Gloves Knitted in Silk (and Wool?)

The web introduction: Here is the bulk of the documentation on the Knitted Gloves. Some images I do not yet have permission to post, so they are not visible. But I can and will happily share these images privately for research purposes. Just email me at ms154cornell.edu.

I've included a link at the very bottom of the page to the scores that the judges gave for this effort. It's interesting reading. I'll try to dig up the comments and add them... eventually ; >

The bare bones:

† What is this?
a knitted glove based on the study of gloves from the late 1500s in Northern Europe, England and Scandinavia

† When would this have existed?
The style is particular to England

What's the gauge?
14 stitches per inch and 12 rows per inch.

Introduction:

I wanted to tackle a project that was new territory for me. I also wanted a practical project that would travel with me easily, and be a product that I could wear. So I thought, why not a pair of gloves? Small, transportable, with a wearable product. And hey, once I had them figured out, I could start on next Christmas' knitting. All good.

So this is my first pair of gloves.

And wouldn't you know it… I can never leave well enough alone. And so, in addition to researching the correct methods for knitting a set of accurate pre-1600 gloves, I also opened a can of worms concerning the Spanish wool and silk industries. Research leads to research and it never can be just one thing, can it?

Historical Examples:

What follows are some examples of knitted gloves.

Figure 1: These gloves were made in England during the late 1600s They retain many of the features of earlier English gloves. The simple application of the thumb without a gusset and the applied and embroidered gauntlet cuff are features of English gloves found pre-1600. These gloves are knitted in a fine silk at a gauge of approximately 16 stitches to the inch and 18 rows to the inch. (Interweave, p.7)

Figure 2: This is the Sture glove. Knitted in 1565 by a young noble woman for her lover. It is made of silk and knitted at a gauge of 10 stitches and 12 rows to the inch. There is no applied cuff, and there is not an elaborate knitted cuff. Both of these features, along with the coarse gauge for silk, support the theory that the knitter of this glove was not a professional. It is currently housed in the Riksantikarieambetet, Stockholm. (Rutt, p. 69)

Figure 3: This is a pair of liturgical gloves featured in the Flury-Lemburg text "Methods of Textile Conservation." The gloves date from 1510 and were the property of an Archbishop in the Rhine region. They were knitted in red silk with metal threads at a gauge of 25 stitches to the inch. This pair of gloves demonstrates the use of gold thread incorporated into the knitting about the fingers to depict rings. It also demonstrates that the cuffs of gloves could be knitted as a part of the body of the glove and not applied. (Flury-Lemburg, p. 245)

Figure 4. These gloves are dated to 1245 and are a pair of liturgical gloves which belonged to the Archbishop Rodrigo Ximenez de Rada. They are knitted in silk at a very tiny gauge of approximately 25 stitches per inch. A variety of 2 color patterns decorate the gloves. This is one of the examples of a gusset being used to attach the thumb of the glove at the side of the body of the hand. (Flury-Lemburg, p. 246, 482)

Figure 5: These two gloves are featured in Irene Turnau's article on the "Diffusion of Knitting in Medieval Europe". They are both liturgical gloves, one pair knitted from flax, (ca. 1192) the other pair from silk (ca. 1300-1350). Turnau does not mention their gauge. (Harte & Ponting, p.379)

Figure 6: This is a very humble English mitten knitted in the late 1500s. Currently they are housed in the Museum of London. They are knitted of undyed wool at a gauge of 8 to 8.5 stitches per inch. The thumb is attached without a gusset to the body of the palm. (Museum of London, Image Library Ref. No. 144)

Determining the shape:

The selection of extant gloves and mittens gave me a great deal of flexibility in determining the attributes of the pair of gloves I could make. I wanted to make a pair of gloves that would have been "fashionable" and so I thought that perhaps a cuff was the only way to go. But the Sture glove undermines the theory that a fashionable glove must have a cuff.

However, since I wanted to create the gloves in as close a feeling to a pair of English upper class gloves as possible I chose to make was a pair of gloves with a cuff. The cuff is lined in linen and covered with a damask satin. Monochrome embroidery of silk in the same watchet blue as the body of the glove will embellish the cuff. (But that is coming - later)

Knitting Basics:

What's the gauge?

14 stitches per inch and 12 rows per inch.

How does that stack up to other historical gloves?

Pretty well in wool, and better than the Sture glove in silk. But not anywhere near some of the liturgical examples that were executed in silk.

What's this stitch?

