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The History of Faroese Lace - Ep S1E6
220 Plays5 years ago
In the first half of this episode we delve into the history, construction methods, and traditional stitches used in Faroese Lace knitting. Then, we’ll discuss finishing up the Zetland shawl!
Links
- 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. Welcome to episode six of season one of the Historical Yarns podcast. I'm Rachel Rodin. And I'm Heather Boyd.
Faroese Lace Knitting Tradition
00:00:27
Speaker
And today we're talking about Faroese lace knitting.
00:00:36
Speaker
In episodes one through five, we talked about the origins of Shetland, Estonian, and Orenburg lace, which are what we would call the more well-known forms of lace. And in this episode, we'll be discussing the lesser-known, but just as beautiful, Faroese lace.
00:00:52
Speaker
So if you're unfamiliar with the Faroe Islands, which honestly, I had to look them up on an iPad. I had no idea. They are located between Norway and Iceland. So if you get that in your mind, just think of like Norway, just north of Norway and the sea there.
00:01:10
Speaker
And they're technically part of the Kingdom of Denmark. So, Danish traditions kind of come into play here, but like these other areas that we've been talking about, they're sort of isolated. And the traditions that have sprung up there are very endemic to the area. So am I using the right word there? Yeah, I think that's right. I thought so.
00:01:34
Speaker
Oh, surprise. It's cold there. So they knit things. Yep, they have a harsh climate. And interestingly, but I guess not so interestingly, they got a ton of sheep. Oh, yeah. I read on one website that the sheep outnumber the people two to one.
00:01:51
Speaker
So you've got to do something with all that wool. But the difference in the Faroe Islands is that they're not picky about the fineness of their sheep's wool. So these are the same sheep that they eat for meat. Dual purpose. Dual purpose sheep. They're not super fancy. They don't have the long staple. Or if they do, it's by accident, not by purposeful cultivation. Or as a result of the climate, as we've seen in the other areas, the sheep tend to grow longer wool.
00:02:20
Speaker
So it's a more utilitarian type of tradition, it seems like. Yeah, it's utilitarian. They had all these sheep. They had to do something with them. Yeah. And it's also a very female-focused industry. So a lot of the economy on the Faroe Islands was based on fishing. And the men would go out on their fishing boats and be gone for months at a time. And the women would stay home and take care of everything else, which included the sheep.
Design and Practicality of Faroese Shawls
00:02:45
Speaker
And then as a way to clothe their families and also a way to make money, they would knit these shawls. So if you're trying to envision a fairway shawl, think of a pair of wings. So they're often described as butterfly wings or angel wings. So like the top part of a butterfly, you're looking at sort of a trapezoidal shape with two triangles on the side and then a central vertical rectangle.
00:03:14
Speaker
Kind of like a panel almost. A panel in the middle that they call the gusset. So they're really unique. And I think most of us have probably seen one. And a lot of modern patterns use a sort of tri-part shell. I've been seeing those pop up all over the place lately. Yeah, I was just going to say, because the ends are more elongated.
00:03:32
Speaker
Which you see that a lot with shawl patterns these days because people wanna be able to like wrap it around their neck like a scarf basically. And so these ones, it seemed like they were pretty neat because they were long enough that they could wrap them all the way around their waist. Which is a cool styling detail, I like that. Yeah, like sort of crossed over the chest and then wrapped around the back and tied. So that number one, the shawl would not fall off. And number two, you could stay warmer that way.
00:04:00
Speaker
Yeah, well cover all of your shoulders rather than just around your neck. And it's like a vest, right? It's kind of like a tie-on vest. Get all the warmth out of it that you can. I like that. Yeah, so the knitting is actually really important to the islands, so much so that this shawl is part of their national costume. And you'll see them worn everywhere, you know, on a daily basis. But when they dress up for festivals or holidays, all the women
Techniques and Construction of Faroese Shawls
00:04:26
Speaker
wear these shawls. Very cool. I love that. That's awesome. I know. I wish we had something.
