I kind of laid it flat to photograph - this shows the ribbing kind of turned in from the needle. I think the colors are working up nicely in it. It's kind of a soothing thing to work on because you can just knit without really having to think - there's the 4" of ribbing, then 9" of knit-plain (the ribbing turns up over part of that, so you get a double-layer of knitting to go over your forehead. Which is good, because cold air on the forehead of someone with sinus trouble is never a pleasant thing.) Then you decrease.
The hat is called Sockhead, as I mentioned before - it's on the bohoknits website. (The pattern in question is free, but she also has a number of nice patterns for sale).
The interesting thing about the hat is the different things it makes me think of. First of all, it's shaped a bit like (but not exactly, the decreases aren't as extreme) the old Phrygian cap (I'm sure there's a more accurate and true-to-the-past Phrygian cap pattern out there, but I like the sockhead hat because of the ribbing).
Of course, the Phrygian cap later was adopted by the French revolutionaries.
And it was the "Liberty cap" seen in some early-American representations of Lady Liberty. (The American revolution, being portrayed - at least in this country - as being less bloody and awful than the French revolution, I think I prefer that use of it).
And later, something like the Phrygian cap was used as the "Smurf hat" (I'm SURE I remember reading somewhere that that was done on purpose by the illustrator - as a nod to the ideals of Revolutionary France.)
But there's also a "sockhead" out there, who wore a floppy hat.... one of the characters on the long-lived Cartoon Network show "Ed, Edd, and Eddy." (I admit, I never liked the show much. But at times it was hard to avoid.)
I'm sure this "sockhead" comes from the fact that the cap is knit using sockyarn. And I might try wearing mine with the end flopped forward, in imitation of a Liberty cap.
And yes, you can find most anything on the internet: here are some more "authentic" Phrygian cap patterns:
a sewn cap
knitted Liberty cap for an 18" doll like "American Girl" (could probably be scaled up for a human head)
String-or-Nothing's version for an adult human
Not a Phrygian cap, but a reconstruction of an old Viking knitted cap (link is given for the pattern on this page)
Actually, I suspect if one really searched all the historical-reenactor information that's out there, you could find a wealth of knitting (and other) patterns for re-creating historical garments. (It does seem a bit odd to me, using the 20th/21st century tool, the internet, to search for 18th century styled patterns)
3 comments:
Odd, yes, but also delightful.
in a nice bit of internet synergy, this week on Making Light they were discussing knitting an infundibulum which as near as I can make out is a made up word that took on a life of it's own, but when knitted looked much like a monk's hood.
So not only can you use the internet to look for past patterns, you can look for fictional future ones as well!
Yes, there's lots of historical and reenacting knitting out here ;) I can modestly suggest checking out the latest issue of Interweave's Knitting Traditions (it's been out for just a couple of weeks now).
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