Teeny-tiny knitting, Pikkuruisia neuleita

I’m taking part in a citizen science project trying to reconstruct a silk stocking from the 17th century. It’s part of a larger project called Refashioning the Renaissance, studying clothing of that period in Western and Northern Europe. Our knitting team started practicing and making swatches with wool and 0,7mm needles. This is what I came up with 😀

Olen lupautunut mukaan kansalaistiedeprojektiin jonka tarkoitus on rekonstruoida 1600-luvun silkkisukat. Sukkien tutkiminen ja kutominen vanhan mallin mukaan on osa Refashioning the Renaissance -tiedeprojektia, joka professori Paula Hohdin johdolla tutkii renesanssin ajan Länsi- ja Pohjois-Euroopan muotia. Ryhmämme aloitti harjoittelmalla kutomista todella ohuilla 0,7mm puikoilla ja villalangalla, niin ohuella etten ole sellaista ennen nähnyt! Sattumalta sukka on juuri sopiva poikien vanhalle Action Manille 😀 Vielä puuttuu toinen sukka ja loput vermeet!

Here’s my first swatch rectangle knitted with the thinnest yarn and needles. Next I tried knitting in the round with the same 0.7mm needles and some left over Estonian yarn from my shawl project. Here you can see the difference in thickness of the two yarns and the metal 0.7mm needle compared to a modern carbon fibre 1mm needle.

The gauge for the thinner yarn is about 10,5 stitches to the centimetre, and the thicker yarn about 9st/cm.

I started with a couple of rounds of garter stitch as the old stockings often were (this is why it’s called garter stitch!) After two rounds I had the idea to make a tiny stocking with decreases and increases in the appropriate places. I had cast on 60 stitches in the round which was the same amount as in the directional pattern we had been given.

The heel was usually made by folding the heel flap and knitting the sides together. I had to use a loop to pick up the stitches with a crochet hook from the side of the heel, trying to dig in between the stitches was quite a struggle!

This is the sock from the inside. You can see where the needle change has been, half way down the calf I moved it forward. I also managed to break the yarn once tightening the first stitches of the needle. Unravelling and picking up dropped stitches was infuriating!

My little sock ended up being just the right size for our boys’ old Action Man! So I had a perfect blocking dummy and model for my sock (except for the toe part which is slightly too long).

Here you can see the garter under which a ribbon was tied to keep the stocking up. The back seam is elaborated with purl stitches and along the sides of the seam run the decreases and increases to shape the sock. There is a “clock” at the ankle, a decoration of purl stitches. Quite a high gusset was also usual.

A very good description and pattern for these kind of stockings can be found on Mara Riley’s net site.

Now all our hero needs is another sock and the rest of the gear!

8 thoughts on “Teeny-tiny knitting, Pikkuruisia neuleita”

Absolutely amazing, my 1.4mm needles now look huge! And the superhero looks very , hmmm, manly x

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LiisaMaarit April 6, 201901:44 Reply

Thanks Sue! We’ll have to see if and when I have time to make a dublet and breeches for the poor chap 😉

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Hei, tämä kysyy kärsivällisyyttä ja tarkkaa silmää. Aikamoinen taidonnäyte. Kirsi

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LiisaMaarit April 6, 201912:56 Reply

Hei Kirsi! Kiitos kommentista 😄 Kärsivällisyyttä tarvitaan vielä hurjasti enemmän oikean sukan kutomiseen suunnilleen saman kokoisilla silmukoilla! Odottelen jo kovasti että pääsisin testaamaan silkki lankaa ja aloittamaan sukan suun niillä vajaa kolmellasadalla silmukalla. Saapi nähdä pääsenkö alkua pitemmälle! 🤔🌻

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Where do you get needles this size?

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LiisaMaarit July 20, 201900:21 Reply

The needles are from HiyaHiya. We have both 0,7 and 1 mm steel needles that were given to all the ladies in our citizen science project to practice for our silk stockings. This week I’ve been knitting normal socks with 3 mm needles and they seem huge. I wonder what it would be like to knit something as big as your last project with your 2 cm needles!😉

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[…] and some fine wool yarn. I ended up with a stocking to fit an action-man doll 🙂 Here’s the link to that post from last April. Next we started knitting swatches with silk tread. We also studied […]

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