19th Century Naval Knitting

[anteros_lmc]

Any knitters on my flist? If so you might be interested in a large collection of 19th century knitting manuals from the Richard Rutt Collection at Winchester School of Art Library which have just been digitised by the UK Visual Arts Data Service. Although I'm not a knitter a couple caught my eye: The Mission to Seamen's - Ladies' work for sailors and Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen - Helping the Trawlers. The manuals contain some fascinating patterns, illustrations, advice and glimpses of life ashore and at sea in the 19th century. And there is even a pattern for sailor's mittens, which might be just like the ones Maria made for Hornblower!

Mittens!	Perfect for chucking unexploded shells overboard.
An inspiring prayer...	....a not so inspiring illustration! "'E wus washed ov'rboard"
A very fetching uhlan cap	Steering gloves, not to be confused with mittens
Labrador Needs	"Don't send us old boots, fit only for an honourable place on the retired list"
A lady, aged 102, making mittens (who knew they took so long to knit?!)	Homes for Little Boys Back cover of "Helping the Trawlers"

Links
Visual Arts Data Service
Richard Rutt Collection: Winchester School of Art Library
The Knitting Manuals
The Mission to Seamen's - Ladies' work for sailors
Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen - Helping the Trawlers

Comments

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

What a touching pamphlet. I like the inclusion of women needing sturdy boots. I am sure they appreciated them.

It certainly makes it easy to imagine Maria lovingly working on those gloves.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

They are touching aren't they? They really bring the past to life. Although I thought the inclusion of that picture was rather cruel!

It certainly makes it easy to imagine Maria lovingly working on those gloves.
Doesn't it? Poor Maria :/

[bauhiniakapok.livejournal.com]

Seeing that "glove" pattern eased my mind somewhat. It bothered me that everyone was referring to them as "gloves" when, to my mind, they were so clearly "mittens." I thought perhaps the script had called for gloves but nobody wanted to break out the tiny double-pointed needles for the fingers, so they were all pretending. But according to this pattern, clearly it was acceptable back then to refer to mittens as gloves. I wonder when the usage changed?

[mylodon.livejournal.com]

Love the Missions to Seamen - they still do fantastic work.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

They certainly do! There is still a Seaman's Mission in Stornoway. My granny used to knit socks for them in the seventies, while watching Dallas on tv!

[vsee.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, I don't knit but I have a whole pack of friends who do. But they don't understand or know about fandom, so I'll have to send them along another way rather than pointing them here. ;-)

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Lol! I hear ya :) Just send them the direct link. This one's probably best, though it's a bit long winded!

http://vads.ac.uk/results.php?&cmd=search&page=1&mode=boolean&words=Richard+Rutt+Collection+Winchester+School+of+Art&idSearch=boolean&ordered=title&ordered=agent_name