ConnieLene – KnitDesigner

Just how many terms can there be for a piece to wear around the neck and shoulders – one to keep the neck warm and protected?

You know already I have posted on the wimple and then I posted on the snood – See here:

Of course I followed with the cowl pattern still to come I am sorry – and then ever so curiously I found the Gaiter(s) Now the gaiter is really tricky, given that gait means “a manner of walking” – how on earth did a cloth or leather covering for the legs and ankles become a covering for the neck?

I had not considered that there were even more terms for fashion pieces that adorn the neck and maybe the shoulders and what was posted on facebook tonight Dickey

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A dickey (alternately written as dickie or dicky; sometimes known as a tuxedo front or tux front) is a type of false shirt-front – originally known as a detachable bosom – designed to be worn with a tuxedo or men’s white tie, usually attached to the collar and then tucked into the waistcoat or cummerbund. The rigid plastic dickey came into fashion in the latter years of the 19th century, and was one of the first successful commercial applications of celluloid.

So I looked up dickey on google as you do. Google images were inconclusive – and some of the pictures are not very nice. I did however find a link to a pattern for a hand knit Dickey So there you have it – a dickey pattern, but I think you could develop a dickey pattern of your own by combining a hand knit or crochet babies bib pattern with a roll collar and then you have a dickey.

But will there be even more terms for my neck warmers?

It could be a crisis working out how to label my pieces if different communities use different words for the same things – so I might have to create a new word.

Wimplesnooddickeygaiter

or

Dickeygaitersnoodwimple

or

snooddickeygaiterwimple

or

gaiterdickeysnoodwimple

or ever so simply

A neck / shoulder warmer

or maybe

“A Not Isadora Duncan Scarf”

or

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..what????

Yes I know; Gaiter(s) used to describe a neck warmer does not feel quite right to me as yet. But then language is always developing, as it should. So who am I to say that the leg protector word cannot be used for a neck warmer or neck protector.

Neck and Shoulder Warmer / Gaiter

Anyway this is my gaiter for Natascha or my latest neck and shoulder warmer with my most recently rediscovered favourite stitch – good old Feather & Fan.

When I first knitted with feather and fan it was all baby matinee jackets and shawls and so on. Now I am using it for neck warmers, arm warmers, cowls, waistcoats etc. I love it.

How is that you think you know a lot about lots of things. But you never do. Today I read about a clothing item called a gaiter. I looked at the photographs and then I looked up the word (gaiter(s)) – and they simply do not relate.

Wikipedia states:
Gaiters are garments worn over the shoe and lower pant leg, and used primarily as personal protective equipment; similar garments used primarily for display are spats. Originally, gaiters were made of leather. Today, gaiters for walking are commonly made of plasticized synthetic cloth such as polyester. Gaiters for use on horseback continue to be made of leather.

Now I understand that, but it seems that neck warmers, circular scarves, pieces that wrap the neck, cowls etc are also called gaiters. And they are not created with plasticized synthetic cloth – they are knitted or crocheted in delicious, warm, sumptuous, and colourful yarns.

When did that happen?

Where have I been!

I have been callng my cowls, my “not Isadora Duncan Scarves”, my neck and shoulder warmers, and other versions of fashionable scarves etc all of which are designed to wrap and keep the neck warm – I have been calling them anything and everything but gaiter.

Rib & Cable neck / shoulder warmer

How does a leg protector become a neck warmer?

Collins English Dictionary and Thesaurus:
gait n Manner of walking

gaiters pl n cloth or leather coverings for the legs or ankles [French Guêtre]

I kept looking and there seems to be a trend towards the gaiter being a practical item of clothing for skiers and motorbike riders and there are no photographs of the delicious, fashionable, hand knit designer gaiters that started me looking on google images for Gaiter

So someone out there, decided that while a wrap for the neck is also a piece of protective clothing (hence, Gaiter), there is no reason at all why that protective clothing should not also be a fashionable piece.

Hence the hand knit designer gaiter.

If you are considering “knitting in the round” these are the advantages as I see them.

Knitted in the round from bottom up.

Advantages:

1. No purling – you are always knitting on the right side, so unless you are ribbing or creating a pattern which requires purl stitches on the right side then you do not need to purl.

2. Little or no seaming / finishing

3. May use less yarn if the pattern is altered from a flat or pieced pattern. When altering a flat or pieced pattern one can reduce a stitch at each side of the body front and back – reducing the yarn required but not the finished size.

4. Speed – knit stitch is faster and your knitting rhythm works to your advantage.

5. Great knitting for watching a favourite TV program.

6. Less seaming is better for a knitted piece – it will rest better on the body without stresses and strains of a seam.

7. You can design as you knit. You can adjust length and shape as as you go.

8. You do not need to check that front and back pieces match exactly. Place a marker at the begining of the first row and you will always know exactly where you are and where to measure.

9. Using circular needles means that a large garment rests in your lap and not on the needles and your arms.

10. A garment can be altered – lengthened or shortened for another wearer later by unravelling and knitting down as required.

Disadvantage:

1. Boring knitting – Sweater done in knit stitch in the round can be boring.

2. Pieced or flat knitting is easier to create if starting with a sewing pattern.

Folk knitting was originally created circularly and seaming was very minimal so Knitting in the Round has been the “norm” in many cultures.

think tubes

Socks, arm warmers, body warmers, leg warmers, corsets, skirts, ponchos, cowls, hoods, boob tubes, etc and the leap to knitting a whole garment in the round occurs when one joins the knitted or crocheted tubes to create the desired garment.

Gallery of Examples of My “Knitting in the Round”

In New Zealand in my early knitting and designing days I was totally unaware of the movement toward knitting in the round as reintroduced to the US by Elizabeth Zimmerman. I was a busy young mother and wanted to finish my garment when I had completed the knitting whereever possible and so I worked on achieving that.

Fashion shaping may have been the impetus for creating flat pieces and joining them. I have worked on shaping my pieces when knitting in the round. The other area I have worked on is knitting a waistcoat, cardigan or jacket or sweater in one piece to the underarm or from cuff to cuff – again to reduce seaming requirements but that will have to be another post.

And then of course there is also top down knitting and steeks and ……

Well Jeanette, The news is all good – I have finished the 2 pieces, well more or less finished the 2 pieces that I have been knitting for you to consider to go with your beret. I am finished the knitting, not quite finished with buttons and things. Now they have not taken a long time because they are big items – but they just kept me playing. You know all about that I know – me playing with yarns.

This little project was one that I planned would be a ribbed piece – with buttons to join, and big enough to double over and wear inside a jacket or over a sweater when you are out on that bicycle of yours. But I couldn’t really stop and now it is a neck piece but it kept on growing as it were – so now it is also a capelet, scarf, neck wrap, some call these things a cowl – I am not sure that that is a good term for it. I might look up the dictionary on that. It has 3 buttons at the neck but the folded over section (collar) will need to be fastened with a knit pin or brooch or even a kilt pin – to the position you wish for it.

However you choose to wear this – it will keep your neck and shoulders warm.

The other one is a single layer ribbed piece to buttoned at the neck – not as big, or as warm because it is intended as a single layer – but it will suit some situations. I haven’t sewn in some of the ends nor have I added buttons – so no photo of it yet. Both contain the colours of your chosen beret and other colours of course – as you will have expected as I created them.

When you decide which you want I will bring the beret and the neck piece to New Zealand with me now that you are there once more and winter is so nearly upon you as well. Posting from the Netherlands takes ages and costs a bundle, so I shall find room in the luggage.

So let me know – okay and I shall add it to the Etsy shop for you.