Hat patterns and a meta-knitting question

[untonuggan]

Just searching around on Ravelry and I noticed a couple of historic hat patterns from very different periods that people might be interested in.

One is a World War II hat derived from Beanie No. 212, Bucilla Yarn Booklet, Volume 318, dated 1940. According to the person posting the pattern, "This hat pattern was probably knit at least a million times during World War II, and remains one of the most enduring hat designs. Watch a movie or television program which takes place during the winter months, and somewhere in each outdoor frame will be someone wearing this hat."

Another pattern is based on the Monmouth Cap, which is described in Richard Rutt's History of Hand Knitting.

"The Welsh border town of Monmouth* was a centre for cap-making from about the 1520s to 1585. Monmouth caps were of peculiar design and were sold far and wide, becoming well known throughout England....Shakespeare mentions the Monmouth cap in Henry V [in 1599] when at Agincourt the Welsh officer Fluellen describes the Welsh soldiers wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps."

Unfortunately, "Little has been recorded of their appearance except that they were round, brown, and topped with a button." There was one hat that may have been a Monmouth cap found in 1969. (Rutt describes more about how it was made in his book.)

I find it interesting, then, how people are trying to retro-pattern different hats despite a lack of available patterns. After all, one hat is not necessarily representative of the Monmouth cap, particularly if we're not even sure that it is the Monmouth cap referred to in history. (The cap pattern linked, by the way, does seem to be close to the hat found in Monmouth.)

It got me thinking: Why do we knit historical patterns? Is it a conversation piece? An attempt to reclaim part of the past? Because it's "cool"? If so, why do we find it "cool"? I suppose we could follow this up with why people hold Renn Fests, but that could be a whole different story. I should mention, by the way, that I find Renn fests and historical patterns very appealing, too.

*Note: Monmouth caps were also made in Worcestershire.

Comments

[thistleingrey]

For me, sometimes it's to learn-by-doing from others' expertise. One could say the same thing about knitting up a pattern designed last year, but things move quickly with internet communication, and there's more a sense now that anyone can sit down and design a hat (or whatever object). True, they can, and that's sometimes a very good thing. But a person new to hats hasn't had time to work out the pluses and minuses yet, whereas someone with lots of hat experience has had the chance to see what works and optimize for it.

Naturally, older things are not inevitably better; there's the opposite problem of not enough scrutiny, sometimes, and of duplicating what has been done merely because it's what's always done. Still, sometimes traditions are the result of efficiency and refinement.

[copracat]

I'd not thought about it before, so thanks for asking the question.

I like vintage cookbooks, too. Part of it is that I like knowing all the things, but a bigger part is that I want to know how my great grandmother cooked/knitted and her mother. I love the connection to the past that it gives me

[ragnvaeig]

I have several different motivations.

The first is straightforward: representing historical pieces to the public. I used to be a history professor and archaeologist, and still do living history, and creating something that someone can touch (and have a proper sensual experience rather than the one interrupted by cotton gloves) really makes history concrete to both formal and informal learners.

Second, it's a question of experimental archaeology. If I can figure out how something went together, I may be able better to understand the function of the piece itself, or the psychology of the person who created it, or the society in which it was created.

Third, I use it to build skill. I work on recreating historical textiles an an exercise in technique; if I can figure out how this went together I may learn a stitch I hadn't yet seen, or a trick I hadn't found.

Fourth, sometimes I'm working with things my ancestors used, and it allows me to feel a stronger connexion with the women who came before me.

And, yes, fifth, because it's just cool. :)

[untonuggan]

Hm, I hadn't thought of recreation being used by scholars to better understand how things were made in the past, but that makes sense. I suppose it's kind of like that group of people who recreated a Viking boat and sailed it across the Atlantic to see if it could be done.

Thanks for the well-crafted response. Lots to ponder. ^_^