ConnieLene – KnitDesigner

In winter 2008 I had very little yarn here with me in the Netherlands. I had purchased some odd yarns at a fleamarket and had bought some bits and pieces at local shops here in Haarlem and in Amsterdam and Maastricht.

The yarns really were just a bit odd, and I didn’t have anything in mind to make/create.

BUT I was cold.

So I played with a design and created a neck warmer for myself out of these odd yarns. I wore it on my journey to Switzerland for our sons 40th birthday in Dec 2008 and I was very grateful for this very warm item of clothing that I had created. Sadly there are no photos of it as a neck warmer though.

In Switzerland there was an Angelica.

She saw the thing (the neck warmer / my neck warmer) and became rather excited. Now Angelica speaks Spanish, German and some English so it was said with a great deal of excitement and in halting English and dramatic Spanish that she wanted to try it on. We (Best Beloved and I) speak English, a hint of Dutch, me, almost reasonable Danish and no German and NO Spanish.

Fortunately our son who speak excellent German, English and understands some dramatic Spanish – translated.

And she did try it on – only not around her neck but around her body. She was adamant this was a perfect tunic dress.

My Neck Warmer as a dress! WOW

Angelica is a very tiny lady, maybe 4’10″ in her high heels. I said I would knit some straps and send neck warmer and straps to her to attact at the correct position. Which is what I did do.

And this last Christmas 2010 I saw the result for the first time.

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????

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.

Cowl

The cowl is knitted from the neck down, on 7mm circular needles. As it is knitted in the round it can be tried on to view progress and make decisions about the length very easily and because it is knitted with a chunkier yarn it is a quick knit and there will be time to complete one for a Christmas gift if you are in wintery climes that is.

Dutch Homespun - for Cowl

I am finishing another using a Dutch homespun that I purchased at the mediaeval market here in Haarlem last year. It still has that lovely hint of sheep in it when you smell the yarn.

The cowls may be photographed on my mannequin only for the pattern as I am without a model still.