific construction methods and stitches used in traditional Estonian Lace knitting. Then, we’ll discuss how to finish the wings of the Zetland shawl!
Links
- Knitted Lace of Estonia by Nancy Bush
- To get your copy of the pattern, and knit-a-long head over to Rachel’s pattern store on Ravelry (https://www.ravelry.com/designers/rachel-roden)
- To get the yarn Rachel recommends, head over to Jimmy Beans Wool (https://www.jimmybeanswool.com/knitting/yarn/BichesetBuches/LePetitLambswool.asp?showLarge=true&specPCVID=91487)
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Transcript
Introduction to Historical Yarns Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
You're listening to the Archaeology Podcast Network. Welcome to the Historical Yarns podcast, the show where we talk about knitting from the past and bring it into the present.
00:00:21
Speaker
Welcome to episode four of season one of the historical yarns
Exploration of Estonian Lace Knitting
00:00:25
Speaker
podcast. I'm Rachel Rodin. And I'm Heather Boyd. And today we are continuing our discussion of the Estonian tradition of lace knitting.
00:00:38
Speaker
In episode three, we talked about the origins of Estonian lace and some of the geography and basically how it came about and how it's practiced. And today we're going to talk more about the specific stitches in each project and how each shawl is constructed.
00:00:54
Speaker
Yep, and Estonian lace is, of course, it's got its own different interesting things and quirks about it. But I think the first thing I want to mention is that it is on a stockinette stitch foundation. So we talked about how Schottland is a garter stitch foundation where you knit every row. And back. Uh-huh. Stockinette is knit on the right side and then you're purling on the wrong side.
00:01:18
Speaker
And what you get with that of course is a rust row basically on the wrong side where you're purling back. And that's one of the ways that we can tell that Estonian lace is a slightly newer tradition than some of the other ones because it's almost completely constructed of that type of patterning.
Stockinette vs. Garter Stitch Differences
00:01:35
Speaker
There's not patterning on both sides of the
00:01:38
Speaker
And if you're trying to get a visual of what that looks like, most machine knit items look like stockinette, what we would call stockinette. So it's a flat look, all the stitches look exactly the same on one side of the fabric and the back sides all look the same as well.
00:01:54
Speaker
Yeah, they line up in little V's, but of course you've got lace thrown into the mix here, so it's going to move those stitches around or whatever, but that's the foundation of it. And then in addition to being stockinette, which actually before I move on from stockinette, it actually creates a whole
00:02:11
Speaker
it makes the whole thing really different because stockinette is a stitch that is more vertical like it stretches out more vertically as opposed to garter which because of the way the stitches like lock up next to each other when you're knitting on every row it's a compressed stitch vertically so I almost feel like with Estonian lace you can
00:02:32
Speaker
you knit fewer, well you do knit fewer rows for a stony lace than you do for the other types just because of that elongated stitch that you get from stockinette. So keep that in mind, right? That's not quite as stretchy. Yeah, yeah. So can move through it a little quicker. Fewer rows anyway.
Challenges and Techniques for Noops
00:02:51
Speaker
And then with the knitting itself, of course, Estonian lace has some distinctive stitches. And I think the biggest thing that really differentiates it from other lace knitings is the noop. And I will spell that N-U-P-P. It's a weird word. You'll know it when you see it. It's one of those things that is instantly recognizable when you're looking at a knitted item. And if you know what a bobble is, that kind of helps.
00:03:19
Speaker
Yeah, it like creates a 3D element to your knitting kind of and similar to Bobbles it it adds like like you basically work a noop into you create like let's say it's a five stitch noop you create five stitches out of one.
00:03:37
Speaker
for the noop all in one row. And then on your way back on the wrong side, you're gonna purl all of those stitches that you created together. So it creates this like little bunch of fabric that you push towards the right side of your work. And when you take those little 3D elements and you arrange them in interesting ways, it just creates a really, really unique fabric, I think. It almost looks like little pearls on the fabric there. Yeah, it's cool. My wedding shawl was covered in noops. So I got real up close and personal.
00:04:08
Speaker
And I don't think you've knitted an oop since. I don't think I have either. They're definitely not in the pattern, the Zetlin pattern, partly because they're not Zetlin, but also because, you know, they're an endeavor. So what happened for me when I was knitting them is that
00:04:27
Speaker
I would be too tight. I would, cause you're, when you create five stitches out of one or seven or nine or however many it is for the noop, you're basically like knitting into the stitch and then wrapping your yarn around your needle and then knitting it again and wrapping it around. So you're creating those extra stitches by putting your needle back into the same stitch a million times. And it is so easy to do that really, really, really tightly, which seems fine in the moment.
