Seventeenth-Century Scandinavian Knitted Sleeves
Ursula Georges
History of Knitted Shirts
Several fourteenth-century paintings show the Virgin Mary knitting. In one painting by the German painter Master Bertram of Minden, Mary is knitting a shirt in the round on four needles. (Rutt, p. 48.) The Bible says Jesus had a garment without seams; a 1508 book on Christ's childhood and a 1529 translation of the Bible claim that this seamless garment was a knitted shirt. (Bible, John 19:23; Hoffman, p. 131.) Minden's painting may be an earlier portrayal of the same legend, or it may be just a portrait of the Virgin Mary engaged in an everyday household task. In either case, the painting shows that by the fourteenth century, the idea of a knitted shirt was reasonable. However, the earliest extant knitted shirts and jackets are from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Knitted Shirts and Jackets
One of the oldest surviving knitted jackets belonged to the German Count Ottheinrich, who died in 1559. The jacket is very wide to accommodate Ottheinrich's stout figure. It is knitted in panels from unbleached silk, and covered with a striped pattern in knit and purl stitches. (Hoffman, p. 132; "Exhibition of the Bible of Elector Ottheinrich.")
Almost a century later, King Charles I of England wore a sky-blue knitted silk shirt to his execution in 1649. Today, the shirt is in the Museum of London. It has a slit in the front which is closed by a row of buttons, and it is covered with a geometric pattern of knit and purl stitches. It was knitted in the round, at a gauge of 21 stitches per inch. Silk shirts with similar knit and purl patterns survive in several British collections: the costume collection of Drummond Castle in Perthshire, England contains a pale blue knitted shirt, and in Scotland, the Burrell Collection has a sixteenth- or seventeenth-century jacket knitted in yellow and beige silk with gold thread and covered with a floral pattern made up of knit and purl stitches. (Rutt, pp. 79-80.)
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London has two seventeenth-century knitted jackets made of cotton. One is a child's jacket in stockinette stitch, with decorative bands of knit and purl stitch. This jacket was knitted at a gauge of 21 stitches to the inch. Legend claims that it belonged to a young Charles II, but the story cannot be substantiated. The other cotton jacket in the Victoria and Albert Museum is sized for an adult. Unlike the child's jacket, it has a flared shape, constructed by systematic decreases. (Levey, p. 191.)
A number of extant multicolored silk jackets have been tentatively dated to the seventeenth century. These jackets are constructed from flat panels sewn together. They are covered in brocade-like floral patterns, made of stranded silk and gold thread. Because the panels are not sewn together neatly, a few scholars have speculated that the panels were made on frames and then joined, rather than knitted by hand. (Rutt, pp. 81-82; Levey, pp. 187-188.)
Scandinavian 'Nightshirts'
Two silk jackets, decorated with a floral pattern in purl stitches made of gold thread, have been found in a royal grave from 1620s Denmark. The jackets were not new when they were buried, and were probably produced around 1600. (Hoffman, p. 134.) The Danish National Museum in Copenhagen has a sixteenth-century knitted silk jacket which opens all the way down the front. This jacket may have been imported from England. (McGregor, p. 77.)
Shirts similar to King Charles' I execution waistcoat and the Drummond Castle shirt were worn in sixteenth-century Norway. These shirts are known by their Danish and Norwegian name, 'nattrøye'. Nattrøye translates literally as 'nightshirt'. However, 'evening-shirt' might be just as appropriate a term: the shirts were worn on informal occasions, underneath a jacket or vest. (Hoffman, pp. 138-139.)Eleven seventeenth-century Norwegian nattrøye, made of silk and embroidered in metallic threads, survive today. The shirts are all covered in a pattern of stars and diamonds constructed from contrasting knit and purl stitches. They open at the neck, and have flared hems. The cuffs and yoke are embroidered with spirals and flowers. Colors include blue, green, and red; one green shirt has stars purled in gold thread. (Hoffman, p. 134.) Ten of the eleven surviving shirts have a pile made of 1-inch long silk threads attached to the reverse side of the shirt. (Hoffman, p. 137.)
Several Danish museums contain seventeenth-century 'nightshirts' made of wool. Like their silk counterparts, the wool shirts are covered with a pattern of eight-pointed stars in purl stitch. The Danish noblewoman Sophie Brahe purchased a pair of nattrøye, one made of silk and one made of wool, in 1639. The wool shirt was large, blue, and covered in a pile similar to the pile found inside the Norwegian silk nattrøye. (Hoffman, p. 141-142.) Norway imported wool nattrøye during the second half of the seventeenth century, and perhaps earlier, including a total of eighty-four wool nightshirts in 1685. (Hoffman, p. 138.)
The elaborate silk nattrøye were not made in Scandinavia, though the thick pile suggests that the Norwegian shirts may have been specially manufactured for a cold climate. Since the nattrøye are similar in shape and pattern to the British shirts, they may have come from England. However, German or Italian workshops are also possible sources. (Hoffman, pp. 139-140.) Sheila McGregor claims that in Denmark, imported silk knitted jackets were immediately copied in wool; surviving accounts show that the Danes were definitely producing wool nattrøye by the 1690s. (McGregor, p. 77; Hoffman, p. 140.)
