An Undertaking of Historic Proportions

Ok, not so much.  But I wanted to fit the word "historic" in there.

I've mentioned Nerd Wars before, right?  One of the challenges this month is to craft something related to the history of our craft.  At first, I wasn't so sure about this.  Sometimes a challenge will grab me immediately, sometimes I never come up with something, and usually it's somewhere in the middle.  I was originally thinking this one fell into that second category.

But then I remembered something.  Something absolutely perfect.  Years ago I went looking through google books for free knitting/crochet books, focused mostly on the really really old stuff because, well, it was more likely to be free.  Also it was really cool seeing the way people described these crafts way back when.

I never really tackled any of the patterns seriously.  Even though I was a pretty decent knitter back then, most things would require quite a bit interpreting and guessing about appropriate yarn and needles, and I just didn't have the patience.  But now...now I have a reason!

This time around I went looking for something that A) Wouldn't take tons and tons of interpreting, B) Something I had a purpose for, and C) Something that looked fun to make.

The answer?  A pattern for "Driving Mitts", which is just an old fashioned way of saying Fingerless Mitts.  What's old is new again, right?  And perfect because I've so been thinking about them a lot lately.

For those curious, the book is Knitting, crochet, and netting by Eléonore Riego de la Branchardière (totally copy pasted that name, lol).  The pattern is simply called "Driving Mitts" and is on page 31.  This book was published in 1846 in London.  So cool.

So, to knitting.  The pattern itself seems pretty straightforward.  The yarn and needles I of course had to guess at.  The pattern called for "4 Pins No. 15, 4-thread Fleecy", and while I know that back then the bigger the needle size the smaller the needle, that's all I know.  I haven't the slightest idea what "4-thread fleecy" is, perhaps a brand?  But the stitch count and small needle says "sock yarn or similar" to me.  The pattern calls for 56 stitches to be cast on, which is right within range of sock yarn weight patterns I've been looking at recently.  Apparently no one thought gauge was an important addition to patterns back then.

I happen to own one set of sock size needles - maybe two but if I have a second set I have no idea where it's at.  This pair is, apparently, US size 1 - which is 2.25 mm.  Looking at how "size 1" is just as arbitrary as "No. 15", I have a sudden desire to start using mm sizes exclusively.

Someone in the NW challenge thread posted a link to a conversion chart of old needle sizes for those who might be tackling old patterns, and said chart says a 15 is a lot smaller than what I've got.  But I've just got the one set.  And as I've been looking at newer fingerless glove patterns off and on for days, this size plus fingering/sock weight yarn seems right on track to make something that will fit me.

Digging through my meager thin yarn stash, I finally settled on some Knit Picks Chroma that's a wonderful orange colorway.  Since I'm guessing with yarn and needles anyway, I figured I'd just knit the cuff and see if it fits.

I actually finished the cuff this morning, but got impatient before then and tried the cuff on at about 10 rows in.  It fits, so yay, good sign!  I'm just now starting the actually patterning part, so we'll see how that goes.

You can follow my progress here at my public Ravelry project page, though I'll try to remember to post updates here about it because this is just so cool.