My Year of Weldon's: Project 8: Egg Cosy

About Weldon's Practical Needlework

From Interweave Press:

About 1885, Weldon’s began publishing a series of fourteen-page monthly newsletters, available by subscription, each title featuring patterns and instructions for projects using a single technique.

About 1888, the company began to publish Weldon’s Practical Needlework, each volume of which consisted of twelve issues (one year) of several newsletters bound together with a cloth cover.

Each volume contains hundreds of projects, illustrations, information on little-known techniques, glimpses of fashion as it was at the turn of the twentieth century, and brief histories of needlework. Other techniques treated include making objects from crinkled paper, tatting, netting, beading, patchwork, crewelwork, appliqué, cross-stitch, canvaswork, ivory embroidery, torchon lace, and much more.

From 1999 through 2005, Interweave published facsimiles of the first twelve volumes of Weldon’s Practical Needlework.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Project 8 Egg Cosy Pattern Available

My cute little egg cosy is done and ready to keep my soft-boiled egg warm on a frosty morning (if I ate soft-boiled eggs. Which I don't. But this is so cute I may just start)

The free pattern is available here.

This pattern uses very small needles (000 or 1.5 mm) and single strands of 3 colors of needlepoint yarn (I used Paternayan Persian Wool, which comes in an amazing array of 418 shades. That is chump change compared to the number of colors that our Victorian knitters had available in Berlin Wool; an 1857 edition of Godey's Lady's Book said that Berlin Wool was available in over 1,000 shades.

Knitting with needles this small is really not too difficult, once you conquer those first couple of rounds on the double point needles (I find the first few rounds in any double-point knitting to be a little trying but things settle down nicely after you've worked 3 or 4 rounds)

I bought a cute egg cup for my photo, but the cosy is designed to stand up on its own and fits nicely over an egg.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Project 8: Egg Cosy

What could be more Victorian than an Egg Cosy? If it could be covered with something cute, it would be. And what's cuter than a soft-boiled egg in an egg cup, topped with this little cover?

The Egg Cosy is from Weldon's Practical Knitter, Twenty-Eighth Series (1895), and republished in Weldon's Practical Needlework Volume 10.

If you want to knit this project, you'll need teeny tiny needles: size 000. I am using Paternayan Persian Wool, which comes in 8 yard skeins in many colors. It's commonly used for needlepoint and crewel embroidery. The yarn is 3 strands, you'll knit with 1 strand, so you need to pull a strand off to start your knitting.

Once I got through the first couple of round on the tiny double point needles, everything calmed down and it was easy to knit. And since it's such a small project, it didn't take long. In fact, I started my cosy last night and finished it today. I'm just waiting for the cute egg cup I ordered to get here so I can take a picture, and then I'll provide a pattern.