During the seventeenth century, both men and women wore nattrøye. In Denmark, nattrøye survive as part of traditional folk costume worn only by women. They were usually worn under some sort of jacket or bodice; Danish folk costumes include a sleeveless cloth bodice worn over the 'nightshirt' and a full skirt. (McGregor, p. 77.) A Danish tombstone from 1620 shows two women or angels wearing nattrøye over long blue skirts embellished with a star pattern. (Sundbø, p. 123.)
Detached Sleeves
A Norwegian collection contains a pair of blue silk knitted sleeves, embroidered with floral designs made of gold thread. The sleeves match a blue silk 'nightshirt' in the same collection; like the nightshirt, they are covered with a pattern of stars and diamonds made up of knit and purl stitches. The sleeves appear to have been knitted as a flat piece and then sewn together. (Hoffman, pp. 137-138.)
Knitted sleeves appear in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century records as well: an act passed in England in 1552 mentions knitted wool sleeves, and the estate documents of the German nobleman Octavian Secundus Fugger, who died in 1600, also mention a pair of knitted sleeves. Danish inventories from the second half of the seventeenth century mention both wool and silk knitted sleeves, some with pile and some without; knitted sleeves also appear in contemporary Norwegian import lists.
Detachable knitted sleeves may have been worn with knitted vests or with cloth bodices. Some nineteenth-century Scandinavian folk costumes incorporated cloth jackets with knitted sleeves; sixteenth-century costume may have done the same. (Hoffman, p. 138.)
Making Knitted Sleeves
I knitted a pair of red wool sleeves, basing my design on a photograph of the surviving Norwegian blue silk sleeves.
Materials
I chose to use wool instead of silk because it is more readily available and far more affordable. Wool versions of knitted sleeves were also used in sixteenth-century England and seventeenth-century Scandinavia, as noted above. One surviving Norwegian silk nightshirt is a shade of crimson very close to the red I chose. (Hoffman, p. 135.)
I used Addi Turbo circular needles, made of aluminum with brass tips, because circular needles are more portable. Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century articles of clothing were knitted on needles made of steel. (Rutt, p. 62.)
Star Pattern
I charted my own knit-purl star pattern based on a traditional Scandinavian Fair Isle star. (Sundbø, p. 171.) McGregor provides a similar chart in Traditional Scandinavian Knitting. (McGregor, p. 13.) My pattern produces stars that are roughly the same size as the stars on the Norwegian silk sleeves; however, each star is made up of fewer stitches, which makes the pattern stand out less sharply. I used a rougher gauge than the silk sleeves in the interest of speed. However, some seventeenth-century articles of clothing were knitted at a similar gauge. A black tube found in the shipwreck of the Mary Rose, which sank in 1545, was knitted at 6 stitches to the inch, precisely the gauge of my piece. The tube found in the Mary Rose may have been either a sleeve or a stocking leg; since one end is frayed, the original length and purpose is unclear. (Rutt, p. 63.)
Shaping
Like the Norwegian knitted sleeves, my sleeves were knitted as a tapered flat piece and then sewn together. To create the proper shaping, I followed a modern sweater pattern by Elsebeth Lavold. (Lavold, p. 41.) Knitting the star pattern in knit and purl stitches was more challenging on a flat piece than it would have been in the round, since in flat knitting alternating rows must switch from knit to purl and vice versa to create a consistent effect.
Future Projects
Like some of the English knitted shirts but unlike the surviving Norwegian sleeves, my knitted sleeves do not incorporate gold embroidery. I would like to make embroidered sleeves at some point, perhaps on a more finely knitted silk ground. More finely knitted sleeves could also include a pile like the silk pile of the Norwegian shirts. I also hope to complete a full seventeenth-century style wool 'nightshirt.'
Bibliography
"Exhibition of the Bible of Elector Ottheinrich," WWW: BSB Munchen, 2002. http://www.bsb-muenchen.de/english/ott_info_e.htm
Hoffman, Marta. "Of knitted 'nightshirts' and detachable sleeves in Norway in the seventeenth century," Opera Textilia Variorum Temporum, ed. Inger Estham and Margareta Nockert, Stockholm: Statens Historiska Museum, 1988.
Lavold, Elsebeth. Designer's Choice: Book One: The Viking Knits Collection, Spånga: Ingen Kost AB, 2003.
Levey, S.M. "Illustrations of the History of Knitting Selected From the Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum," Textile History, vol. I, No. 2, 1971.
McGregor, Sheila. Traditional Scandinavian Knitting, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1984, reprinted by Dover Press, 2004.
Rutt, Richard. A History of Hand Knitting, London: B.T. Batsford, 1987, reprinted by Interweave Press.
Sundbø, Annemor. Everyday Knitting: Treasures from a Ragpile, trans. Amy Lightfoot, Kristiansand: Torridal Tweed, 2001.
Thomas, Mary. Mary Thomas's Knitting Book, London: Hodder and Stoughton Ltd., 1938, reprinted by Dover Press, 1972.
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