Based on some of the gloves in the Dales Countryside Museum, at Hawes.
They are knit in Wensleydale Longwool Sheepshop’s DK – any two colours with strong contrast would do the trick. Will upload the pattern and charts here after it’s published.
Gansey research is coming on well – lots of museums and archives now contacted, feelers been put out, images starting to come in and I’ll be going to visit them all, camera and notebook in hand! I’ll be sharing it all in book form (‘Citing!), hopefully down the year!
The gloves came in handy during this weather:
The Signature DPNs were a Yule present, and I can safely report back to yous they are, indeed, the ‘Ferrari of knitting needles’ (according to the mighty Yarn Harlot). A far cry from the original Yorkshire Dales knitters’ needles – described by Marie Hartley in ”The Old Handknitters of the Dales’:
“… They bought lengths of curved wire from the village shop, and sharpened the ends on a stone. Sometimes, they might sharpen them on the jambs of the fireplace and leave permanent dents in the stone-work….”
[Old Hand-Knitters of The Dales, Marie Hartley & Joan Ingilby, Dalesmen Books, 1991]
I couldn’t bear to bend my Signatures – have seen the Dales needles in the Museum and they curve like bows! But then I don’t bother with a knitting sheath unless knitting at living history events.
