Interesting! My dad would talk about the stockings his mother used to make. She would make them quite large and then, in the summer, they would be soaked in hot water and put on, worn until dry. That would shrink them down, probably felting them. They were extremely warm and would last forever, probably could stand up in the corner! She came from Norway. My grandpa was born here in 1883, the year after his parents came from Norway. They did everything by hand.....
What an interesting story! And I agree - the hot water and wearing them probably felted them to the wearer's foot/leg shape. Thanks for sharing a bit of your family history with me.
My Mother and her family were all Norwegian. She taught me to knit when I was around 5 years old. I'm 70 years plus and I still knit as many usable items as I can. It's tremendously relaxing, cheaper than psychotherapy, and best of all, you have something beautiful , useful and rewarding when finished. It very much sums up the Norwegian attitude towards life in general. This was my first view of this channel, it's wonderful, and yes, I was knitting as I was listening.
@@robinisaacs2888: You need to make sure to use yarn that is suitable for felting. Need to start out with a fairly big item, depending on the exact wool you pick. Items can shrink up to 50%, so it's a good idea to make a sample before you go ahead and make a pair of socks fit for a doll. 🙈
I do appreciate historically adequate costumes but I feel creative liberties can be taken with outlander considering it’s a fantasy show. Yes bulky knits were not around back then but neither was a nurse from the 1940s and so we could say this is a alternative reality where time travel is possible and other people from the future have travelled even further back in time and invented larger knitting needles before they existed in the timeline we are in.
especially true considering some of the things that Claire does in later books/seasons, it's not beyond the realms of possibility that she knit herself some items that she knew she'd seen :D
My head canon is that Claire and Bree's modern sensibilities made them impatient with knitting so fine so they used carved sticks or whatever was handy to quickly throw together those ridiculous giant items to just be warm. I can imagine the reactions of people around them. 😂
I think there's two aspects to this; one is as you say it is only entertainment and fiction, a historical fantasy, so essentially there should be no real expectation from viewers of any actual historical accuracy in the depiction of the setting. However, as we can see, often people do confuse TV shows like this, however obvious it is that the story is fictional and unrealistic, with its portrayal of "history" of somehow being accurate- so it merits pointing out the ways it isn't. It doesn't mean that the show had to be more accurate, it is after all just entertainment, but for the sake of clearing up any historical misconceptions that might be happening with viewers it is nice to have discussions like these. In other words, you can love the show and the costumes, and think that within the context of the show they even make some sense, but there is also as good a reason to point out why they are not historically accurate for the period, i.e. fiction like the show, before people start to think that it is what is historically accurate. Past popular fiction full of historical inaccuracies have sadly led to common and enduring historical misconceptions even in academics. Once there is an accepted general idea that something was a certain way, no matter the source or how baseless, it can be hard to get rid of again.
I grew up near Stirling, and as a child we were taught to knit as soon as we entered the school system. Started off with the basic bonnet 'T' shape for babies, then socks and gloves...and believe me, you needed then through most of the year. My mother worked in a wool mill making very fine wool up the thicker one as they grew more popular.
I wish lol. My nana crocheted and knit but as always we get interested in things after they are gone, my mom has said she would try to teach me but.... Never has time. I've got circle looms and mastered a hat (well it was good enough to give away as a gift I guess lol) but that's it. It's hard on the fingers when they bend backwards while trying to do things. I wish I had known how to do this when I was younger.
The lack of historical accuracy for Claire’s costumes was purposely done to show that she doesn’t quite belong. And it’s done quite cleverly in some of the seasons. Anyway, love the video ❤
Outlander was how I got back into knitting in my late teens. My mother had taught me around age five as something to do while sitting still, but I stopped when kids at school made of it. The scene in the first book where Jamie is shocked that Claire can't knit got me thinking "if this big strong awesome Scotsman knits, then why I should I be worried about it?" I really appreciate your approach to the historical accuracy of the series. I don't like the "it's fantasy so anything goes" take-- Diana Gabaldon put so much research in that it feels disingenuous. Having Claire wearing chunky knits doesn't bother me as much as say, Jamie's sister wearing them, because Claire is from the 1940s and would have a different perspective on what things should look like (her brilliant zip-front stays, for instance) and likely no patience for the smaller gauges in the 1740s. She could have used hand spindles to knit, or had Jamie or someone fine tune some sticks. As for the yarn itself, hand-spinning would have been as ubiquitous as knitting, and she likely would have been expected to pick it up. Chunky yarn is much easier to make than finer stuff.
