16 April 2008

Maybe Not So Idiotic

Most modern knitters are familiar with the concept of 'idiot cord,' or 'i-cord,' so named by Elizabeth Zimmermann, who is credited with 'accidentally discovering' it.

I have never much cared for the "idiot cord" appellation. Yes, the item in question is incredibly simple to make, but simplicity and stupidity are not the same thing. (Neither is complexity a sign of genius, for that matter).

I don't much care for the '... for Dummies' and 'Complete Idiot's Guide to ...' franchises for the same reason. I hold, crankily and with white knuckles, to the idea that it's OK to be smart. On the other hand, I also know when I'm outnumbered.

Then, while looking for something else, I came across a book, published in London in 1852, with the following very impressive title page:

The Finchley Manuals of Industry,
No. IV

PLAIN NEEDLE-WORK,
In all its Branches;
with
FULL DIRECTIONS
FOR SHIRT, SHIFT, FROCK, AND BOYS'
DRESS-MAKING;

CUTTING-OUT AND REPAIRING; MARKING, KNITTING,
AND FINE DRAWING; NETTING

AND VARIOUS OTHER SORTS OF

FANCY-WORK IN THREAD, WORSTED, ETC.
THE WHOLE
Illustrated by Tables and Diagrams.

Prepared for the use of the National and Industrial
Schools of the Holy Trinity, At Finchley.


It can be found on Google Books here. It's a peculiar volume, a sort of textile catechism presented in question-and-answer format. Why did God make you? He made me to know him, to love him, and to knit socks in this world, and have warm feet with Him forever in the next!

All right, it's not quite like that, and doubtless the good people who wrote it would think me very irreverent. They'd be right. However.

If one pages along to page 40 in the text, one finds:

TO KNIT A STAY-LACE

Women and girls may frequently save pence by being able to knit their own stay-laces.

Q. Do you know how to knit a stay-lace?

A. Yes, ma'am; I cast-on three stitches, I knit them off, and pass them to the contrary end of the right needle, and the thread will then lie at the back of the knitting.

Q. Well?

A. I begin and knit them off again, and pass to the opposite end of the needle as before. I proceed in the same manner with every row, and thus I produce a strong round cord.


Maybe not so idiotic, after all.

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