#94641
02/05/2003 5:27 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I have been keeping my (scant!) sanity, while waiting for thing in my life to settle by knitting.... endlessly knitting.
two words have come up--
gansy (used describe a knitting design, one from an english sea side town..) -- i was wondering if it was a coruption of guernsey (from the islands, which also gives us jersey, a type of smooth knitting...as well as a name for a breed of cattle, from the cattle common bred on the islands, and the name of Whitman O'N state.) any ideas?
and
clock(s)-- a knitted design in a sock, found on the side "seams" of the sock (that is, in line with were the side seams would be on trousers, or a skirt, not up the front of sock, or at the back)
i rememer once looking up clock, and not getting to much information (basicly i got that it was a knit in design in a sock or hose!)
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#94642
02/05/2003 5:35 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Yo, Helen of Farge! I don't know the answers but I'm sure someone (or two or three) will supply them. Meanwhile, it's good to see your fonts around here once again.
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#94643
02/05/2003 6:11 PM
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Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Dear Helen: at least you are not knitting while watching beheadings. I found a site about channel islands knitting: So popular, in fact was knitting, that a States (Government) Act was passed in 1603 ordering local people to cease knitting during the harvesting and vraicing (the gathering of seaweed for fertiliser) seasons. Despite this restriction, the industry grew from strength to strength. Wool had to be imported to supplement the local supply and the export of these garments began. The "Gansy" as it was called soon became known on both sides of the Atlantic. Queen Elizabeth the First is reputed to have had her stocking knitted in Jersey. Over the last four centuries the most popular of all the garments has been the traditional sweaters of both Jersey and Guernsey. http://www.jerseywool.com/Articles/history_of_the_jersey.htmIt said there were so many knitting patterns that if a sailor got drowned, the pattern of his sweater was used to tell not only which island, but which town he came from.
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#94644
02/05/2003 6:11 PM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Sorry not to have the answers to your queries, of troy, but great to see your stimulating pixels again! 
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#94645
02/05/2003 6:12 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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of troy of La Farge! So dadburned great to see you here! Sorry I don't know squat about knitting, but hope you find the answers to your questions... I remember well your writing about binomial theory, was it?, and the relationship it had to knitting or vice versa.
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#94646
02/05/2003 6:32 PM
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Dear tricoteuse: Here's a URL about sock knitting you might enjoy browsing if new to you: http://www.socknitters.com/default.htm
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#94647
02/05/2003 6:48 PM
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Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 555
addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 555 |
Am sorry, am of no help with your query.
However, I have a question that's been on my mind a long, long time and its fortuitous that you posted with that title! Is there a name for her kind of knitting, or does steganography apply? Is it true that, a similar technique was used in tapestry too; am sure I read that somewhere but am uncertain.
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#94648
02/05/2003 7:46 PM
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833 |
Wish I could help you, H, but my Canuck Oxford doesn't have either term....though I've heard both (what would this do to Unca Bill's vocabulary-determining exercise?! what if you've heard/understand - but don't necessarily know the derivations of - ww that ain't in yer dic?!)....but I wanted to weigh in with my own welcome-back - I bin missin' yer!
knitting is a sanity-saver, isn't it? From chaos (sort of - the yarn is usually at least wound!)....order. Ahhh. Feels good. And you wind up with something practical as well as beautiful. I highly recommend it!
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#94649
02/05/2003 9:38 PM
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
Regreetings, Mme deFarge. If you're not back here posting regularly soon, heads will roll!
- Pfranz
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#94650
02/06/2003 1:43 AM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,263 Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
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clock(s)-- a knitted design in a sock, found on the side "seams" of the sock (that is, in line with were the side seams would be on trousers, or a skirt, not up the front of sock, or at the back)
"...Well, you're driving like mad with this singular lad
(by the by, the ship's now a four-wheeler),
And you're playing round games, and he calls you bad names
when you tell him that "ties pay the dealer";
But this you can't stand, so you throw up your hand,
and you find you're as cold as an icicle,
In your shirt and your socks (the black silk with gold clocks),
crossing Salisbury Plain on a bicycle..."
