Turban-pattern bag
by Chris Laning
In historical textiles, decorative motifs are often borrowed from one medium to another. Whatever motifs are in fashion in woven or painted fabric often appear in embroidery and other media as well. This bag takes motifs from embroidered samplers that are originally from Egypt, dating from the Mamluk period (1300-1420), and adapts them to knitting. This bag is knitted in cotton, and follows the conventions of Islamic cotton knitting in using only deep indigo blue and unbleached white. It's worked in worsted-weight cotton at 5 stitches per inch, so it is very quick to make. Most Islamic cotton knitting is much finer than this, worked at 10 to 12 stitches per inch. While many of the surviving scraps of Islamic cotton knitting could be from stockings, we don't know what most of them were used for. We do, however, know that people in many centuries and placements have made small knitted bags and find them very useful! Medieval bags in general did not have a row of holes specially made for the drawstrings; strings were simply threaded through the body of the fabric. The holes are convenient and make it look neater.
MATERIALS
Lily brand Sugar'n Cream, or another worsted-weight cotton 1 skein color #00004 Ecru 0r #01004 Soft Ecru 1 skein color #00009 Bright Navy or #0114 Indigo (The sample is in Ecru and Bright Navy.) NOTE: I washed the dark blue yarn until the color stopped running before I made this, having learned through sad experience that dark blues often run and stain the white parts of cotton knitting.
| NEEDLES |
| Double-pointed needles or 16" circular needle, US size 6 (4.0mm) or size needed to achieve gauge |
| STITCH GAUGE |
| 20sts=4inches |
| INSTRUCTIONS |
Cast on 60 stitches with Ecru and join into a round. Work 3 rounds plain. (continued next page)
On the 4th round, work (YO, K2tog) around to make a row of holes for the drawstrings. Work 15 rounds plain in Ecru. Begin the chart, working all the rows of the chart once. Knit 6 rounds plain in Ecru after the color patterning is done. Finish the bottom of the bag with a 3-needle bind-off.
PATTERN NOTES
Ribbon or cord is recommended for the drawstrings because this yarn is too soft and fuzzy to make good strings that open and close smoothly. Cut the ribbon or cord in half to make two drawstrings. Thread each of them through the holes at the top of the bag and tie both ends together with an overhand knot. Trim the ends neatly.
ALTERNATIVEPATTERN CHARTS
On this page are two more pattern charts you could use for this knitted bag. You can freely adapt these charts by working the middle pattern for more or fewer rows to fit the project you have in mind. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Embroidered samplers like the ones that inspired these knitting charts show a series of counted-thread patterns and pattern bands worked in the running-stitch technique known as "pattern darning.' These samplers were apparently made by professional embroiderers to show customers a variety of decorative motifs suitable for embroidering on the ends of the long narrow cloths used to make turbans and sashes. In period paintings, when you can see turban-wearing men from the proper angle, you can often see just such a decorated long end of cloth hanging down their backs.
RESOURCES AND CREDITS
Several museum have pattern darning samplers in their collections, from which more decorative patterns can be taken. Also recommended is the book Embroideries and Samplers from Islamic Egypt by Marianne Ellis. The charts here are freely adapted from her sources, several embroidered pieces in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK.
MORE HISTORICAL KNITTING
If you're interested in creating, knitting, and discussing historical knitting patterns, two excellent places 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>.