Just to say, my grandfather taught me to knit. He spent time in bed with rheumatic fever and his north Northumbrian mother taught him to knit to pass the time. I knit lots of sweaters/cardigans for my children and grandchildren, and now preparing for a great grandchild. I point to a photograph of an 1890s bride and tell them because of that lady I can knit your sweaters.🙂
@@brendapowell4795 I love that you're able to pass on that narrative along with the results from it. (And maybe the skill itself? I hope so, anyway.) It seems your great-grandmother taught her kid to knit for the exact opposite reason that my mother did-- I couldn't sit still at all, and if I wasn't given something to do with my hands, I'd find something. A bit of a dangerous habit for a five-year-old.
@angryhistoryguy - During WWI my lovely late FIL remembered knitting mittens with his 3 older sisters, mittens they sent to "the soldiers in the trenches"! My daughter taught me how to use a drop spindle, and I LOVE DOING IT, EVEN IN THE CAR! (Only when I'm a passenger, of course!) I find it much easier to spin *_VERY_** FINE YARNS* than to spin chunkier yarns, so was surprised by your reversed observation.
Wow! You are a really good public speaker! Your program moved along quickly, yet the sentences and information flowed one to the next with clear simplicity and no distracting comment asides or sounds. I really enjoyed this lesson and will look forward to more. Thanks much,
I've been a knitter for more than 50 years. I found this very interesting. I have tried to do this kind of research myself years ago. I agree that The Victoria and Albert Museum has some great examples of knitting. I love to see the clothing of the Bog Bodies as well. Thanks for an excellent presentation.
I’m not a knitter, but I listened to this video because it was a great lesson in history and it was well presented. You have an excellent voice that does not bore. It appears it was well researched as well. Thank you so much for the lessons
I'm a bit surprised you didn't mention that after Clair told Jamie the truth about who she was, Jamie told Clair, in both the books and the show, that he and the whole family knew how to knit and made their own socks.
I have been knitting and sewing for over sixty years and am a huge nerd and find the history fascinating...thanks so much for this video. I have to go back and start at your beginning...thanks so much for sharing.
Such a lovely overview! Some of the original knitwear in the show was bought from my Inner Wild Etsy shop by the costume department. I've written up knitting patterns for some of these items now and they are available to buy in my Inner Wild Etsy store and website. Thank you for all the knitting knowledge you bring us.
Nice presentation. I may be the only knitter who has neither read nor watched the series, but of course, I am familiar with the beautiful costuming. Love the pieces salvaged from the unfortunate guy who fell into the bog. Amazing. Makes me want to drop my almost-finished shawl, and knit some stockings.
I don't care about Outlander (watched it once on the recommendation of a friend who thought I'd be interested in the knitwear and it was not my cuppa ) but I found this very interesting. I sent the link to my daughter, a trained costume designer who has an interesting in historical fashion as well as knitting. Loved that you included the gauges the garments were knit to.
One aspect of knitting in the mid 1700s not mentioned, was that wool would have been the most available fiber for use in knitting, since not that many people kept silkworms in the UK, and most people had a couple of sheep. Another part of that thread is that fiber was valuable, and so wasn't available for making a bulky item when 5 pairs of warm socks could be made of fine yarn that would use much less wool to create.
Not a fan of Outlander ...but this was very interesting. I didn't know that shawls were not popular in that time period (I knit and crochet a great deal and love my shawls!) I knew about the finer threads and have done research about the medieval period. Good job!