00:04:50
Speaker
And then you get to the other side. But then you have to purl all those stitches together, and oh my gosh, when they're super tight like that, it's impossible to get your needle in there. I think I had a crochet hook out at one point, because I just couldn't do it with needles. That makes sense. Yeah, I would grab them with the crochet hook, and that was the only way I could pull the yarn through. So trials and tribulations of knitting loops right there. You learn pretty quick to keep it real loose, though, because after that first row that you struggle through,
00:05:15
Speaker
Yeah, it's not fun. But they're worth it in the end, right? Oh, yeah, they're still beautiful. They really are. Like that Greta Garbo shawl that we were talking about in the last episode, that flower motif is made up all of noobs. And it's so beautiful, the way they arrange them in the shape of a flower using this 3D effect. And I just think that's really, really neat, how they use that instead of yarn overs or your typical lace stitches to do that.
00:05:42
Speaker
It makes for way more combinations in your lace knitting too. It does. Adding loops into some of the stitches and you come up with so many different other patterns. Yeah, there's so much variety like in the Knitted Lace of Estonia book by Nitsi Bush, right? Yeah, that was one of our sources we used for this episode and like all those patterns in there are just so beautiful and I want to knit pretty much all of them. Maybe someday when I've got a lot of time because they are very time consuming but they're
Sharing and Innovation in Knitting Traditions
00:06:08
Speaker
beautiful.
00:06:08
Speaker
And speaking of patterns, one thing that I love reading about Estonian knitting is how they came up with their patterns and passed them along. Yeah, it was a clear sign of the community that was built around this technique. What they would do is they would have these samples, these samplers. Each woman or each family would have a sampler with all their different stitches on it. And then when they wanted to learn a new stitch, they would give their sampler to somebody else.
00:06:35
Speaker
to study so that other person would study all the stitches on their sampler. And then before giving it back, they would add a new stitch to the bottom of it. So then, you'd get your sampler back and there's a new stitch that you can learn at the bottom of your sampler, which I just love the idea that I think it is so, so neat that that's how they treated ideas. That's a way to, I mean, you literally have it recorded right there. I mean, no written instructions. So you would have to be able to read your knitting really well, which is how we say, to look at a stitch and know what it is.
00:07:04
Speaker
But you have this permanent example of all the different types of stitches that are possible. And you can even turn it into a beautiful garment that you would wear, you know, such as a scarf or a shawl even. I love that. I think it's so cool. And it's really interesting to think of how they they just approached their knitting from a totally different place because like I feel like a lot of knitters today don't really know how to read their knitting. They're just sort of following instructions, right? Which is fine. That's that's fine. And that's great if that's how you're knitting. But they didn't have
00:07:34
Speaker
You know patterns like we have them now written patterns and stuff like that. Yeah, so they had to just understand how the stitches were constructed and how they went together and how they could get whatever shape it was that they were going for and I Think the understanding the depth of understanding there is is really interesting and cool Once again, another reason why I love learning about this stuff because it's like it's like goals, you know Knitting goals like understand that knitting to that level is really really cool
00:08:05
Speaker
So then that's the stitches. And of course they had, in addition to noobs, we really focused on that, but they had their other similar things to like what the Shetland Island folks had. You know, they've got their shapes, the nature inspired shapes, ferns and leaves and all those sorts of things. X's, you see a lot of X's. And they also created a lot of stitches for whatever reason. Like they would, they just whipped out a new stitch when they wanted it to represent something. So they were very versatile in that respect. They were always making new stitches.
00:08:34
Speaker
So and then as far as construction, they, of course, are similar to some of the Shetland shawls in Orenburg, which we haven't talked about yet, but we will.
Historical Techniques and Practicality
00:08:45
Speaker
They have the center and a border. So the center always has a garter stitch frame around it. And garter, if you remember, is where you knit.
00:08:54
Speaker
every stitch and they basically would knit a couple of garter stitch rows in the beginning and then they would line it all the way up with garter and then end the piece with garter too. So you have a garter frame all the way around it. So they knit the frame at the same time as they knitted the center square. Yeah, it was all done at the same time.