--from The Nightmare Song, in Iolanthe
( and, paraphrasing Pooh-Bah, I desire to associate myself with those expressions of "welcome back"! )
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#94651
02/06/2003 1:59 AM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Helen! Oh, mercy, it's good to see you back here! Here you go, Honey, re: clocks: CLOCKS: These optional design features are located at the ankles, either on both sides, or just the outside. You'll like this page, I think--it gives some history; there's even a bibliography at the end. http://www.dabbler.com/ndlwrk/stocking.htmlHere is the most likely-looking ref. to gansy that I found, and it indicates that you were right. The page begins as though it is a continuation from something previous. You may want to try going to the home page. http://histclo.hispeed.com/style/cold/sw-jer.html
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#94652
02/06/2003 2:27 AM
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
Carpal Tunnel
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In the book and movie called "Like Water for Chocolate", Tita, the main character, began crocheting a wedding blanket after she and Pedro decided they would marry. Six months or so later, Tita's mother announced that Pedro would be marrying Tita's older sister (and therein lies a tale). To pass her sleepless nights, Tita crocheted. By the time she left her home to live on a ranch in New Mexico, the blanket extended like a bridal train for one kilometer behind the wagon. Read the book or see the movie to decide if the crocheting saved her sanity or not.
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#94653
02/06/2003 4:06 AM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
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Welcome back La Troyenne. It's been too long.
Bingley
Bingley
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#94654
02/06/2003 3:46 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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thanks Dr bill, (reQueen Elizabeth the First is reputed to have had her stocking knitted in Jersey. )
QEI was the first person on record to have silk stockings too, a present from the spanish ambassedor, for her coranation.
there is some truth about sailors and fishermen being identied by their sweaters. gross, but true, fish will quickly attach a drowned body as food, and the fingers, nose, lips, eye lids, and other part of face are eaten firts. Fish do not eat, or even nibble at wool.. and wool resist rotting in sea water so sweaters would survive .
Connie, i have read "like water for chocolate", but knitting and crochet are two very different processes! Knitting is very old, (knitted items, or remnants of them, have been found in egyptian tombs).
knitting was also a guilded craft, (several of the puritan who came over on the Mayflower, has spent years in Holland, becoming master (guilded) knitters). the guild system was breaking down at the time, and knitting was an early skill to escape the guilds.)
crochet is relitively modern and is only about 400 years old. it was created to make imitation lace, (since sumputary laws often taxed lace at a very high rate, imitation lace was very popular.) it was developed in france.
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#94655
02/06/2003 3:54 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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reCLOCKS: These optional design features are located at the ankles, either on both sides, or just the outside.
Yes, Jackie, i know, (i haven't read your links yet...) but why are they called clocks? -- tsuwm, does the OED have anything?
like wolf, and Mod, i have seen 'clocks' used in literature, and know what they are (years ago, i knew in general, but now i have a must better visual/mental defination.. ) but i most dictionaries are lacking any detail.
Knitting site have info on what clocks are, and patterns but not on the words history or origin.
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#94656
02/07/2003 5:37 PM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Bill
Thanks for casting those purls of wisdom before us.
TEd
TEd
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#94657
02/07/2003 5:52 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Indeed. Purls before twine.
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#94658
02/09/2003 2:36 AM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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You-all, look at def. 5, from x-refer:
About The Oxford English Reference Dictionary
from Oxford University Press
clock 1 n. & v.
n.
1 an instrument for measuring time, driven mechanically or electrically and indicating hours, minutes, etc., by hands on a dial or by displayed figures. (See below.)
2
a any measuring device resembling a clock.
b colloq. a speedometer, taximeter, or stopwatch.
3 time taken as an element in competitive sports etc. (ran against the clock).
4 Brit. sl. a person's face.
5 a downy seed-head, esp. that of a dandelion.
Am I the only one who has never heard of a dandelion being called a clock?
Here's the second noun def.--looks like you may be out of luck, Helen.
clock 2 n.
an ornamental pattern on the side of a stocking or sock near the ankle. [16th c.: orig. unkn.]
The Oxford English Reference Dictionary, © Oxford University Press 1996
I was entertaining the theory that it came somehow from cloche, and that possibly people thought the first designs resembled clock faces, but have been unable to find the slightest substantiation for it.
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#94659
02/09/2003 2:48 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Dear Jackie: it's only the gray-white spherical seed head of the dandelion that's being
called a dock. I've never heard of that, though.
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