00:04:29
Speaker
I know, right? Makes me want to knit one of these. It sounds like it's a very practical style, but also really pretty as well. And with those different panels like that, you can play with stitch patterns and stuff too. Yeah. And often you will see the stitch patterns are different in each of the sections or like they're mirrored in the triangular section and then something different in the middle or the triangles will be plain and then the middle will have lace and the border will have lace. Very cool.
00:04:56
Speaker
Yeah. So the other thing that's unique about these is that they're, instead of being knit from the top down or from the center out, like the square shawls we've been talking about, they are all cast on along the bottom edge. So that means so many stitches. Yes. Hundreds of stitches cast on at one time. And this, you know, I couldn't find anything about this, but I wondered how they did this before the advent of circular needles.
00:05:23
Speaker
Yeah, how do you get all the stitches onto a little 10 inch needle? I don't know. It must have been longer than 10 inch needles or they had. Maybe they did each panel separately? Maybe. I didn't read anything about grafting in there.
00:05:41
Speaker
It's a little harder to find information about the actual construction of these, but they are gaining in popularity because there have been workshops and classes and things like that that you can take on them. And there are several bloggers that
00:05:58
Speaker
blog specifically about fairway shawls. Oh really? Yeah. Wow. Talk about a niche, right? Yeah. But I mean, I guess like the other kinds, they're, you know, adaptable or you can change them in a lot of different ways. And so, you know, there are a lot of design possibilities. I wonder if they have any like special techniques for casting on that many stitches. That's what I'm playing with.
00:06:21
Speaker
mess it up or short it. Oh, God. Well, because the shape is achieved by increasing, I'm guessing that even if you didn't do quite enough or decreasing, I'm sorry, the shape is achieved by decreasing, you could kind of shape it as you go along. So it's sort of perfectly imperfect, I guess.
00:06:42
Speaker
That's cool. Yeah, so you cast on all these stitches along the bottom edge, and then as you're knitting up the shawl, you're decreasing in the triangular sections and beside the gusset so that by the time you get to the neck of the shawl, you have a very few stitches and then you bind those off. So basically that center gusset is basically your bind off at the other end when you get to the top. Is that how all of the construction works? Yeah, that's from my understanding. I mean, I've never personally knit one, but that's what it looks like.
00:07:12
Speaker
I'm very intrigued by this construction now because I feel like you can do some really neat things with those separated sections like that. That's really cool. And the ones that are most beautiful to me, probably because of symmetry and I just, you know, I'm one of those people that love symmetry, are the ones where the center section is identically mirrored in the bottom border.
00:07:32
Speaker
It would take some planning, but you'd have to make sure that whatever section of the bottom border is going to become your middle spine of the shawl is lined up correctly. It's like a growth of the bottom of teeth.
00:07:52
Speaker
Are the borders in the same direction? Are they knitted on? Everything's knit from the bottom up. If you have a border, it's a motif that looks like a border. It's not put on at the end or afterward, from what I could tell.
00:08:11
Speaker
So it's interesting that way. And then the things that you'll see on the shawls, of course, are a lot of organic shapes, flowers, branches, some geometric designs like rectangles and repeated interlocking shapes.
Oral Tradition and Pattern Documentation
00:08:30
Speaker
But in general, they're a lot more simple than what you would see from probably because of all the decreasing. Yeah, it's hard to work lace patterning into decreases. So that makes sense. Yeah, simpler. Yeah. And probably also because I didn't see anywhere that it was noted that these were sold to
00:08:49
Speaker
ladies of means. Like they're sold around the islands, but this is not, it's not like the same thing as Estonian knitting that are sort of exported all over the world or Shetland knitting, same thing, you know, shared all over the world or, you know, they don't have famous patrons. Yeah, they're not really like a tourist destination or anything either in particular, so I guess a cottage industry wouldn't have really
00:09:12
Speaker
bloomed up around it too much. And in fact, a lot of the patterns were never even really written down. They were passed from person to person and the ones that are written down, they are only charted.
