Crochet scarf stich/pattern question.

[Ohio Reb]

I would like to make some civil war wool scarves and was wondering what the crochet pattern would be, like a modern stich? And what woudl the typical color of the wool be if it were coming from home (South)? Any input would be appreciated.

Dan Valek

[ElizabethClark]

Re: Crochet scarf stich/pattern question.

Dan, I'm relocating your post over to the citizen's board--more likely to get help there. :)

[Spinster]

Re: Crochet scarf stich/pattern question.

Thanks Elizabeth--I started on this one last night, and the board ate my post. When I came back to it, I could not find it.

I'll leave it to others to explore the various crochet stitches--I can make them, but don't like to because they make my hands hurt and knitting doesn't. Knitted items are also more common during the period, with garter and brioche stitches being very common in scarf patterns.

So instead, I'll explore color choices and means of production.

Early war, in the south, before the blockade shut down the flow of manufactured goods, your choice in color and yarn type is limited only by your period pocketbook and period sense of fashion.

A conservative man of a prosperous farming class would have owned or received a conservative scarf--of finer wool yarn in a subdued color---logwood black or gray, indigo blue, or a strong madder cutch cochineal red brown for the flashier type.

A man of lower economic status may have owned a more coarsely made item, which a young man with a flashy personality made have found wild stripes attractive.

As the war progresses, the supply source for much manufactured yarn is blockaded and turns to homespun--still capable of being very fine and even with practice. This not lumpy bumpy yarn except in the first months of the spinner's production.

Color suffers though--logwood is blockaded, and the economy turns to various substitute sources documented in Vicki Betts period newspaper research. I did a run several years back based on some of those receipts, and despite best efforts and tweaking got sad sorry substitutes for black--mostly a dirty grey.

Walnut based substitutes proported to make black gave me a medium grey brown, and Neal Sexton got a nice chocolate brown in a similar effort.

Indigo is a domestic product, and available. Its production and refinement is labor intensive, and done in coastal areas--the very areas quickly disrupted by the war. A little goes a long way though, and an industrious home dyer could have easily extended a small pre-stash for several years.


Don't over look the option of the item being whatever color the sheep was-- a nice dark brown or black would have been an ideal solution--or, if your item was a 'comfort' rather than a scarf, white would have been the normal color for the item, and even easier to obtain.

[col90]

Re: Crochet scarf stich/pattern question.

I'll leave it to others to explore the various crochet stitches--I can make them, but don't like to because they make my hands hurt and knitting doesn't. Knitted items are also more common during the period, with garter and brioche stitches being very common in scarf patterns.

Absolutely agree...and you CAN do it in any regular crochet stitch...as well as Afghan stitch, since that is found in several period patterns as well.Here is a pattern from an 1862 Godeys that uses that:



CROCHET SCARF FOR A GENTLEMAN.

This scarf is worked in two colors, with a crochet needle, No. 5; it is worked lengthwise.


Make a chain of 256 stitches, and make two rows of wave stitch in chinee worsted; then three rows in Afghan stitch with blue worsted; continue to do so until the scarf has seven chinee stripes and six blue stripes; then bind off; finish the ends with a deep fringe, and the sides with a scalloped edge.

Wave stitch is done by making one row of plain Afghan stitch, but in picking up the second row you push the chain over on the right side and pick the long loops up on the back; the third row you do in plain Afghan stitch, and the fourth as the second row, and so continue to work.


And here is another simple one, from 1857:



WOOL SCARF, IN CROCHET.


WE give a simple, but pretty pattern, when worked for a crochet scarf in two colors; scarlet and brown look well together in German wool. Make a chain of eighty loops, join it, and work round it one long stitch and one chain, in every second loop. Commence the first row of the pattern by working three long, one chain and three long in every seventh loop of the last row; repeat these rows until the scarf is of sufficient length, alternating the colors. Finish the ends by netting three or four rows on a small mesh, and then netting with double wool on a mesh about three inches wide, two loops in one, which when cut forms the fringe, and completes this very useful little article. A very pretty cuff may be made to match by knitting a straight piece in garter stitch of about three inches wide, and when long enough to pass over the hand, cast off and sew lip; then crochet on this about four rows of the same pattern, which corresponds with the scarf, and looks very well when worn together.