00:09:11
Speaker
And they usually were squares for the center, right? I mean, more modern ones have triangular patterns are also made into scarves like rectangular. Yeah, these were almost always square. And we've sort of branched out with the more modern techniques. But also they I.
00:09:30
Speaker
From what I understand they also seem to have pioneered the crochet provisional cast on which is pretty common in knitting patterns and it's just a way to cast on stitches and you do it using a crochet hook and when you're done you can go back and unzip we call it that crochet chain and you end up with live stitches on your needles so it's a really great way to not have to seam basically.
00:09:56
Speaker
It's like a way to preserve the stitches in their size so that you can get them back on the needle and continue knitting with them. Or, you know, start knitting in a different direction, actually, and put on a border or whatever. Yeah. Because that's what they would be doing. They would leave their stitches live at the end after they finish the center square. And then they'd go back and pull out the provisional stitches from the beginning. And then the only thing they need to do is pick up stitches up the side. And that's how they would get all the stitches they needed
00:10:24
Speaker
on the needles for doing the border. And of course, these were talking like 100 years ago in most cases. So they didn't have circular needles yet. They were doing this in pieces. So I think they would do each side, all four sides separately, and then seam the edges together. And having the live stitches is essential for a special stitch that knitters use called Kitchener, which they use to put these borders on. And it makes an invisible,
00:10:52
Speaker
join basically. Like it's almost like knitting a new row but with just one strand of thread going through two sets of live stitches. Yep. Yeah, so that was pretty crucial for that. And then you get you've got more modern techniques that you'll see in patterns where you you pick up the stitches and
00:11:10
Speaker
stuff like that. But the traditional way was with the grafting and all the live stitches and all that. So it really does seem to be like a limitation of the needles. They just were really clever with how they figured out how to make these giant pieces using just needles that were actually pretty short, like maybe 10 inches. And the more I think about it, like the more practical it really is to carry around a small piece of knitting and work on it.
00:11:35
Speaker
Oh, true. Than it is a giant shawl. So maybe that's why they still do it that way. Yeah. Maybe we shouldn't be so afraid of singing. Yeah. Because I guess it's like anything else. Once you get good at it, you're probably fast at it quicker. Yeah. There's a rhythm to grafting and kitchen research. I kind of love grafting. I'm going to go ahead and say those words. You don't have to go that far, Rachel. I hope nobody will immediately stop listening to this podcast because I said that.
00:12:03
Speaker
No, I do. I've always liked it. And I think it's because it's just kind of magical when you pull the yarn, and it just zips those stitches up. And you can't even tell you've put a seam there. It's really cool. That's what it is. You may not like the process of it. And I'm sure I've dropped plenty of curse words doing some grafting. But at the end, you're like, no, that's smart. Magical. That's genius. Yeah, I love it. It's like knitting magic. Yeah, totally.
00:12:28
Speaker
And then the only other things to know about the construction is that they often would bind off double-stranded, and I think that was just a way to give it a little bit of more structure around the edges. It does make the edge sturdier, especially when you're talking about blocking these huge pieces, because they used a similar technique to Shetland where they had frames, right, with pins on the outside that the
00:12:53
Speaker
that they would hook the like, yeah, the little scallop edges. The edge of the square was hooked to all these little pins and had to be stretched within an inch of its life to open up all these lace motifs and everything. So there's no way you want your edge breaking on you with this like cobweb yarn. Oh God, that would be horrible. Yeah. To go back and sew all those stitches again would just be too much. I had a, I had a thread break on me in a shawl.
00:13:17
Speaker
Now it wasn't it wasn't lace or it was just a thin point in the yarn and it broke While I was blocking it like I walked away and came back and there's like a giant hole in the middle of the lake. Oh, no I just grabbed some more of the yarn and I just sort of like
00:13:35
Speaker
So I kind of duplicate stitched it almost like following the line of stitches Yeah, it was it was Noro yarn if you ever worked with it It's very thick and thin and I just was a thin spot that just remember my drink about the fabric glue Oh, I know. I wish I'd known about that back then. Well, I still have that shawl and I still wear it So whatever I did closed it up. Well, no good apart anymore
00:14:03
Speaker
But anyway, talk about times where you want to cry over your knitting. When I walk back into the room, there's a big hole in it. I know, right? Well, that makes you wonder if these women learned that the hard way, too. Yeah, maybe. Put a double border on your shawl. Uh-huh, yep. So if you didn't have that trick in your handbag, now you do, thanks to Estonian knitting. There you go. All righty.
