If Winter Comes...

Remember this piece of Fair Isle from late last year?  Several times I was on the point of ravelling this out, but I never quite did it.  However, it occurred to me that it might be wearable as a hat.

I had 170 stitches on the needle; 168 is divisible by 7 for the crown.  I was thinking of one of those fancy kaleidoscopic efforts that you see on tams.  It took me several dummy runs before I got my head around the way the decreases needed to work, taking stitches from both sides of each segment.   The little trees are from Sheila McGregor.  I was very pleased with the result.

 

 White coverlet - I am glad that you enjoyed looking at this treasure.  Some years ago, a friend and I discovered that the fabric from which it is made is joined: three widths, each 30 inches wide, joined for both the top layer and the underlayer.  Does that prove that it was handwoven cloth?  Perhaps.

At the centre of the piece is a roundel, constructed like a wreath with alternating leaves of satin stitch and needle made lace.  Both layers have been cut through and the lace inserted, or possibly made by using the outline stitches as the anchor.

 Curiously, there are thirty-eight segments, nineteen lace and nineteen solid.  The lace is obviously fragile and some of the segments are in shreds.  There are seven or eight different lace patterns used, but not in any logical order.  Some appear four times and some only once. 

 

At the very centre, there is a round lace insert.  Oddly, the pattern on this has not been centred.

 Finally, at least for now, all the background of this large roundel is packed solid with French knots - there must be thousands of them.