The entire gloves are executed in Stockinette stitch. As is seen in the examples of gloves. Stockinette stitch gives a flexible fabric without bulk that has a smooth surface.

So how accurate is the color?

It's a favorite Elizabethan color called "Watchet." It is described as a sea green or blue in "Costume in the Drama of Shakespear and His Contemparies", and in "Elizabethan Costumes from 1550-1580" it is defined as a pale greenish blue.

Construction:

I chose to make was a pair of gloves with a cuff. The cuff is lined in linen and covered with a damask satin. Monochrome embroidery of silk in the same watchet blue as the body of the glove will embellish the cuff.

Knitting the glove: the cuff and body of the hand

I cast on enough stitches to go around the fattest part of my hand. (90 stitches) Joined the ends and started knitting in the round in stockinette stitch. Continued until the tube was about 5 inches in length and then went on to deal with THE THUMB.

The thumb:

Who knew there were so many ways to put a thumb onto a glove (or mitten). There are two basic methods, and each one has a variety within the category. The two broad categories are - make a hole in the body of your cloth, or build a gusset.

I looked… at a lot of gloves in the pre-1600 range, and quite a few mittens. For knitted items the dominant method of attaching a glove was to put a whole in the cloth. Now that isn't as violent as it might sound. Unlike making a glove with woven cloth, in knitting you make the fabric at the same time as you make the product. So in knitting you have the ability to shape a hole in your cloth for the thumb to pass through as you form the body of the glove.

Then knit approximately 1.5 inches to the finger line.

Dividing for the fingers: right hand

As this was my first pair of gloves. I didn't trust my approach to the division of the stitches for the fingers. I should have, but more on that later. So I turned to a modern magazine and read an article about how they recommended gloves were made.

OK. What I had done so far agreed with their summation. So on the "right hand" glove I followed their recommendation for dividing the stitches up to form the fingers. They used a very non-equal method to divide the stitches. The result is that the fingers on the right hand glove are unequal, and disproportional. Instead of smooth cylinders they are awkward and tip heavy. It just looks wrong.

So on the second glove, the "left hand," I abandoned their method. Using my own observations and a helping of experience I formulated my own approach to dividing the stitches up to make the fingers.

Dividing for the fingers: left hand

I took a much simpler approach to the division for the fingers on the left glove. -Still in progress- For this glove I took the sum of the stitches (90) and subtracted 3 for each end (3x2=6) so 90-6=84 stitches remaining. Of the 84 stitches I needed to make 4 fingers so (84/4=21). I then used 21 stitches in each finger. For the first finger I took 10 stitches from the front and the remaining 11 from the back. From this point I alternated where the first 10 stitches came from.

Washing the Gloves

After the glove were completed I washed them in warm water, with just a touch of mild soap. After agitating them I rinsed them in warm water until the soap was gone. Then they were laid out between two towels and rolled to press out most of the water. They were then placed on a dry towel, covered with a linen cloth and allowed to air dry.

The Cuff

When the gloves were dry a pair of cuffs were created for them. Following the gauntlet style of cuff that appears to be popular in Elizabethan fashion and the examples of cuffs on the extant gloves, I chose to create a gauntlet shaped cuff. Deciding how to execute the cuff was difficult in that there are no available examples of what the interior of the extant gloves look like. This is a question that needs more research, and what follows is only one method of many possible methods.

For each cuff I cut out a piece of linen for the lining, and a piece of jacquard, of indeterminate fiber content, for the exterior. The two pieces were sewn together by machine, although a running stitch by hand would have been more accurate. Why not by hand… one word… panic. The cuff was turned right side out, the corners clipped and straightened. The opening in the cuff for turning was closed with an overcast stitch. The cuff was then applied to the glove with tiny catch stitches. After this the two edges of the cuff were sewn together with an overcast stitch. On the interior of the cuff the wrist portion of the glove was tacked down with needle and thread.

Materials: aka, the "Can O' Worms"

What were knitted gloves of this period made out of?

Examples of knitted gloves pre-1600 are found in two predominant fibers: wool or silk. Many extant knitted gloves are made of silk. In many cases they are fine examples of the knitters skills, or devotion. The gauge of these items ranges from 15 to a very fine 28 stitches per inch.

For more information on gauges see Appendix A .

Examples of gloves knitted in wool are rarer. Perhaps the lower number of woolen examples is because of their utilitarian nature. What examples do exist show a gauge of approximately 10 stitches per inch.

What is the fiber used here? Silk and Merino wool spun together.

Is a blend of wool and silk fiber accurate?

