Martha's Secret

Contrary to what many people assume, Amish women don't dress all in black. It is their bonnets, cloaks, aprons, shoes and stockings that are black, while their dresses are made of vivid solid shades of green, purple, teal, blue, and dark red. Until the early twentieth century, Amish women also wore coloured hand-knit stockings, and for special occasions such as their own weddings, Amish women often knit stockings with fancy striped tops and perhaps also stripes around the feet. It wasn't common knowledge because these stockings were demurely hidden beneath the Amish women's dresses and high-laced black shoes.

The most common pattern featured in these socks are the scallop lace tops as shown in the picture above, with a stripe or wreath or simple geometric pattern below it. Sometimes a date was knitted into the top of the stocking, presumably to commemorate the year of a wedding. My favourite thing about these Amish wedding stockings is that they demonstrate that, as every woman knows, much of the appeal of exquisite lingerie comes from the fact that it is hidden, that the woman who wears it is the only one who knows about it — or, if she is not the only one, she is at least one of a chosen and privileged few. Mainstream North American women have Victoria's Secret, and Amish women had Martha's, Mary's, Sadie's or Hannah's Secret.




Circa 1920, Amish began to buy commercially produced hosiery and ceased to wear coloured stockings altogether. Today, Amish women wear nylons or tights (and never wear socks) and they no longer knit their own stockings. Authentic hand-knit Amish stockings are now antiques, and are consequently rare and likely to cost a collector several hundred dollars per pair. The pair pictured above is for sale for $225(USD).




If you'd like to make yourself a pair of stockings, or what we "English" would call kneesocks, in the Amish style, Nancy Bush offers us a pattern for them on Ravelry. But if you are aiming for truly authentic old Amish stockings, I will tell you that according to close friend of mine who is a Mennonite and whom I had vet this post for accuracy, Amish women would never wear anything in this vivid shade of red. Dark red or hot pink would be acceptable, but never this bright "whore red".

Meek's Knit-Off

A week or so ago I watched the 2010 movie Meek's Cutoff, which is the story of three couples and a small boy trying to survive a westward trek on the Oregon Trail with their uncertain guide. The movie featured a scene in which the three female characters in the movie were all sitting around knitting. I had to give actresses Michelle Williams, Zoe Kazan, and Shirley Henderson an A for effort, because I bet they all learned to knit for their roles in the movie and they didn't do badly at looking competent and relaxed. However, to an experienced knitter who knows a little about women's needlework in Victorian times, it was a less than historically accurate scene. All three women were knitting quite slowly and had bad form, and all three were knitting what looked suspiciously like a garter stitch scarf, or some other shapeless beginner project.

Most nineteenth century American women knew how to knit well. Among any three given pioneer women, at least one or two would have been highly skilled, fast knitters, and they would all have been working on more technically demanding, recognizable, practical projects: socks or stockings being most likely, or mittens, or perhaps a shawl. The pregnant character would almost certainly have been knitting something for her baby. And why are all three women working on what looks like the same project with the same yarn? It wouldn't have been hard to make up three different, more period-accurate projects and give them to the actresses to work on for the scene, or to just give them mending or other sewing to do, and I don't understand why it wasn't done, especially when this was such a realistic movie in every other way. But then Hollywood doesn't tend to depict knitting in the most convincing way, probably because relatively few actors and directors have any real knitting skills or knowledge. I wonder if there's a need for movie knitting consultants, and if so, how one could become one?

The More We Knit, the More Things Stay the Same

If you love vintage knitting patterns like I do, you might want to check out Iva Rose Vintage Reproductions. This online store, which ships internationally, carries a vast selection of knitting, crochet and other needlework pattern and instruction books reproduced from original patterns dating from 1850 to 1950. The reproductions appear to be quite high quality as the store owner goes to a lot of effort to restore the appearance of the very old and often very worn and fragile original patterns. And the prices aren't unreasonable. The highest-priced book I've seen so far was under $25, and there are many booklets selling for under $10.

Even if you don't knit, or even if you do but have sworn on your own grave to NOT buy any more knitting patterns because you have so many already and your project list is already insanely long, if you are at all interested in what people wore in the first half of the twentieth century, this site is a must-see because of the array of beautiful photos for each of the many booklet offered for sale. I've barely begun to explore the listed titles, and so far I've seen patterns for Victorian outfits for 18" dolls, Edwardian capes, flapper-style beaded bags, thirties sports wear, and forties swing coats that are all perfectly usable by today's standards. And I've discovered one book containing a pattern for the famous fair isle worn by King Edward VIII.

Live and Let Knit

If you love vintage knitting and crochet patterns, you might like to check out Re Knitting, the blog of a retired West Yorkshire woman named Barbara who for the past two years has been helping to sort and catalogue the U.K. Knitting and Crochet Guild’s collection of magazines, pattern booklets, pattern leaflets and other publications. Barbara has posted about some of her finds among this collection, which are sometimes drool-worthy, sometimes hilarious, and always interesting. She’s come across such evocative knitting artifacts as: patterns for delicately crocheted WWI-era patriotic tea cosies and milk jug covers; the WWII-era official guide to knitting for the army; instructions for crocheting your own 1920's cloché out of paper; patterns for 1930’s bathing suits, a pattern for very mod Mary Quant sweater dresses; patterns for sweaters commemorating Queen Elizabeth II’s 1977 Jubilee celebration; and patterns documenting Roger Moore's pre-James Bond career as a knitwear model.