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08.03.2026 22:47
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A narrow strip of leaf-patterned lace knitting, worked in a fine (size 20) ecru crochet cotton.
A narrow strip of leaf-patterned lace knitting, worked in a fine (size 20) ecru crochet cotton.
The Willow Leaf Edging, an 1880s charmer with a fascinating construction. Now available as a chart and row-by-row pattern for all paid Patreon patrons. And we took a close look at how it works during today's workroom chat, which members can watch via the replay.
A handsomely appointed dollshouse sitting room with fireplace and settee. There are embroidered cushions and an embroidered carpet on the floor. A group of dolls and figures are posed in the center, including two bisque porcelain cats, a china head maid, two Vienna bronze ducks, and a Vienna bronze rat.
On this International Women's Day, some ladies of the cast assemble in the sitting room of 39, Eglantine Crescent to bid you strength and solidarity and pockets.
Left to right: Lisette, Lolotte, Miss Pond, Enid, Mrs Puddle, and Fiammetta.
I'm going to have to go back several times. The galleries are small - but absolutely PACKED.
A pair of knitted fingerless mitts of extremely fine gauge. They are primarily white, with mauve accents at the finger and thumb openings, the wrist, and along the long cuffs. The cuffs are additonally ornamented with frills of white bobbin lace. The backs of the hands are embroidered with multicolored sprays of flowers. One of the frills on the left mitt has been stained with what I think is red ink.
Works on display range from the 18th century to the present, including this astonishing pair of knitted cotton mitts with silk embroidery and lace trim.
To give to a better idea of scale, the mauve bands with the chevron pattern are about a scant .5 inch (1.25 cm) deep.
A pair of knitted fingerless mitts of extremely fine gauge. They are primarily white, with mauve accents at the finger and thumb openings, the wrist, and along the long cuffs. The cuffs are additonally ornamented with frills of white bobbin lace. The backs of the hands are embroidered with multicolored sprays of flowers. One of the frills on the left mitt has been stained with what I think is red ink.
A pair of knitted fingerless mitts of extremely fine gauge. They are primarily white, with mauve accents at the finger and thumb openings, the wrist, and along the long cuffs. The cuffs are additonally ornamented with frills of white bobbin lace. The backs of the hands are embroidered with multicolored sprays of flowers. One of the frills on the left mitt has been stained with what I think is red ink.
The exhibition "Tisser, broder, sublimer: le savoir-faire de la mode" at the Palais Galliera runs through 18 Oct 2026.
It honors at the "métiers" (professions) that make Paris fashion special.
The weavers, dyers, embroiderers, and makers of lace, artificial flowers, and passementeries ("trims").
Me, such as it is, in white tie with gloves and a top hat.
Headin' to the barn dance.
Sharing it with folks like you who enjoy it makes it so much more fun. And thank you for sharing the post!
...relative to yarn overs to create that shaped edge, even though the stitch count remains consistent from row to row.
(Patreon patrons, we'll take a close look at how this works during an upcomingworkroom chat, and I'll be translating and charting the pattern for you.)
In the foreground, a narrow strip of ecru cotton knitted lace, still attached to the knitting needle (and the ball of thread, which is in the background). The edge of the grapevine wreath is also visible.
Last night I picked out an 1880s leaf lace edging to use as a ribbon for the grapevine wreath. I'm working it in a vintage ecru size 20 crochet cotton on a US 1 (2.25mm) needle. Even before blocking I'm pretty happy with it.
The pattern is fun to work, and uses clever placement of decreases...
To the left above, a gem tintype of two men in jackets and ties sitting together, holding hands. To the left below, a gem tintype of a glum-looking young girl in a print dress. To the right and below, the shelves and settee are crammed with miniature books.
...the full catalogue at foxeandboxe.com.)
The rug is cross stitch worked from a 19th-century French chart, and the lovely settee is 19th- or early 20th-century German.
There's not enough shelf space and the books spill over into the rest of the house. Art imitates life.
#foxeandboxe
To the right, the oval portrait miniature of a balding man with curly hair and sideburns in a green jacket and white cravat. To the left, above, a gem tintype of a woman in a bonnet tied with an enormous striped bow. Below that, another gem tintype of a man in profile, in a coat and tie with a narrow-brimmed hat.
The gem tintypes were bought unframed and fitted into jewelry findings, some with Dresden paper mattes.
The books are all "real," in the sense that they open, are printed, and can be read. Not all have full texts, however. House rule, no other sorts of books permitted. (You can find...
