Thrum caps as modern camouflage?

Thrum caps go back to at least the 16th century, where they were popularly worn by sailors who found the thick, shaggy pile of the cap a practical warm 'thatched roof' against bad weather. I regularly make these for re-enactors and am always on the look out for new-to-me images of these in use or the occasional very rare surviving example in museums around the world.

A few months ago, I was asked to make a modern interpretation of the thrum cap to be worn as camouflage in tule reed beds by a lovely gent in America.

We started with an image of the local tule. As you can see there are a huge range of shades and colour effects caused by light and shadow on the rushes here.

So, to get a clearer idea of the colour balance, I cropped the image and ran it through an image colour histogram programme to give me an approximate reference of the proportions of colours within the project.

I then used this to select yarn, from which thrums were cut and knitted randomly, the only 'rule' being that I always used two different shades in each knot of thrumming, and avoided using the same two colours two stitches in a row. I also deliberately chose yarn in varying textures which would felt at slightly different rates in the final cap. The interior hat was worked in a neutral drab background shade.

Also did a second version with the thrums somewhat more clustered to approximate a more traditional camo pattern. I still used two shades in each thrum to ensure a broken up effect but this time used the same shades for several stitches at a time to create a more solid block.

The hats were fulled and blocked, and went off to be field tested. They may look a bit odd sitting by themselves, but they are intended for a specific environment. Here's a couple of images showing just how nicely they blend into the background scenery. Warm and cosy for a long day out in the tule as well! We decided in the end that the more random selection of yarn in the first cap was ideal for this particular scenery.

If you fancy trying this effect yourself, using a historic pattern with modern shades to create a whole new type of sporting hat, I do have a pattern for a Thrum Cap available for download via Ravelry, and as always, I do take commissions for hats.

Coptic Socks

I've been fascinated for a long time by the often brightly coloured sandal socks that occur in Romano-Egyptian and Coptic Egypt. When first encountered by archaeologists and historians, they were assumed to be knitted, but it is now understood that these are made by a form of nalbinding, or single needle looping.

Nalbinding won't be what they called it of course, but its the term by which the technique is known today, and these particular socks use a stitch often called Tarim or Coptic stitch. Its not at all hard to work, but it is significantly slower than knitting, this pair took approximately 24 hours of work. A similar knitted pair worked at about the same final gauge would need just over half that time.

I based this adult pair of socks loosely on a child's pair at the British Museum, simplifying the colours to use two dyed and one undyed shade.

Neolithic String for Stonehenge

I've been a bit quiet recently, partly because I've been busy working on some replica artifacts and costume to be used in the Neolithic houses being built as part of the new Stonehenge visitor centre. As well as the houses themselves, English Heritage have commissioned a wide range of garments and objects to be used as handling items to help illustrate aspects of everyday life in the Neolithic.

Part of my brief is to create a range of cordage based on materials known to have been used during the Neolithic, and this includes deer sinew.

Its amazingly tough stuff, until you get a nice round rock and give it a good pounding to soften it and break up the fibres. Once you've done that, you can twist it up into fine, strong cordage with a huge range of end uses.

Here's just one picture of a partly pounded piece of deer sinew and some finished cord, if you'd like to read more, I've written a guest blog post on the Stonehenge Neolithic Houses project page which explains in step by step detail.

Welsh Wig pattern now available

You may recall my earlier adventures with the Welsh Wig in which I visited an extant example and reconstructed the likely pattern for it.

With the assistance of the lovely Historic Knitting group on Ravelry I've now assembled some references to help put this funny little cap in context, and am delighted to be able to make the pattern available.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/welsh-wig

These caps were worn by Dickensian clerks (think Mr Fezziwig), layered under other headwear by Crimean soldiers and even issued to polar explorers. A fun addition to you costuming repertoire!