Modern vs. Traditional Knitting Techniques
00:14:23
Speaker
Well, we're going to take a short break, and then we will come back and talk about the next section of the knit-along shawl.
00:14:29
Speaker
Welcome back to episode four. We are going to talk about section four of the Zetland shawl in this section, and that is Z-E-T-L-A-N-D. You can get your pattern on Ravelry. So head over there, grab it so you can catch up with us. If you haven't listened to the previous episodes, you might want to go back and listen to those as well because we break down your materials and yarn and the first couple of sections of the pattern as well. So head over, listen to those, and then come back and
00:14:55
Speaker
Join with us, grab your knitting. Definitely want you to be knitting while we're talking about knitting, right? Yeah, that was the whole idea. Yeah. Something to listen to while you're knitting. Exactly, always knitting. Okay, so section four is going to be, oh, let's call it decreasing for the corners.
00:15:15
Speaker
We have this kind of crazy shape going on right now, which starts with a square in the middle, and then it kind of comes out in a pointed shape from the diamond. So you, of course, have to bring that diamond shape back to a rectangle-ish, as we will discuss in a minute. It's rectangle-ish. It's as rectangle as you want it to be. It is as rectangle-ish. We'll say it that way. Yeah, there you go.
00:15:39
Speaker
So you're going to decrease the two corners separately. Again, this is going to be saving some stitches for later and knitting part of it and then going back and knitting the other part. And that's how you decrease your two corners separately. And I honestly did this on one needle. The stitches that were on hold for the second corner just kind of stayed on the needle. Didn't bother me in the least. I just left them sitting on that needle while I decreased the other side.
00:16:04
Speaker
Now, if having extra stitches on the needle is something that you don't like or that might bother you, you can always pull them off onto a spare needle or onto waste yarn too. So that is always an option. You can even tie a little piece of waste yarn right at the edge so you remember to turn and don't like knit across your extra stitches or something like that if you're like a TV knitter like many of us are.
00:16:28
Speaker
You know, if you are listening to this podcast and you're just so enthralled by our historical discussions of order, right? You just knit right past that point with the turn point. You might accidentally knit too far, so you could put something there to stop yourself and just remind yourself those stitches are not for right now. It's like a little visual hand slap, like, no, don't touch it.
00:16:49
Speaker
Yeah, I didn't put this in the pattern because it would have gotten complicated with the pattern writing, but you can always leave a stitch marker there and just know that when you get to that marker, that's your turn point. And eventually you'll be far enough away from it that it'll be obvious that you're turning and you won't need that visual marker anymore. There'll be a huge gap there. Yeah, exactly. But it's good to have that visual reminder of the stitch marker or the piece of waste yarn or like something to remind yourself that you don't want to keep knitting here. You want to turn your work.
00:17:16
Speaker
Yeah. Or if you sit down, uh, if you sit your knitting down and don't pick it up for several days, it kind of helps you like find your place again, like where you should be knitting and where you should not be knitting. Yeah. Yeah. Like how many times have you picked up your knitting and like gone the wrong direction? Oh my gosh. Yeah.
00:17:34
Speaker
Even that happens even in the most experienced meters. It does. It really does. Yes, it does. And you're like, what? Short row in the middle of my work? Perfect. Anyway, in this technique, it is particularly easy to do that because the first couple of rows, at least, are kind of exactly like short rows because you're turning in the middle of your work. So it sort of feels like you're doing short rows, even though you're actually decreasing to get to a point at the corner.
00:17:57
Speaker
So yeah, that's how we're gonna do that. And the stitch pattern you're using, we're still in lace, but we're going back to the same stitch pattern that we used for the center square. Yeah, and that's it. So you already know how to do that stitch pattern. You just gotta remember to do your decreases as you go. And before you know it, you will be all done. Yeah, because you're knitting your garter stitch edge at the same time. So you don't have to go back and do any sort of edge finishing. When you bind off the corners, you're done with that side of the shawl.
00:18:26
Speaker
Yeah, I kept that in the kind of similar tradition to Shetland designs because one of the things I was reading about them when we were researching is that they had very little casting on and binding off to do because they did so much grafting and joining and picking up stitches and that kind of stuff. So while this is definitely not
00:18:48
Speaker
those type of traditional techniques because they didn't do circular knitting or any of that kind of stuff and the increasing and decreasing. They did almost no increasing and decreasing. They did flat pieces that were joined together. But I did try to keep the whole like not having a lot of bind off and cast off or cast on stuff to do.