A Vienna bronze dog figurine in a green jacket with a walking stick, contemplating a group of miniature tintypes and an early 19th-century oval portrait miniature hung on a dollhouse wall. To the left and right, bookshelves crammed with miniature books of many sizes, and in the middle a velvet settee with wooden legs, also covered in books.
Mr Boxe contemplates the newly-hung decorations in the library with satisfaction.
The miniature was another lucky find, inexpensive because the frame was missing and the subject is not conventionally handsome.
A tattered old dressmaker's form with a grapevine wreath around its neck. Behind it, a window with a white curtain, full of filtered sunlight. Just outside is the newly-trimmed grapevine.
February 24. I pruned the grapevine that I grew last year outside the workroom windows. I used the cuttings to make a wreath. I'd never made a wreath before, so I just twiddled around until there was a wreath.
I'm going to trim it with knitting.
This felt very, very good.
Well...confession time...there are yarn overs all along the selvages that *should* have been threaded onto a cord so they, too, would be properly opened up...but I was lazy...and the cord was hiding from me. In the drawer where I keep the cord.
A piece of handknit lace is pinned with metal T-pins to a textured blue rubber mat. The lace is knit in golden-yellow yarn. The main feature of the lace is a central row of shell shapes, mirrored. The shells are bordered by columns of an openwork stitch I can't call by its proper name because it would be flagged as hate speech.
Pinning out a lace pattern translated from an 1847 French album of knitting motifs. (Coming to Patreon in charted and written instructions.) This test was knit in fingering weight wool.
Lucy, thank you for this lovely memory on a cold, grey day. 🥰
Detail of a drawing made by actual human hands of the tortoise and the hare, knitting. The hare has only produced a few inches of fabric, the tortoise's yards and yards roll right out of the frame.
This month's calendar page really comes from the heart. I see so many folks lamenting their ability to do more, even when they're already doing so much.
www.patreon.com/posts/downlo...
I still haven't woven in the ends on this pair of socks I finished in 2017, but the Dow is over 50,000 right now and that's what we should be talking about.
Side view of a curious handknitted cap in light brown wool, with a long brown tassel and a bill made of brown wool.
You've got a Letter from Paris at Modern Daily Knitting! In which I am easily distrac
www.moderndailyknitting.com/community/ol...
I realized that in my present neighborhood in Paris, Fashion Week people are what Cubs fans were in Wrigleyville, my old neighborhood in Chicago. We know why you're here, we know you need to be here, but we're not as excited about it as you are, and mostly we wish you'd stop blocking the sidewalk.
You've got a Letter from Paris at Modern Daily Knitting. Away from the crowds and the hype, a challenging, fascinating exhibit of textile art hidden in plain sight.
Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On – Modern Daily Knitting share.google/BfprlilnU1Pq...
Not just a pretty bird...useful, too.
This 19th-century "Palais-Royal" thimble holder in the form of a peacock is typical of the always opulent but often whimsical needlework impedimenta that could be purchased in the shops of Paris' Palais-Royal during the Second Empire.
It's a tough question for me right now because so many USA shops aren't carrying the brands I have access to in Europe, so I don't know what to suggest.
On an asphalt sidewalk in Paris, a discarded Christmas tree leans against the stone wall of a building. It is wrapped from top to bottom in a gold plastoc bag printed with small white fir trees. Ties that divide it roughly into thirds give it voluptuous curves. Va-va-voom.
My part of the 10th is the fashion incubator of Paris and you never know what you might see folks wearing, so it took me a minute to realize this was not one of the neighbors heading out to a New Year's Eve party.
Years later I finally met her in person, an introduction kindly provided by Meg Swansen. She was wearing an absolutely astonishing poncho in a potpourri on mosaic designs. I remember babbling idiotic fanboy nonsense while she smiled kindly.
Not long after that, I got a message from Barbara Walker herself asking if she could please have a copy of the sketch because she was delighted by it.
Cartoon of two spiders talking bitterly about a third spider, who is sitting smugly at the center of a large and elaborate web decorated with 10 different patterns. The caption reads, "Oh, please. Ever since she discovered that damned Barbara Walker there's no talking to her."
...in this early drawing that was later collected into "It Itches: A Stash of Knitting Cartoons."
I got a very angry message, from the sort of person for whom taking offense is a beloved pastime, telling me I ought to be ashamed of myself for insulting a great woman...
News was slow to reach me of the death of Barbara G. Walker, pillar of the world of knitting as author of the "Treasury of Knitting Patterns" series, "Knitting from the Top," et al (still in print thanks to Schoolhouse Press ), and originator of slip-slip-knit.
I mentioned her..