I thought shawls would have been a thing during that time - I was so surprised to learn they weren't. Medieval crafting sounds like a fascinating topic!
Wow! You are an excellent teacher, truly gifted. I don’t even knit, but this came up as a suggestion at two o’clock in the morning. You have a pleasant voice, so I thought I would listen to you and fall asleep. The excellent content kept me awake. :)
Even in the early and mid 20th century, people would knit mostly in much finer gauges than is popular today. According to my late mother and grandmother (born in 1900 and 1936), one reason for this being that wool was always sold by weight, while your time was "free". From the same amount/weight of wool, you could make one bulky garment or two finer ones (if you invested a lot more of your time), and those two garments could be layered, so they could serve in many weather conditions, while bulkier garments have a more limited usefulness. (From the other side of the equation, there was the fact that women and girls weren't supposed to have "idle hands". So if you were to be knitting most of the time anyway, it would of course have been cheapest to go through super-fine yarn).
A 19th C ancestor of mine had a knitting frame. This was how she survived as an elderly widow. When I was a child, hand knitting was much finer, from finer guages of wool. In fact I’d say up to the 1980s. Shetland shawls are so fine that you can get them through a ring. And worsted was a process rather than a “weight” of wool, it still is in Scotland - “hard”, solid and hard-wearing . There was not much cotton in mid-18th century Scotland, it was still linen. Cotton didn’t become big until the mid-19th C, imported from India and from the Americas. One method was sometimes called “Scotch knitting” elsewhere, or “shepherd knitting” (fishermen and shepherds commonly knitted). Arisaid is pronounced “YAR-a-sitch”. It isn’t two-piece. It was made of three woven lengths sewn as great big square roughly eight feet (give or take a foot) on a side. (The male kilt had approximately the same amount of fabric but longer and only two wide) The arisaid drapes over a belt so that it forms a double layer of skirt. You can leave the outer, slightly shorter layer down, or bring up over your shoulders, or right up over your head. So it is a skirt, shawl and cloak in one. Sometimes better off women also wore what was described as “sleeves”, which I think was a kind of bolero common in many european countries. In summer, richer women wore linen ones. The arisaid was often white, or with a white base, and black or blue stripes. (In fact other than shape,:this type fits the descriptions of the lowland shepherd’s plaid, a few of which survive.) If the arisaid was tartan, it’s described as often having a smaller sett than the kilt tartans.
Oh, on “scotch knitting” or “shepherds knitting”, this is thought to have been a form of one-pin or crochet knitting. I was intrigued to find that “Tunisian” crochet, which I had never heard of before the internet, turns out to have Scotland as one proposed origin - this shepherd or “Scotch” type of crochet/ knitting. One thing that seems certain is that its origin is not Tunisia. It seems pretty obvious to me that it’s just a mangling of the word in Gaelic or Irish whose root is “toinne” - maybe toinnesian (TOON-i-shjan). The root idea is waves, waviness, and words from this root describe the act of spinning fibre and plaiting, as well as “twisting & turning”, the purling or rippling of water, adjectives meaning “complicated”.
I think it's very interesting that blue was common among the working class because blue was one of the most difficult colors to obtain and the process took a lot of work. I don't know if they used other than plants colors at that time but originally it came from a plant that needed to be cooked in Ammoniak for a certain time and the fabric had to be cooked with the plant together later for several hours more and then it was dried in fresh air. By this process the blues varied, sometimes u got a really shiny blue or a dark blue or turquoise. It used to be a color that was expensive that's why it's interesting to me that in Scotland at least it was a commoners favorite color in the 18. Century I also have to say that watching this video was very great though I don't knit, I crochet but the research u did is amazing. Thank you
The blue would have come from woad which grows like a weed, so it wouldn’t have been expensive. It sounds like you are thinking of indigo, which is expensive and complicated to use.