00:09:28
Speaker
Well, time to learn to read those charts, people. You can't avoid it any longer. You have to learn a different knitting language because on these charts, so on a typical knitting pattern chart, you would denote a yarn over with a little circle.
00:09:43
Speaker
And then you would have also around it, in order to keep your stitch count, the yarn over increases by one stitch, your stitch count, you would have to have a decrease next to it. Well, in Faroese knitting patterns, there's no notation of the decrease.
00:09:59
Speaker
So in their charts you see the little X's for the yarn overs and then you kind of have to keep track yourself of what sort of decrease you're using. And I guess this is kind of what we were talking about with the Estonia knitting and the samplers and like every knitter sort of learning to read their knitting and
00:10:18
Speaker
Just kind of understanding the construction. Understanding, yeah, as they go along how to knit. Like, you would sort of have to have a framework. It's not something I would want to jump into as a beginner. No, because if you don't understand...
00:10:33
Speaker
How to make sure you have the correct stitch count because you're also decreasing at the same time to make that shape So like you're working these decreases into the patterning as you go. Yeah Yeah, that would be complicated to just have to figure that out of it and then to make sure it's all gonna come out Okay, yeah They didn't even write the patterns down yeah, they're just working off of memory and
00:10:55
Speaker
I don't know. I mean, it takes a special set of skills. And if you're interested to see a picture of what we're talking about in the episode notes, there will be a link to one of the blogs that we used for research that shows a picture of what an actual fairways pattern looks like.
00:11:13
Speaker
And it sounds like they're all triangles, right? Like there's not really any other shapes. That's pretty much all they do. It's like a trapezoid. Yeah. So yeah, it almost looks triangular, but with a flat bottom. It's kind of like a triangle with the tip cut off. Okay. Yep. That makes sense. Cool.
00:11:29
Speaker
But yeah, patterns are so rare, actual written patterns, that another anecdote I found was that one of the Faroese women who actually took the time to write them down and publish a book, her name was Olivia Jensen, she published this book with 215 patterns in it.
00:11:50
Speaker
And even years later, I mean, you know, she lived 100 years ago, but her family gets asked by the local library if they have any other copies because they keep getting stolen from the library. Oh, sounds like a book that needs to be reprinted. Yes, I did. I recently decided to reprint the book, but I found that to be really interesting. That's like people either there's been a resurgence and wanting to learn about it or
00:12:19
Speaker
I don't know. Well, I think that there's not a lot of unknowns in knitting these days, you know? Like, even the techniques that are developed in really isolated places are, like, if you get into knitting, at some point you're going to hear about wormberg lace, or stoning lace, or whatever, and ferrile knitting, and all that kind of stuff. Like, you hear these terms, and you learn about them, but this one is very unique, because it doesn't, it's just not as in the popular knitting culture, so there's a place there
00:12:49
Speaker
people wanting to learn, I'm sure. Yeah. Yep. And absorb the culture. Or maybe they're just slow learners like me. They got to keep the library book for a little longer. Is that terrible? Well, I mean, with technology these days, you can just snap pictures of everything you want. So it seems like you don't need to steal it, but you know. You would think, but you know. Who knows? Who knows what really happens in the Faroe Islands?
Finishing Techniques for Shawls
00:13:14
Speaker
Oh my goodness. But yeah, if you get your hands on a copy of 215 Shawl Designs by Olivia Jensen, then just hoard it. Yeah, keep my eyes open next time I go thrifting or whatever, right? Yeah, exactly.
00:13:30
Speaker
So, yeah, the patterns are all, they're all different, you know, but they also had the tradition of being passed down through families, too. Just like all the others, it's very much a family-oriented thing. Yeah. Again, that's real cool. I'm definitely intrigued by this shape, so I'm going to have to go spend some time researching that. So maybe I can have a design in the future that's got those angel wings, right?
