Gunnister purse replica
by Chris Laning
These instructions are for a modern reproduction of the knitted woolen pouch found with the Gunnister bog burial, unearthed in 1951. The purse contained coins of the late 1600s. MATERIALS Gray-brown Shetland yarn (fingering weight or a bit lighter) NEEDLES US size 000 (1.5mm) needles, or needles that give you the approximate stitch gauge you want Yarn needle for finishing ends and attaching tassels STITCH GAUGE 11 to 12 sts = 1 inch (about 2.5cm) Exact gauge is not crucial for this project. INSTRUCTIONS Cast on 85 stitches on three or four needles. If you want to reproduce the purse exactly, use its rather peculiar cast-on. To do this, cast on 4, take the last loop onto a small crochet hook and chain 7, fastening the last chain to the first and putting the loop back on the knitting needle. Cast on 4 more and repeat. (You can of course do the chaining with a knitting needle, but it's easier with a hook.)
INSTRUCTIONS (continued)
Work around in K3, p2 ribbing for 2 inches. Work 1 row of purl all around, adding three stitches to make 88. The rest of the purse is in stockinette with no shaping: just follow the color chart, starting at the top. At the end of the chart, fold the knitting flat and work a three-needle bind-off in the red yarn to close the bottom. The drawstrings in the original are each braided from three 2-strand pieces of the main color. Add three short tassels made of the yarns to the bottom of the bag, one at each corner and one in the center. The original purse, anoldblack and white photo from the original report ofthe burial and its analysis
PATTERN NOTES
At 12 sts per inch, the finished size of this project is about 3.5 by 5 inches. These instructions give a very close, but not quite stitch for stitch, replica of the original at about the same size. I developed this pattern from two sources: A History of Hand Knitting by Richard Rutt gives some details, and 17th Century Knitting Patterns as Adapted for Plimoth Plantation by the Weavers Guild of Boston, Massachusetts gives other details. Putting the two together enabled me to reconstruct the bag. The ribbing pattern and color pattern repeats in the original are not perfectly regular, as they are in these instructions. The ribbing especially is sometimes K3 P2 and sometimes K2 P2. I chose to "normalize" the bag by making everything regular. There is an alternative pattern available on Ravelry. com that charts all of the original irregularities. The yarn I used for the main color in my replica is actually 100% wool yarn I unraveled from a thrift-store sweater, which happened to be the correct size and color. (continued next page)
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The original Gunnister purse was one of several knitted items found on the Gunnister "bog body", discovered in 1951 in a shallow grave in a bog in the Shetland Islands. There was very little left of the actual body, but his knitted caps, stockings, gloves, bag, a scrap of knitting stuck in his pocket, and other clothing including breeches and two coats, one worn over the other, survived in remarkably good shape. The bag was tucked into the left pocket of his breeches and contained three coins, the latest of which was dated 1690. So he must have been buried after that date. But his purse, gloves, and stockings showed some wear, so it is likely they were knitted at least a few years before that date, and may have been still older, perhaps bought second-hand. The stocking toes, for instance, were folded under when the feet of the stockings were patched, indicating they were originally made for someone with bigger feet. The bag is knitted from a 2-ply natural-colored wool, grayish or brownish in color. The yarn is described in the original report as "a rather unevenly spun 2-ply Z." The bag was knitted in the round "on four needles," which probably means the stitches were arranged on three needles and a fourth used to workthem. The entire bag, along with the rest of the clothes, has mostly been stained brown by the peat, but the original description calls it "probably a natural mixed grey" containing both white and colored fibers. The white wool for the middle stripe must have been undyed, but the red wool for the other two stripes was dyed, most likely with madder, since that was the most common and least expensive red dye available at the time. RESOURCES AND CREDITS I gratefully acknowledge the late Deborah Pulliam's article in Piecework Magazine (Interweave Press, September/October 2002) for the details of the purse. She discusses the wool and stitch techniques of all of Gunnister Man's knitted possessions in more detail in her article. She also reviewed this pattern and I've incorporated her suggestions, but of course the responsibility for any errors is mine. Richard Rutt, A History of Hand Knitting. Interweave Press, 1987, ISBN #0-934026-35-1. Reprinted 2003. The original report and description of the finds appears in the Proceedings ofthe Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, a publication of the National Museum of Antiquities, Edinburgh, 1951-52. Weavers Guild of Boston, Massachusetts. 17th Century Knitting Patterns as adapted for Plimoth Plantation. Monograph One, Second Edition. Copyright 1990, no ISBN.
GUNNISTER POUCH COLOR PATTERNING
This chart represents the finished purse, which is started at the top and worked downward. The top row of the chart is the first round of knit stitches after the row of purl stitch. Each row of vertical stitches represents I round of knitting. This chart shows five repeats of the pattern, which continues all the way around the pouch. The repeat is four stitches wide.
MORE HISTORICAL KNITTING
My enthusiasm for re-creating knitted items from the Middle Ages and Renaissance is shared with a number of other historical kniters.Twolikelygathering potsforknitters withthese interests are theHistoricknit ist onYahoo!Groups htt://grou. yahoo.com/group/HistoricKnit/) and the Historic Knitting Group at Ravelry.com ( http:/www.ravelry.com/groups/historicknitting). Both are fre to join. Copyright 2014 by Chris Laning. Allrights reserved. Contact the authorat <claning@igc.org>