Indigo for blue dye was imported to the British Isles in bulk in the 16th and 17th centuries, so it became less rare. And even before indigo became more common, woad had been used for hundreds of years so blue dye was common and accessible for almost everyone. The Romans wrote about the indigenous British people who painted and tattooed themselves blue with woad and maybe even dyes made from copper and other minerals, so blue has always been a color common people would have access to. Fun fact: the chemical dye extracted from woad is identical to the dye extracted from true indigo, just in a lower concentration.
in the uk, woad/ blue has been one of our most plentiful dye plants, famously used by the celts and everyone since. Purple was probably the most rare. where I come from in coventry built it's medieval industry on woad. The vikings also very commonly are found wearing woad blue. It does have a better concentration of indigo compound when imported from sunnier climates. Madder Red has also been very common and was something that we used to export, so was common for british folk but very expensive on the continent as madder didn't grow there.
Thank you for the historic background on the clothing from this show! This show is one of my favorite to date from Netflix aside from the Witcher. You do have to keep in mind she and her daughter were time traveling and could have brought over those chunkier knits from the later centuries. Over all great video and much appreciated!
Great historical information! I love history. I am a crocheter, but admire knitting. Hoping I can find some crochet tutorials to make a caplet inspired by the show. Thank you for putting this together.
It always amazes me how finely detailed they made old fiber garments. I don’t knit (can’t wrap my brain around it, lol) but I do crochet, and I love looking for vintage patterns for inspiration. Some of these old doilies and lace inserts are made from _thread_ - not crochet thread, like sewing thread. Crochet is a bit more modern than knitting, but it has partial roots in the irish lace trade, one of the few ways women could earn money at the time. During the famine in the 1800s, some irish women would make lace to sell by bending the tip of a sewing needle into a teeny tiny hook.
Thanks, I'm not a knitter but I love clothing and costume history, this was well done. Must admit when I saw those big knits on the show, I wondered about the accuracy. Thank you for doing the research and providing the info.
I only just started knitting in the last couple of months, so I never noticed it the first time I watched. But I have since re-watched and all I see is the knit clothing! This was a great video, thank you :)
Now that you're a knitter you'll probably start to notice the knitting in everything you watch - I know I do (and I sometimes pause what I'm watching to grab a picture if it's something I really like 🤫).
@@NerdyKnitting ha ha That's actually a great tip! I know it will be a bit before I can figure out my own patterns, but it will be good to have a folder of ideas waiting :)
So maybe Claire brought some knitting ideas from the future and used them for herself and her family! Hah! Thank you for the video. I found it especially interesting to see the bog man's clothing.
You had me at "Outlander"! Lol I came across your post and hugely enjoyed your video. As a few others have commented, listening to you is wonderful as you speak clearly, succinctly, and you don't have "umms" and "humms" scattered throughout. I deeply appreciate that ALL this wonderful free content I find on the 'net is largely produced by volunteers and 'amateur' bloggers/vloggers, but trying to listen to an explanation/pattern etc. filled with ummms, errrrs, and worse yet "I know I'm rambling but bear with me" is truly difficult. So I truly appreciate and enjoy your clear speaking style. The historical detail you provided was awesome. I loved seeing the knitting preserved from the bog and like others, was surprised that shawls haven't been around *forever*! So I popped over to your site to see what else you've produced and ... wow! Your site is a treasure trove of treats. It's as though you've heard me muttering as I fumble through my first (completed) sock, seen me hesitate over starting a gorgeous new shawl project, wondered what to do with my stash and remnants, and many more concerns. A recent terminal diagnosis has meant closing down my (largely) online business. I'm a nerd too - love technology and have been a computer instructor since dinosaurs roamed. Now I get to pick up my needles and finish projects and clear out my stash. Finding you and your lovely site of practical, useful information will keep me happily occupied for the time I have. Thanks for your great shares (and time-stamped videos!!! 👍👍) Linda, a new subscriber
Linda - ❤️ I just saw your email too and will respond there as well but just wanted to say welcome and thank you! I'm so glad you find the videos helpful.
