Cotton Warp Quilts
Judith L. Hardin
Gables_, that her neighbors are apt to mention in awe that she has knitted
l7 cotton warp quilts? Anybody happen to know what a cotton warp quilt is
and how you knit one?
--
Judi Hardin | Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.
ms...@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu | Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. - Groucho
Joan Walter
from rug warp, instead of crochet cotton, so that it would be very
strong (made back in the 1930's); it is gorgeous! I expect that the
"cotton warp" refers to the materials, and "quilt" really means a
blanket for the bed. So I would guess that she has knit
17 of these items that we would call afghans or bedspreads from
cotton string about the weight of sport yarn. Probably done in
some nice fancy stitches, too.
The crocheted bedspread took my mother about 4 months, ~20 to
~30 hours a week, done while she took a semester off from school
to stay with her mother(who was ill). It is extremely heavy;
just lifting it discourages me from even thinking about making
one (of course I have one already, too); I can't imagine someone
making 17 of these or comparable items.
Joan
Judith L. Hardin
Joan, thanks so much! I've wondered about that ever since I read the book,
way back lo these many years ago. Mystery solved.
Yes, it says in the book that all of Mrs. Rachel's neighbors were awed by
her accomplishment, since she made them in addition to all of the other
things a woman then was responsible for--cooking, canning, sewing, washing,
housekeeping, church work, nursing--whew!
It's fun to see the references to handwork in the Anne series--Diana teaches
Anne a crocheted lace pattern, Anne sews patchwork, Marilla braids rugs from
rags, Mrs. Rachel makes quilts in a tobacco-leaf pattern, one of Anne's
landladies makes needlepoint and crewel cushions and leaves them strewn
about the house to be tripped over. And Anne makes all her first baby's
clothes by hand.
Peter Rukavina
>Sheer curiosity: Remember, when Mrs. Rachel is introduced in _Anne of Green
>Gables_, that her neighbors are apt to mention in awe that she has knitted
>l7 cotton warp quilts? Anybody happen to know what a cotton warp quilt is
>and how you knit one?
The actual quote from _Anne of Green Gables_ is:
"Yet with all this Mrs Rachel found abundant time to sit for hours at her
kitchen window, knitting `cotton warp' quilts -- she had knitted sixteen
of them, as Avonlea housekeepers were wont to tell in awed voices -- and
keeping a sharp eye on the main road that crossed the hollow and wound
up the steep red hill beyond."
According to Scott Robson, curator of the "Old Nova Scotia Quilts"
exhibition currently on display here in Charlottetown [just 30 minutes
from the fictional Avonlea in _Anne_], the use of the term 'quilt' in
the time the book was set was very loose and was often used to refer
to anything that was a "bed covering." In this case his guess is that
what is being refered to is in fact not a 'quilt' at all (in the sense of
being layers of fabric quilted together) but a bed covering knit from
yarn which would otherwise be used as weaving warp.
Knitted bedcoverings of the day were often created by knitting squares
and stitching them together.
If you'd like to learn more, why not visit [beautiful!] Prince Edward Island
this summer? We're Canada's smallest province, located just off the coasts
of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence; just a
couple of day's drive from the eastern seaboard of the U.S. or from central
Canada. For travel and tourism information, telephone 1-800-565-0267,
North America wide.
-Peter
--
-- I am Peter Rukavina at the PEI Crafts Council, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada --
Telephone at work (902) 566-1584, fax (902) 628-8740, at home (902) 368-2871
Electronic mail to pe...@crafts-council.pe.ca or ruka...@peinet.pe.ca
>> I COLLECT INFORMATION ON CRAFTS INDUSTRY SUPPLIERS. KNOW ANY? LET ME KNOW! <<
Susan Druding
Just a guess on the cotton warp quilt, but I'd say that she is using "cotton
warp yarn" for the knitting. That is, the type and size of cotton that was
in common use then for weaving. I believe that traditional rag rugs were
very popular in that area of Canada so I'm guessing this was a cotton warp
yarn in an approximately 8/4 count size. They may have used a different
numbering system at the time, but this is the most common cotton warp used
in USA in 20's,30's,40's (and now, too) for rag rugs.
The cotton system count for this is that a size #1 cotton = 840 yds/lb. So
an 8/4 means a size 8 cotton (thus 8 x 840) plyed as a 4 ply = 8 x 840
divided by 4 = total yardage/lb of 1680 yds/lb. Many beginning weaving
students use this as their first warp even now.
Susan
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Gillian Cannon
|Sheer curiosity: Remember, when Mrs. Rachel is introduced in _Anne of Green
|Gables_, that her neighbors are apt to mention in awe that she has knitted
|l7 cotton warp quilts? Anybody happen to know what a cotton warp quilt is
|and how you knit one?
I don't know, but I would assume that since warp is one of the
directions of the "threads" in a loom (the other is weft and the
handweavers will certainly know which way is which--I have the same
problem remembering that I do about stalactites and -mites <g>), that a
warp quilt is knitted from the same material as that used for the warp
in a loom.
Oh, well ... <g>
Gillian, in San Juan Capistrano, CA
* SLMR 2.1a * Wasting time is an important part of living.