00:13:56
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it makes sense, right? Like, I can see how that would stay on your shoulders a lot better, especially if you were going out, you know, taking care of sheep. Doing your chores, right? Yeah, or children, you know, or whatever you're doing. Chasing them little people around. Or working, you know, working in a cold warehouse. Hey, you never know what you might be doing on a daily basis, right?
00:14:22
Speaker
All right. Well, that was the Faroese lace knitting tradition. We're going to take a short break and then we will come back and talk about the final section of the shawl knit along pattern. Welcome back to episode six. In this segment, we are going to talk about your finishing and blocking because you have definitely finished all that knitting, right?
00:14:46
Speaker
For sure. You're totally done now. Yeah. So the pattern is at Linshall. You can grab that on Ravelry. Just search Z-E-T-L-A-N-D, and you'll find it there. And then go back and listen to the first five episodes if you haven't, and catch up on the knitting. And then when you get to where we're at here, you'll be ready to block and have your beautiful finished object ready to wear. And you'll also know all about it. Yeah, because you get the history. And then you also break down pretty much every single part of this pattern. So yeah, lots of information.
00:15:16
Speaker
Anyway, so we are at the finishing and blocking section. I feel like if you have chosen to use a yarn similar to the one that I recommended, the wool, these are pretty hardy yarns. So I think you're okay to go ahead and wet block it. I did. I do with these yarns and they are fine.
00:15:35
Speaker
Be careful not to give it too much like friction when you're washing it or don't use hot water I definitely would recommend like lukewarm or cold water Just because so friction and heat are the things that cause you're into felt and this isn't super wash So you want to be careful of that? So just keep your yarn cool and don't mess it around in the water too much and you'll be fine and also fill your tub and put your soap in before you put the item in so you're not running water on because you may you could end up with a slightly felted spot
00:16:05
Speaker
Yeah, running water, it almost folds it, because I think fulliness is the step between full-on felting, right? Yeah, it's like when the fibers come out before they knit together to be felt. Yeah, exactly. So just treat it with care, and it's not extremely delicate, like Rachel is saying, but a wrong move could make it not as wonderful in the finished product. So just have a little extra care at this step, and you'll really enjoy it after it's blocked.
00:16:33
Speaker
Yep. And then, yeah, just do the full soak wet block and use something like we mentioned in our last episode, like soak or ukulin, something that's a no rinse, nice, easy, gentle cleaner to both clean it and also like help soften it up and help the fibers really bloom too. So all of those things will happen when you block it. Blocking is magical.
00:16:57
Speaker
It is. It really is. And I think we mentioned in the last episode that we would not recommend using the towel roll method for getting the water out of your yarn because of the same things we've talked about so far, treating it more gently and trying not to felt it, trying not to let it rub up against other fibers. And sometimes if it's in a towel like that, it might get a little extra rubbing.
00:17:18
Speaker
Yeah, what I did is I just kind of gently folded it over itself a couple times, and then I just squished as much of the water out of it as I could very gently without really causing too much friction, you know? And that was fine. And we do live in Nevada, so it's very, very dry here. So it dried within a day easily. It might take a little longer if you live somewhere with more humidity, but it's worth it to not have it potentially felt or whatever. So definitely recommend that.
00:17:46
Speaker
And then once you are ready to shape it, you're just going to want to pull it out into the shape that you desire. And I think we mentioned a couple of episodes ago that you can go with the like mermaid tail thing and really like accentuate those points if that's what you want, or you can pull that center
00:18:04
Speaker
center piece like where the center panel is. Yeah, you can pull that down and make it truly rectangular. Yarn is very moldable when it's wet, especially a yarn like this. So, you know, mold it into the shape that you like and that is the best fit for you and how you would want to wear it. And just keep adjusting it until it gets looking like you want.