Hi! I'm so glad to have found your channel! I liked this video and even if I don't watch Outlander anymore, I still like the knitting from the show. If you still want to do some more similar videos (just saw this one is from a year ago) I'd like to suggest a couple of shows ... Poldark, and North and South there are some knitted items in both. We already know about the shawls but maybe it still may be accurate for the later seasons in Poldark (already 19th C) and North and South is from the Victorian era already. I'm still amazed at the fine knitting they were making, it would take me forever to knit like that! But I guess when survival depends on it, people would do it and be efficient at it. Great video, thanks for the info!
Not familiar with Outlander (horrors! will I be struck off your comments page?!!) but decided to have a peek at your video as I'm a knitter, started at age 4, Continental thanks to my gran and mum, and then had to convert to English once I started school in Manchester, UK. I'm 69 now, and still love knitting. Really enjoyed your presentation and will look for some of these patterns. A new fan!
It’s so cool to see your video on recommended, I remember seeing your channel reviewed months ago not sure if it was VidIQ or Think Media. You’ve come a long way!! I think you could have mentioned that Outlander did get some things rights besides the “bonnets”, we saw knit stockings like the ones you showed here and in later seasons in North Carolina they did have some finer knit cardigans or jackets. Maybe when the show airs season seven you can review American knitting practices as represented on Outlander. Also something that seems accurate on the show which you mentioned here was that men knew how to knit too. Young Ian explains that he learned how to knit and that Uncle Jamie had also knit something for one of his siblings. While it’s not a visual knitted item on the show, they did mention the practice which you confirmed was common in Scotland. All in all, still super fascinating to hear about the really fine knitting at the time.
Thank you for the video. The historical info is SO COOL! I have always loved learning about garment history. A knitter and Outlander fan, love the knits in the show, I also own the Highland Kitting book. Of course I want the Outlander knitting book. Thanx again for the fun video.
EXCELLENT VIDEO! Instantly subscribed, _AND_ sent your link to my daughter, who also taught herself to knit - then started inventing lace patterns for socks! (I would NOT "teach" her myself, as I'd "taught" myself at about age 12-13, and ended up doing everything "bass-ackwards," a truly awkward result when trying to follow someone else's knitting patterns. She was far better off learning it by herself!)
I just stumbled upon this today and had to watch. I read the Outlander books, watched the series, and definitely loved all the costumes in the show. I have unrealistic aspirations of learning to knit, and I’m always in awe of people who have mastered the craft. I appreciate the historical background, and once Droughtlander ends and the show begins again, I’ll look at Claire’s lovely knit work with a more informed eye - and still want the pieces for myself. 😂 I’m going to Scotland this summer! I look forward to museum hopping!
@@NerdyKnitting oh thanks so much! I really hope to see some of the 18th century pieces you highlighted in your video❤️thanks for making such a great video. 🙏✨
I so enjoyed watching the featured historical knitting research and accuracy comparison from the Outlander time period. I do want to add the thought that Claire was time traveling into these different points from the future where these knits already were introduced, so it stands to reason she could very well have included those influences in addition to so many others she left behind or rather brought forth so to speak. Enjoyed the post. Thanks for sharing.
Very true - Claire certainly brings her own strong influence to the time period so it stands to reason that would affect what she wears as well! Thanks for sharing your thoughts - I love hearing everyone's differing viewpoints. 😁
Subscribed! Great information and especially shocking was the shawl's use coming so much later in history than expected. Funny that I watched this while crocheting a shawl! YOur video makes me want to learn knitting, now!
Thanks for the video! Thought for sure Diana Gabaldon would have wanted Claire and Bree to fit in and NOT stand out and thus would want their TV costumes to be historical as much as possible. But I guess the producers won out with their artistic symbolism in the costuming. Yeah, it looks great though.
I don't knit (crochet is more fun, don't ask why pls, I don't know), but I loved the video. To thank the algorythm, here's a comment, a like and a subscription. :D
I know why it’s more fun! You are only dealing with one stitch on your hook. In knitting, you have dozens or hundreds of stitches on your needles to deal with. Nothing worse than having some slip off your needle, or noticing a mistake ten rows back and having to get back there without dropping stitches. Crochet is so easy to rip out and Re-do when you need to. I love to crochet, but learned to knit because I like the products better. Watching a movie and crocheting a blanket or a hat is the most fun and relaxing thing ever.