Short answer: Maybe.

Longer answer: This is an area that I am currently actively pursuing. The starting point came from a line in a Spanish inventory which can be interpreted to mean a blend of fibers in the yarn. The lines are translated to: Gloves: "two pairs of wool and white silk" AND Gloves: "Two other pairs of wool and silk all white"

However, the truth of the matter may be far more complicated. There is a long list of alternative meanings for these phrases that need to be considered, and disproved.

Other options that this line could refer to… from most to least likely
a lazy scribe - most likely
a pair of knitted gloves in silk and one pair knitted in wool.
a pair of knitted gloves in wool with a cuff of silk.
a pair of knitted gloves in wool with embroidery of silk
a pair of knitted gloves in a mixture of wool and silk yarns.
a pair of knitted silk gloves with wool accents - least likely

We know that at some time a blend of silk and wool entered the market. The most logical place for innovation would have been in the Andalusian plains, where there was both a silk industry and a production of Merino wool. We can look at documents of the silk industry of Venice and see that blended fabrics were made, but that it did not use a blended yarn from the spinners. I am continuing to look at other trade records to see if I can find some description of imported yarns, or cloths made of blended yarns

The research continues… Tips, clues and areas to look at for information on the roots of blended yarns are gladly accepted.

A Selected Bibliography

Extant Items:

Anonymous. Glove, 17th century. Williamsburg, Va.

Anonymous. Sture glove, 16th century. Uppsala Cathedral, Sweden

Anonymous. Gloves of Bishop de Rada. 13th century. Spain. Flury-Lemburg, p. 246

Anonymous. Gloves of Bishop. 16th century. Rhine region. Flury-Lemburg, p. 245

Anonymous. Childs mitten. 16th century. Museum of London. Image Library Reference number: 144

Sources post-1600:

Anderson, Ruth M. Hispanic Costume from 1480-1530. Hispanic Society of Amer.; 1979.

Arnold, Janet. Patterns of Fashion: The Cut and Construction of Clothes for Men and Women C1560-1620. London: Drama Publishers, 1985.

Arnold, Janet. Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd. Leeds: W.S. Maney & Son Ltd., 1988.

Endrei, Walter. "The Productivity of Weaving in Late Medieval Flanders." Cloth and Clothing in Medieval Europe: Essays in Memory of Professor E.M. Carus-Wilson. Ed. N.B. and Harte K.G. Ponting. 1 ed. London: Heinemann Educational Books - The Pasold Research Fund Ltd, 1983. 401.

Flury-Lemberg, Mechthild. Textile Conservation and Research: ... Vol. VII. Berm: Schriften Der Abegg-Stiftung, 1988.

Hoshino, Hidetoshi. "The Rise of the Florentine Woolen Industry in the Fourteenth Century." Cloth and Clothing in Medieval Europe: Essays in Memory of Professor E.M. Carus-Wilson. Ed. N.B. and Harte K.G. Ponting. 1 ed. London: Heinemann Educational Books - The Pasold Research Fund Ltd, 1983. 401.

Kellenbenz, Hermann. "The Fustian Industry of the Ulm Region in the Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries." Cloth and Clothing in Medieval Europe: Essays in Memory of Professor E.M. Carus-Wilson. Ed. N.B. and Harte K.G. Ponting. 1 ed. London: Heinemann Educational Books - The Pasold Research Fund Ltd, 1983. 401.

Lewandowski, Marcia. Folk Mittens: Techniques and Patterns for Handknitted Mittens. Loveland Co.: Interweave Press, 1997.

Mola, Luca. The Silk Industry of Renaissance Venice. 1 ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000.

Piponnier, Francoise. "Cloth Merchants Inventories in Dijon in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries." Cloth and Clothing in Medieval Europe: Essays in Memory of Professor E.M. Carus-Wilson. Ed. N.B. and Harte K.G. Ponting. 1 ed. London: Heinemann Educational Books - The Pasold Research Fund Ltd, 1983. 401.

Rutt, Richard. A History of Hand Knitting. Loveland, Colorado: Interweave Press, 1987.

Ryder, M.L. Sheep and Man. 1 ed. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd., 1983.

Turnau, Irena. "The Diffusion of Knitting in Medieval Europe." in Cloth and Clothing in Medieval Europe: Essays in Memory of Professor E.M. Carus-Wilson. Ed. N.B. and Harte K.G. Ponting. 1 ed. London: Heinemann Educational Books - The Pasold Research Fund Ltd, 1983. 401.

So just what did the judges think?