Experiments in Shetland lace
Scroll ↓
A Ladies Scarf
The Pattern for this scarf originated from the Pattern for a lady's scarf published in 1885 in Miss Ronaldson's 'Gift-book of useful and ornamental knitting, netting and crochet'. During my research, I found several other Victorian knitting books with alternative lace motifs that I included in this Pattern.
Miss Ronaldson refers to this scarf as a Shetland scarf. At this time, many knitting manuals and books used the term "Shetland" to describe a shawl or scarf with lace. This raises the question of what exactly constitutes Shetland lace—is it the construction method or the stitch pattern, or does it depend on who makes it?
I created this Pattern, which is available as a free download as part of my dissertation, which focused on the inevitable historical inaccuracy of historical reproduction due to lost knowledge and how we uncover it.