Fun fact. There is not as yet a crochet machine. So, anything you buy that’s crochet is hand made. So, take that into account when you buy one as far as cost. But knitting can make such beautiful! creations. I wish I knew how. Interesting video! The things they made with the detail! Holy cow.
Thank-you for your video. I think it’s great that the series sparked a renewed interest in knitting. I recall Terry Droesbach commenting years ago that Catriona Balfe was freezing during production of series 1, and all the fellas were nice and warm in their plaids, so she commissioned a local to knit costume pieces for Catriona, and voila! we all were hooked, or is that a crochet pun? Cheers, and love your videos.
I’m so glad you made this video seeing Claire with a bulky cowl drives me nuts. I am only 60 and know that when I was a little girl, there was basically only one weight and needles didn’t come in so many sizes!
My grandmother knitted socks for my uncle into her 90's. She was doing this in 2009/2010. Amazing to me. I'm not an Outlander fan. Couldn't stay with the show. Claire was such a fool always needing to be rescued. However, I am obsessed with making a sontag but crocheted. I'm not a great knitter but love crochet. I've seen one pattern and video for a crochet sontag that was a little rough. It's a project for the future I guess. Great video. First time I've watched. Thanks.
I know this is an older video but I just want to add a comment to your 'history' of why there are not many examples from that time frame. Even when the 'rag' was worn out and useless - anything left was sold to the 'rag man' (or woman) who sold those to the paper making company. (Townsend's just had a vid on jobs that noted that). As a knitter, I enjoyed your video!
I've made a crocheted adaptation of the "Outlander cowl" a couple of times (just work in the back loop only for the length one wants for the circumference of the cowl, seam the 2 ends together, and it looks like ribbing). I've also read the first couple of books in the series "The Secret Stitch" by C. Jane Reid, which suggests the early origins of crochet through a series of historical novels. (There are also related pattern books with instructions for the projects the protagonists in the novels are depicted as making.)
What a wonderful video! Thank you for doing all that research and sharing it. I had heard of Highlander but never watched it. Then I found the book Highland Knits at the library and had to check out the show that inspired it. I checked that book out so many times just to drool over the settings and the styling. I finally broke down and bought my own copy. Still working my way through the show. It’s not just the knits though. Her clothes from the modern era were gorgeous. I especially drooled over both Claire’s and Brianna’s outfits from the 60s. 😍
Thanks for this interesting history. I am amazed by the tiny knitting pins... so time-consuming! But that must have been much better for felting and for purses that didn't allow items to fall out between the stitches.
It's not just films that get things wrong! I read a lot and so many very good authors still get lots of little facts wrong ! That was a very interesting video, thank you.
This is so interesting!! I always thought chunkier was more accurate because it knits up faster and you would need to literally make all of your clothes.
What a wonderful presentation. I really enjoyed the pictures of early 17th c. knit clothing. I would have liked to see very close up photos of the bog man's clothes and also tech analysis of them too. But when I thought of your very careful "table of contents" at the beginning of the presentation...well I could see your point in not going off on a tangent. Subscribed and liked. Thanks so much.
thanks, I had figured that the Sontag probably only came later, but I did not know anything about the sock knitting machines, that had been used from so early on. You did some fantastic research here.
Wardrobe design for this series was incredible, and innovative, especially the French segments to show influence and continuity connecting past to contemporary couture. Just beautiful. Although the actors were exploited as per gratuitous sexual content in my opinion. They managed to create interesting story lines and build the characters.
Fascinating and delivered beautifully. Thank you. I've always used knitting "pins" maybe because my mam was scottish and an avid and beautiful knitter.
Not historic, but the latest season of Shetland from the UK has amazing knits. It might be fun to survey the six seasons and how the knits reflect the storylines and current fashions.
