There's an early Renaissance painting of a madonna knitting on DPNs. They
go way back. I was toying with the idea of the Monmouth cap being done on a
circular knitting loom. The gauge is reasonable for one of those, as is the
hem. The big catch is the decrease pattern for the crown. If it were
started on such a loom it would still need to be finished on dpns to get
that decrease pattern rather than a simple gather.

| On Tue, 25 May 2004 00:53:09 -0400, wrote:

I think I can do it..and WITHOUT circular needles, "provisional cast
ons" or DPNs!!!!!! Yes I DO!!!! And...if you folks will give me about
12 days (since I am still finishing my "bee stitch" top..which will take
another 2 or 3 days, since I have Bible study tomorrow)...I will SHOW
you...and write out the pattern!!!!! Okay....let's say _14_ days. But
I KNOW what to do. AND...I doubt seriously ..seriously!.....there were
any DPNs in the Colonial days. IN fact...I think I'd just about bank on
it. Those folks back then couldn't and wouldn't deal with such details.
They were lucky to get any sort of knitting needle at all..and I am
pretty sure "double pointed needles" were NOT part of their experience.
I think that that system..the DPN... was probably invented MUCH later by
people who had idle time and fiddled and played..and found it
successful. But NOT in the Colonial times.

I think DPNs came along...if I recall correctly...a couple of hundred
years later....after the 1600's.

What do ya think? You interested??

Emma

Helen "Halla" Fleischer, Fantasy & Fiber Artist
http://home.covad.net/~drgandalf/halla/
Balticon Art Program Coordinator http://www.balticon.org