Had a brilliant visit to the Clothworkers’ Centre textile study rooms, to look at historic knitting. Copyright means I can’t post images – but we saw some amazing pieces of knitting. My forever favourite is the ‘Dutch Petticoat’, knitted in the early 1700s using very fine natural colour wool (22 sts per inch) and decorated allover with birds, animals and flora, worked in combinations of knit and purl stitches. However many times I see this it always amazes me.
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O10318/petticoat-unknown/
Pic below: looking at a tiny stitch sampler, knitted in what looks like fine sewing thread.