KUDDOS!!!! It's nice to see you doing the historical research. I was a member of the Appin Regiment c1745, during the late 1980's. We would go to highland games up and down the state of California and teach Scotsmen about their history. Mind you this was prior to the invention of the internet. We had members that would go to the UK and do the hands on research. One of our members had a PhD in clothing archaeology. Katrina would reproduce the museums clothing exhibits using historical methods. (She got me back into weaving and I taught her bobbin lace making.) We had knitted stockings with the hand woven garters. The hand dyed, knitted and felted wool caps. No knitted shawls but we used our arisaides as cloaks. I was the bobbin lace maker of the group and demonstrated lace making.
This is an excellent video: perfect information and presentation! I am deep into studying the lives of the French settlers in early 1700’s in Mobile, Alabama and I have found the same information here. I was also surprised that shawls were not a “thing”, and the settlers got the idea from the indigenous peoples here who wore them, usually made from animal skins and very decorative. (They also took quite quickly to wearing moccasins, and who wouldn’t?) Thank you for doing this.
Glad I'm not the only one who was surprised about the shawls! And thanks for the info about the indigenous influence - I didn't know the idea originated with them. That's good info to know!
@@NerdyKnitting I’d assume there were many peoples who used shawls before the Europeans! It would be interesting to see when and why Europeans first started using them in daily life. Maybe when the American Indigenous peoples came to visit it caught on…
We have to remember, while this occured during 1700s, Claire came from the 1900s and could and would influence those around her regarding the items made, like the cowl she wore. Good video
Since watching your awesome video, I've been thinking alot about the accuracy of the costumes. I came up with a theory that is neither true nor verified but it works to make the knits acceptable. So, while Claire was plotting her escape from the castle, back in the day, she presumably had lots of spare time. Being that knitting was a social activity, there would have been some of it going on in the castle. Now if men used the larger needles for bonnets, and cheifs needing said bonnets, there would logically be a reasonable way for her to get a hold of the chunky needles. Then she could make her knits herself, to her taste but trying so hard to fit in. Or... It could be on purpose to show that no matter how hard a time traveler tries to fit in with their surroundings, they will always be out of time and Outlander's xx
I came across your video by accident and was fascinated. I recently finished reading Independent People by Icelandic Nobel prizewinner Halldór Laxness, set in the early 20th century. Iceland’s economy was very underdeveloped at the time and it strikes me things might have very similar to the Shetlands of Gunnister Man. Many in the novel’s family knitted with wool. The grandmother knits all the time-no doubt necessary to keep the family clothed. (Sheep are their livelihood.) There is no mention of undergarments in the accounts of Gunnister Man, so I’m wondering if the men just wore breeches. But the impression I received from the novel was that the Icelandic women of the time wore woolen underwear, possibly knitted on the very fine needles as in your video. Any thoughts?
Interesting! I don't know much about Icelandic knitting but I would guess that with trade routes and such there would be many similarities. And as far as I know, undergarments as we know them today didn't exist then but woolens would definitely be used for layering and warmth so some type of undergarment seems likely.
Thank you for sharing this historical information. I love all the research that you did to figure out what was historically correct. This is an awesome video. Thanks again!
Thanks for recommending All Creatures Great and Small. Such a nice and easy going series. I enjoy history movies, on the right side of history. I really stop watching if I see inconsistencies. Due to the fact that Outlander is too awesome, I let the knitting slide, I just liked to think that Claire, being out of that world, would just wear/make things different. Like she had made custom large wooden needles for all her knits :) Do you have other history pieces recommandations?
For period dramas I really liked Poldark as well (but there aren't any knits!) and I'm really enjoying Lark Rise to Candleford right now too. I need to find some new period shows with lots of great knits in them! 😁
As much as I would love to make some of these garmets, I can't knit. I've watched videos, got knitting for dummies and took a class. The instructor bless her heart, I think I was an anomaly since I just couldn't. Lol I grew up in a crocheting household. I wish I had payed better attention since I'm not well versed in that as well, but I can crochet simple things which is better than how I knit lol
My Dad's family all used to knit, my Grandma was born in 1909 and was raised knitting and crocheting. My Dad could knit his own socks by the age of 9. They all worked in the cotton weaving Mills in Lancashire. Except my Grandma who ran a corner shop.
