Grace with Yarn

 I have fallen down the rabbit hole of research.  I spent some time online looking at knit ecclesiastical gloves which has prompted several questions.  Some of the religious websites offer interesting information, but not necessarily what I want. 1. I found mention of knitting needles made from either whittled bone or Toledo steel, thought to be approximately less than a millimeter in diameter.  Using the size 0000 needles for my funeral pillow was difficult enough.  I have a hard time thinking of the knitters’ eyesight from the 16th century—especially since I was working with my glasses off (I’m badly nearsighted) and in bright light.  My sympathies go out to those knitters from long ago who were working with sunlight or candlelight. 2. I haven’t been able to uncover any specific meaning yet for the patterns on the gloves.  From www.churchtimes.co.uk, I found an article talking about the gloves however that gave some fascinating details. “ Most of the...

My next project that I’m planning is recreating a pair of ecclesiastical gloves.  There’s several gloves at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts that I’m going to use as examples with some of them shown above. I am likely to use metal needles again to control the tension of the yarn, double pointed, again the same size I used on the funeral pillow, size 0000, and a silk/wool blend of yarn to obtain the right gauge of stitches. I would like to visit the museum itself and ask for an appointment to view these gloves as closely as possible.   There are several questions I want to answer that can only be obtained by close examination. 1. The second pair of gloves look like the outside edge of the hand is seamed versus knit in the round.  As gloves and mittens are typically knit in the round without a seam, how will this affect the fit? 2.  The second and third sets of gloves have fingertips that are much more rounded versus the second pair which is pointed. ...

 Welcome to my new blog.  I’m Engracia de Madrigal, known commonly as Gracie, in the East Kingdom of the Society for Creative Anachronisms. I’m using this blog to document my assorted projects pertaining to knitting, dying and spinning. I am an avid knitter and have been since I was young.  I’ve picked up spinning on both a drop spindle and wheel along the way and want to expand my knowledge to dying fibers and yarns. My first big project was the entry for the St. Eligius competition in November 2022.  I’ve chosen to build off of my persona and focus on 15th century knit objects. http://this.is/harpa/saga_prjons/spaensku_pudarnir.html I am working on recreating a knit panel of a pillow found in a Spanish tomb from Prince Fernando de la Cerda from 1275.  The pillow was used as a burial pillow, but there is also a lot of evidence of heraldic pillows being used in everyday life.  It was located in a stone tomb in the convent of Santa María la Real de Las Huelg...