Laurel-wreath bag
by Chris Laning
This little bag uses the color pattern from one of the famous medieval knitted bags from Sion, Switzerland to make a tiny bag, measuring 2% by 3% inches. It's a good introduction to knitting in silk or cotton at a very fine gauge. This project will also give you practice in working color patterns in silk, which is less forgiving than wool because it does not stretch. The color pattern is a small running stem with pairs of leaves, a detail from one of the original Sion bags. In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, many knitted items were worked in very fine yarn at 12 to 18 stitches per inch. This may seem a bit intimidating at first if the finest knitting you've done is socks at 6 to 8 stitches per inch. But you can easily work your way down to this gauge in steps: knit some socks first, then perhaps try a project in fine fingering or cotton carpet warp at about 10 stitches per inch. Your fingers need to learn to feel confident, and your eyes need practice to see what you are doing at a smaller scale. This bag is knitted at about 12 stitches per inch, which forms a firm, dense fabric.
MATERIALS
This bag takes approximately 50 yards of silk or cotton thread in the main color, plus about 10 yards of a contrasting color for the leaves and 5 yards for the stem. The thread for this project should be approximately the same size as #5 perle cotton. Suitable threads include: Halcyon Yarns 12/2 silk (105-yard mini-cones), from www.halcyonyarn.com. ·Trebizond brand silk (10-meter spools), from many online sources, including www.threadneedlestreet.com. DMC #5 perle cotton (25-meter skeins), from craft stores or needlework suppliers. The example bag is worked in the Halcyon silk, which is less expensive per yard than the Trebizond silk, but the smallest unit it comes in is the 105-yard cone, which will make two bags. The Halcyon silk is also less glossy than Trebizond. NEEDLES Double pointed needles, size 00 (1.75 mm) or whatever size is needed to obtain the correct stitch gauge. Stitch gauge: 48 sts = 4 inches INSTRUCTIONS Beginning at the top of the bag, cast on 72 stitches with your background color, join into a round, and begin knitting around plain in stockinette stitch (knit every round). If you would like a row of holes for the drawstrings, work a round of (yo, K2 tog) a few rounds below the top. These holes are not a period feature - the drawstrings in the original are simply threaded through the knitted fabric of the bag. Work plain until the bag is approximately 2 inches long. The additional plain part above the pattern allows for takeup when the bag is closed with the drawstrings. Working extra plain rounds above the decorative wreath of leaves makes the wreath look lower than the center when the bag is open and laid flat, but when the bag has something in it and the top of the bag is closed, the motif will be centered. Work the wreath of leaves pattern as shown in the chart. Work plain in the background color forl more inch and finish the bottom with a 3-needle bind-off.
PATTERN NOTES
Three-needle bind-off
After the last round is knitted, carefully turn the bag inside out. It's much easier to do this if you take the stitches off the needles and put them on a thread. Turn the bag, then reinsert the needles. Divide the stitches of the bag evenly among two parallel needles. Stick the tip of a third needle into the right-hand end stitch on the front needle as if to knit. (But leave the working yarn dangling and don't actually knit it.) Continue sliding the needle tip and use it to "pick" the end stitch off the back needle as though you were going to purl it. Pull this stitch through the stitch on the front needle. Continue to ignore the working yarn as you pair up all the stitches on the needle like this - it's like working the first half of a K2tog without actually finishing it. You now have \*one\* row of stitches on your needle. Go back to the right end of the needle, pick up the working yarn, and bind off these single stitches as usual. If the last couple of stitches have become large or loose when you get there (this is common), use the tip of your needle to redistribute the extra looseness through the other stitches in the row until they are back to normal size. Finish the bind-off and fasten off the yarn as usual. ALTERNATIVEPATTERN CHARTS If you'd prefer a different color pattern, these four variations on chevron patterns are also found on the purses from Sion. In the original purses, they appear only at the top and bottom edges of the bag, but they are decorative and could serve as pattern bands on this mini-purse.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The five medieval silk knitted bags from Sion, Switzerland that inspired this project are a landmark of historical knitting. They are dated to the 1300s, and are among barely a dozen pieces of European knitting that survive from this time. Historical knitters have been enthusiastically adapting the color patterns and design concepts found in these bags ever since they were discovered. The original bags were much bigger than this, with many more motifs, and range from around 8 by 8 to 10 by 13 inches finished size. They were knitted at 15 to 18 stitches per inch in 2-ply silk, probably reeled silk rather than spun. They use a limited color palette: white, beige (probably originally gold color), light green, light blue, a red that looks like madder red, and a burgundy-purple. In a way, calling the originals "reliquary bags" may be a bit misleading. We don't know their exact origin, only that their last use was to hold the relics of saints in a church treasury. It's entirely possible that these are merely some wealthy women's ordinary purses, which could have been donated to the Church on or before their deaths.
RESOURCES AND CREDITS
"Medieval Masterpieces: The Purses of Sion", by Chris Laning,in Knitting Traditions, Spring 2013, Interweave Press (www.interweavestore.com/knitting). A History of Hand Knitting, by Richard Rutt. 1987. Reprinted by Interweave Press, Loveland, Colorado, in 2003.
MORE HISTORICAL KNITTING
My enthusiasm for re-creating knitted items from the Middle Ages and Renaissance is shared with a number of other historical knitters. Two gathering spots for this kind of discussion are the HistoricKnit list on Yahoo!Groups ( http:/ /groups. yahoo.com/group/HistoricKnit/) and the Historic Knitting Group at Ravelry.com ( http: / /www.ravelry.com/groups/ historic-knitting). Copyright 2013 by Chris Laning. All rights reserved. Contact the author at <claning@igc.org>.