Now this one has netted fringe, but you can easily just do a regular fringe on the ends.

Early war, in the south, before the blockade shut down the flow of manufactured goods, your choice in color and yarn type is limited only by your period pocketbook and period sense of fashion.

And we seem to forget that..and if you had a good stash of yarn, that might even extend into later years of the war as well.

As the war progresses, the supply source for much manufactured yarn is blockaded and turns to homespun--still capable of being very fine and even with practice. This not lumpy bumpy yarn except in the first months of the spinner's production.

Thank you, thank you!! too many times we equate "homespun" with the "homespun" look favored today...and that is not necessarily true!

Colleen

[Ohio Reb]

Re: Crochet scarf stich/pattern question.

Thank you very much ladies for the helpful information, thanks again.


Dan Valek

[Spinster]

Re: Crochet scarf stich/pattern question.

And Dan, I'll have a variety of period dyed wool yarns available at Shaker Village and at Perryville, mostly in the brighter reds and indigos. Later in the fall I'll be doing some 'blockade' dyes as well.

[Sweet_Lil_yank]

Re: Crochet scarf stich/pattern question.

It depends on what geographic location you're at in the South, and economic status. If you're trying to be a poor backwoodsy guy, there are things cheaper/easier to get ahold of than cochineal bugs. If you want the "I dyed this at home" look, onion dyeing can give you nice yellows, oranges, and browns depending on the pot you use.

-Julie H.

[Sandy Whitlow]

Re: Crochet scarf stich/pattern question.

[QUOTE=Spinster] Knitted items are also more common during the period, with garter and brioche stitches being very common in scarf patterns.QUOTE]

What excellent information re colors of scarves. In regards to the knitting stitches used, would brioche and garter be just as common for working class women's scarves, including both the North and South?

[col90]

Re: Crochet scarf stich/pattern question.

What excellent information re colors of scarves. In regards to the knitting stitches used, would brioche and garter be just as common for working class women's scarves, including both the North and South?

Absolutely. Garter stitch is extremely common, for both experienced and beginning knitters, and brioche stitch is very easy to learn, and seen in a number of patterns. In addition, there is very little difference in Northern and Southern knitting...the same patterns were used, the same sources, and the same threads. You may find ethnic variations, etc., but that is regional regardless of where you are.

Colleen

[Sandy Whitlow]

Re: Crochet scarf stich/pattern question.

Absolutely. Garter stitch is extremely common, for both experienced and beginning knitters, and brioche stitch is very easy to learn, and seen in a number of patterns. In addition, there is very little difference in Northern and Southern knitting...the same patterns were used, the same sources, and the same threads. You may find ethnic variations, etc., but that is regional regardless of where you are.

Colleen

Thank you, Colleen. Now I have no qualms at all about keeping the scarf I am supposedly making for my son all for myself. The dark madder red yarn is just too pretty to share! ;)

[stony_silence]

Re: Crochet scarf stich/pattern question.

Hello there!! :)

I have a question about the same topic so that's why I decided to reply to the thread (although it's a pretty old one ... ;) ) instead of opening a new one. My boyfriend does a lot of reenactment of the civil war and I wanted to make him a crochet scarf as he's doing a winter camp pretty soon.

Which wool would I have to use and which colours would be the most authentic? I read about the scarlet and brown here and told him about it, he wasn't quite sure but he's got a cap made of the same colours and he thinks this one is made of an authetic pattern. PS: He's doing the 5th of Virginia, maybe that's an important information for the wool & colour :)

I would be really grateful for any kind of help :)

Kind regards from Germany,

Sabrina Weber