00:19:07
Speaker
And I noticed you didn't include a lace border on the edge, which would be, you know, you may be looking at this if you're an experienced knitter and thinking, where is that border that's traditional Shetland shawls? But I really like it without it. Yeah. And, you know, honestly, anybody can grab a stitch dictionary and pick out a lace border and pick it up along the edge if they want to do that. And you could even go all the way around the entire length of the piece if you wanted to.
00:19:31
Speaker
I decided not to because, again, trying to use traditional patterns in a modern way, I just didn't feel like the lace border really suited the modern aesthetic of the shawl. So I left it off. I actually cast it on and tried it a little bit just to see, and I just decided no.
Creative Shawl Design and Styling
00:19:50
Speaker
Also, as we alluded to before, the shape is rectangular-ish. And that's because the points, though, just the way that it's constructed, the points
00:20:01
Speaker
They end up going very pointy, almost. How do I describe that? Before blocking, anyway. Yeah, before blocking. It almost looks like a mermaid tail a little bit. Yeah, mermaid tail. Well, and you can leave it like that, too, because it's an interesting shape. It's going to fit nicely over your arm when it drapes down over your arm. And mermaids are very in right now, as my two-year-old daughter would tell you. Because she's learning to dress herself, and she very often puts both legs through one hole of her pants.
00:20:30
Speaker
And instead of getting upset about it, she just says, mommy, I'm a mermaid. So we love mermaids. So yeah, I would say it was a happy accident that it turned out that way. But I like having the two kind of elongated points because it is a little bit more interesting when you wrap it around your neck or if you've got it draped over your shoulders.
00:20:50
Speaker
And added bonus, those points are perfect for tassels. I'm just saying, if you're a tassel person, and I didn't know I was a tassel person, but it turns out I am, so. Well, they would really add something there, you know? And I think they're kind of coming back into style. I've seen them on a few patterns recently. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
00:21:08
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, always if you wanted to, you could really pull the center of where the print of the wave pattern is really tight and get it perfectly squared off rectangular if you want to. But you don't really need to. I mean, I like the free flowing aspect of it. I like how it looks like this.
00:21:27
Speaker
Yeah, I felt that way too. In fact, it's so funny because I almost ripped out the whole thing and redid it so that it would be rectangular. But then I was like, no, I like the points. The point you're saying, mermaid tail all the way. Anybody can make a rectangle. It's a new shell shape. Exactly, right? A mermaid tail shape. Exactly.
00:21:47
Speaker
Sometimes with designing things to our happy accidents. Yeah. Well, this, I feel like this also makes it look just fancy enough to where it's not plain. It gives it a special edge to it. And, um, you know, even without adding that lace border, which by the way, like whenever I see a shawl with the actual lace border on it, it feels so fancy. I almost want to wear it for every day, but this is like a very good every day shawl. Yeah. I think you'll want to wear it all the time.
00:22:12
Speaker
Yeah, if you choose to do a neutral, like my sample is in that gray, like you could literally wear it with anything, you know, all day, every day, right? Which is what I always end up doing with these kind of shawls. So it's nice to have those in your wardrobe. So anyway, all right, well, that is, that's going to conclude the
00:22:30
Speaker
first wing of your shawl, anyway, those two little triangles on the end there. So next week, we'll talk about doing the other half of the shawl because, of course, you've got to go do all this again on the other side. So we'll talk about that next week. And if you haven't grabbed a pattern, just head over to Ravelry and search for Zetland. You can find it there. And yeah, we'll see you next week. Thanks for listening and happy knitting.
Conclusion and Social Media Links
00:22:58
Speaker
Thanks so much for listening. You can find me on Ravelry and on all the socials as Rachel Unraveled. And you can find Heather on Ravelry as HeatherBoyd84. Be sure to like and subscribe the podcast wherever you found it, and we'll see you next time. Happy knitting!
00:23:16
Speaker
This show is produced and recorded by the Archaeology Podcast Network, Chris Webster and Tristan Boyle, in Reno, Nevada at the Reno Collective. This has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other podcasts at www.archpodnet.com. Contact us at chrisatarchaeologypodcastnetwork.com.