00:18:24
Speaker
Yeah. Blocking is not a fast process. I always think that I'm going to be able to do it in like 10 minutes. No way. It's never that quick. So, um, but you know, doing it right means that it'll probably, it probably won't need to be done again until like once a season may, maybe, like I probably wash my shells at the end of the winter season and then they're ready to go for summer or, um, for fall. But I don't always get to it. And sometimes they get washed before fall, but
00:18:51
Speaker
You know, whatever. Well, girl, I just watched all my winter woolens, like all my stuff and gave my son, who was five, he saw his hat like he's the one with the tractor on it. And he was like, is winter coming? And it took everything in me to be like, to not say, yes, winter is coming. Winter is always coming. He got really excited though. He was like, when is it going to snow?
00:19:15
Speaker
Not any time soon. Oh yeah, not a big fan of the heat, huh?
Traditional Methods and Styling Shawls
00:19:20
Speaker
I know I'm not. Oh no, I hate it. Goodness gracious. Yeah, so you're gonna go ahead and just pin it out to the shape and dimensions that you like and I like to get the nice crisp edges and you can use your knit blockers to get the nice, you know, the angle so that they're nice and sharp and
00:19:37
Speaker
Yeah, that's how I like to do it. And at the end of the last episode, episode five, we talked about how exactly to use the knit blockers to get long straight edges blocked if you only have a few or you don't have a bazillion sets of them like Rachel does. I only have two, come on. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. But blocking wires also work. Or straight pins, you know, a bunch of them, but they'll still work.
00:20:04
Speaker
Yep, yeah, all those things to get your nice straight edges, because there isn't lace on this, so on the edge. So you're not trying to get a wavy edge like you would if there was lace, a lace border, which makes blocking a little bit harder, actually, because you have to be very purposeful in getting those straight edges. But also keep in mind that if you do have a little bit of dipping happening, it'll stretch out once it's dry, probably. They usually do. So again, you're very moldable. You can make it do what you want it to do.
00:20:33
Speaker
Yep. Well, I personally love the mermaid tail look. Yeah, me too. And then, you know, if you go with that too, you don't have to worry about it being perfectly straight or anything, just so it's kind of even. Yep. So after it's all dry, what sort of finishing do you need to do? Oh, well, you got to weave in all those ends. And it shouldn't be too bad, really, just where you joined your new yarns. Oh, I didn't talk about weaving in ends. If you choose to use the yarn like I've recommended, BitSpice will be your best friend. Oh my gosh, this yarn. Yeah, that's right.
00:21:00
Speaker
It is spit spliced like a champion. So I actually only have ends to weave in where I cast on and bound off and then where because there's different sections going on. So you're joining yarn where I've had stitches on hold or whatever. Those are the only spots that I have to actually weave in ends. I spit spliced all my new skeins.
00:21:18
Speaker
And what Rachel's talking about is just gently wetting the ends of the yarn, like the end that is already in your work and the new one that you're joining, and laying them over each other end to end, but with a slight overlap of probably, what, an inch to two inches? Yeah, I actually overlap them like this. I hook one end around the other so that you have a little bit of a loop there, and then it doubles back on itself. OK, yeah. Yeah, even better. Yeah, and it holds really, really well when you do it that way.
00:21:46
Speaker
And you just rub them between your palms real fast. The only time in this project that we tell you to intentionally felt this yarn. Yeah, exactly. And depending on the fiber content of the yarn that you end up using, this will work better or worse. But as long as you have like 70% wool yarn, it really should work fine.
00:22:02
Speaker
Yep, no superwash. Superwash will not work at all. You could try a Russian joint with superwash if you wanted one that is not going to leave you with ends to weave in. I don't know. I think spit splicing in this kind of yarn is really the way to go. And it is called spit splicing because back in the day people would use actual spit. I totally use actual spit. It works way better. If you've ever tried to be all precious about it and use some water, like sometimes when I'm knitting something for someone else, I'm like, I should put my spit on this.
