Math4Knitters Lara Neel

Show notes and more at math4knitters.blogspot.com. Math4Knitters: Episode 48 Woven Stockings, Caucasus, 700 CE Really old, really cool knit sock from about 1100 - 1200 Click to make bigger. This one is a bit smaller, but just as cool My favorite version of an afterthought/inserted/pocket heel. (Full information about making this heel is in my book, Sock Architecture, and my Craftsy class.) If you watch the Craftsy class, you get to see me get REALLY excited when the heel bone and the thumb bone on a model skeleton are the same length.

Show notes and more at math4knitters.blogspot.com. Math4Knitters: Episode 47 A bit of a ramble today about some WTHeck moments I've had while reading sources. Sorry! Textile fragment found during the Yale-French Excavations at Dura-Europos (around 250) There is a lot more information about the Dura-Europos site here. Socks made in the 4th or 5th century, found at the burial grounds of Oxyrhynchus, a Greek colony on the Nile in central Egypt. These socks are currently at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Show notes and more at math4knitters.blogspot.com. Math4Knitters: Episode 46 I ran my audio through some filters this week. I hope it sounds better.  The Story of Portyanki, AKA "Chemical Weapons" Wrapping feet in cloth didn't end when knitting burst onto the world scene. Russian soldiers were officially issued footcloths, called portyanki, right up until 2013. Want more? Read up here. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FootClothFromFinnishDefenceForces.JPG Russians weren't the only ones who used footcloths well into the modern era. Finnish soldiers, German soldiers and others from Eastern Europe did, too. (I got that from Wikipedia, so proceed with caution if you accidentally end up a soldier somewhere from the time period after falling through time. It could be wrong.) Why would you do this to yourself? Footwraps are definitely cheaper and faster to produce than socks. I could see them being made, easily, from old clothes or other linens. They dry faster than socks. You can re-wrap them in a different direction, so they could still be used even if they had a worn spot or a hole.  This reusable nature wasn't always a blessing, though. My favorite tales of portyanki have to do with the smell. From the Moscow Times:  "They believe that footcloth smell could defeat any enemy, because no European or American can deal with such a smell," she said. "They just smell it and die instantly." Bykov agreed, recalling, "They smelled terribly, and everyone said portyanki were chemical weapons." ...and another thing that didn't occur to me... Sometimes footcloths are a blessing in disguise, Merridale said, because when soldiers get their boots, they don't necessarily get ones that fit them. "If you are good at wrapping portyanki, then you can wrap up five or six and end up with boots that really fit," Merridale said. I also have a general theory that people who didn't (or don't) wear socks and shoes every day simply have less sensitive feet. A soldier backs me up in this BBC article about wearing portyanki:  "Your feet become so hard you can drive in nails with your toes". So, there's that.  And Now, A Little Tale of My Hubris As modern knitters and knit designers, it's easy to get carried away and think that the way that we write knitting patterns is superior to writers of the past.  We are working under different assumptions and expectations made by our audiences, our publishers and ourselves.  When you read "Maintain decreases, in pattern," don't think the writer is just being lazy. She/he may have severe space restraints. She/he may *gasp* simply expect that her/his audience is well-versed in knitting and would be annoyed by stitch-by-stitch instructions.  A little over a year ago, one of my knitting students brought me a well-loved slipper that her mother made her about 30 years before. She asked me if it would be possible to write a pattern from it. I did my best. Then, about a week later, a friend of mine dropped an old booklet on my desk. I think it was to tease me, but I was delighted. It included a pattern for those slippers! The Bernhard Ulmann Co. gave these slippers the charming name of “Slippers No. 2260” in Bucilla Vol. 340, which cost $3.50 in 1976. The pattern is probably at least as old as 1950, and if anyone hunts around enough, I’m sure they will find several versions. I’ve already heard many charming stories of people learning how to knit with this pattern, which I absolutely adore! I thought the pattern would be perfect for my beginning knitting students, so I tried just photocopying it for them. As we worked through it, together, however, I found several ways to make the pattern easier to use and, frankly, more fun to knit. So, I rewrote it. Our beloved, invented-in-the-1980’s ssk didn’t exist at the time, so I added that in. I also added some slipped stitches at the beginning of most of the rows, to make the top edge of the slipper a little neater. I’m also not crazy about counting stit

Show notes and more at math4knitters.blogspot.com. Math4Knitters: Episode 45 Awesome illustration by Leslie Johnson Books I mentioned: History of Hosiery Sock Architecture The sound quality on this isn't quite as good as I would like, but I'm determined to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. I am using a microphone, and I'll see if backing away more from the computer's fan will help when I'm recording. 

Show notes and more at math4knitters.blogspot.com. Download/Listen to Episode 44. The original show notes for this show.

Show notes and more at math4knitters.blogspot.com. Download/Listen to Episode 43. The original show notes for this show.