00:22:30
Speaker
But you know what? It works better. It doesn't work as well. Water does not work as well. It doesn't. And if I've knitted anything for you, my spit has been in it, but I always wash and block it afterwards. What the fuck is for it? It's fine. And it's traditional. Again, we're trying to make a traditional garment here, right? So go with the spit splice. Yes. You won't regret it.
00:22:51
Speaker
All right, spit splice pushing is over. So yeah, if you have done that, you shouldn't have too many ends to weave in. But I do like to go ahead and weave in any of the ends that I have before I block it. So what I do is I weave them in first, but I don't cut them yet.
00:23:10
Speaker
or not cut them short. I just weave them in and then block it. And what will happen is when you're stretching and blocking and pinning, the end will kind of like work its way into the shawl or the piece, wherever it should be. And then when it's done and it's dry, you can trim it. Just trim them. OK, yeah. Because you always want to have a little. That's what I do, too. Is it OK? Perfect.
00:23:30
Speaker
You'll have a little bit of an end sticking out, but just make that be on the wrong side, and then it's all good. It shouldn't work its way through to the right side. And then after you're all done, this is when you can add some tassels to your corners, if you want. Yep, yep. Yeah, I'm into the tassels. Ooh, pom-poms would be cute, too. Pom-poms? Poms, oh my god. Poms, yeah. Adorable. You could even add fringe. I mean, if you're feeling very... Oh, fringe. I don't know. That was in for a little while, wasn't it? Fringe, I'm sure. It was. It feels a little bit fancy, though, doesn't it?
00:23:59
Speaker
Yeah, it might be too much. I personally don't like it tickling my arms. Yeah. Do you know what I would do? I would totally add buttons to the corners of the mermaid tails. Yeah, you're saying that. Or make like a shank button where you have two buttons that are connected by a shank, almost like a cuff link. And then you could join them and just, it could be like a sleeve. Yeah. And then you could wear it like a little shrug almost. That would be really cute. That wouldn't come off. And we would drape over your shoulders and yeah, that would be really cute.
00:24:24
Speaker
But you could wear this a whole bunch of ways. How would you wear it, Rachel? Well, I always default to basically wearing shawls like scarf songs. So the center panel in front of your neck, and the ends wrapped around the back of your neck. And the ends wrapped around, yeah. And then back to the front so they hang down. Yeah. And then when I have a jacket on, I'll tuck the ends in so that they're not dragging in anything. Because as much as I love a shawl with long drapey ends or whatever, they get in my way. So I want to be able to tuck them away. So that's how I do it.
00:24:51
Speaker
And if if you're going for like a fancier night, you could always just drape it over your shoulders too. But what about a shawl pin? Definitely. Yeah. Have you seen those shawl bands? Oh, leather bands. Yeah. Yeah. This would work well with this would work really well with that.
00:25:07
Speaker
Yeah, those they're made out of leftover belt pieces or something. Yeah, some of the ones we have in the shop are they're cool stick. Yeah, really neat. So it's a very basic shape so you can kind of wear it and however you like you could even do the like sideways, you know, like that kind of it's very like it almost seems staged for photos, you know where they have it like off to the side and like you can see like the main panel down the side and yeah, and then
00:25:32
Speaker
And the two ends over the other shoulder. Yeah, you could wear it that way too. But I think a shawl pin would have to hold it in place if you wear it that way. Yeah, definitely.
Season Wrap-Up and Contact Information
00:25:40
Speaker
Well, that's how we recommend finishing and blocking and then wearing and loving your Shetland shawl. So that is the Zetland Shawl, Z-E-T-L-A-N-D. You can grab the pattern on Ravelry.
00:25:54
Speaker
And that is the end of season one. So thanks for listening and happy knitting. 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 to the podcast wherever you found it. And we'll see you next time. Happy knitting.
00:26:27
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.