I think these may have come later, like the shawl period, but it would be interesting to know. I have read a bit about them, but don't recall what time period they were. Fisherman's sweaters. From what I read, they were tight knit, and sometimes had designs and what we think of as cable knit and the current version of what we think of when we hear that term, but apparently the designs were more varied, and given the tight knitting, not bulky and big texture to them. Apparently it wasn't unusual for a woman to knit them for her beau/boyfriend. They were felted to make them even more water resistant, which of course was crucial for being out on the ocean. To that end, sometimes the patterns were what a woman would come up with that identified it as mans, or just that she was known for certain types of patterns.
It might be worth bearing in mind, that they probably would have spun their own yarn, although depending on the circumstances they might have bartered for it too.
Hi! Great video! Just finished binge watching Outlander last nite and definitely noticed all the knit clothing. I am sharing this video with my knitty friend now. Tks, 🇨🇦
Interesting! My dad would talk about the stockings his mother used to make. She would make them quite large and then, in the summer, they would be soaked in hot water and put on, worn until dry. That would shrink them down, probably felting them. They were extremely warm and would last forever, probably could stand up in the corner! She came from Norway. My grandpa was born here in 1883, the year after his parents came from Norway. They did everything by hand.....
What an interesting story! And I agree - the hot water and wearing them probably felted them to the wearer's foot/leg shape. Thanks for sharing a bit of your family history with me.
This is so interesting… now I want to try it! 😮Thank you for sharing!
Love your story! My grandpa was also born in 1883!
My Mother and her family were all Norwegian. She taught me to knit when I was around 5 years old. I'm 70 years plus and I still knit as many usable items as I can. It's tremendously relaxing, cheaper than psychotherapy, and best of all, you have something beautiful , useful and rewarding when finished. It very much sums up the Norwegian attitude towards life in general. This was my first view of this channel, it's wonderful, and yes, I was knitting as I was listening.
@@robinisaacs2888: You need to make sure to use yarn that is suitable for felting. Need to start out with a fairly big item, depending on the exact wool you pick. Items can shrink up to 50%, so it's a good idea to make a sample before you go ahead and make a pair of socks fit for a doll. 🙈
I do appreciate historically adequate costumes but I feel creative liberties can be taken with outlander considering it’s a fantasy show. Yes bulky knits were not around back then but neither was a nurse from the 1940s and so we could say this is a alternative reality where time travel is possible and other people from the future have travelled even further back in time and invented larger knitting needles before they existed in the timeline we are in.
You're right! Anything is possible when time travel is involved. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
especially true considering some of the things that Claire does in later books/seasons, it's not beyond the realms of possibility that she knit herself some items that she knew she'd seen :D
That's a valid point, I love the way you think.
My head canon is that Claire and Bree's modern sensibilities made them impatient with knitting so fine so they used carved sticks or whatever was handy to quickly throw together those ridiculous giant items to just be warm. I can imagine the reactions of people around them. 😂
I think there's two aspects to this; one is as you say it is only entertainment and fiction, a historical fantasy, so essentially there should be no real expectation from viewers of any actual historical accuracy in the depiction of the setting. However, as we can see, often people do confuse TV shows like this, however obvious it is that the story is fictional and unrealistic, with its portrayal of "history" of somehow being accurate- so it merits pointing out the ways it isn't. It doesn't mean that the show had to be more accurate, it is after all just entertainment, but for the sake of clearing up any historical misconceptions that might be happening with viewers it is nice to have discussions like these.
In other words, you can love the show and the costumes, and think that within the context of the show they even make some sense, but there is also as good a reason to point out why they are not historically accurate for the period, i.e. fiction like the show, before people start to think that it is what is historically accurate. Past popular fiction full of historical inaccuracies have sadly led to common and enduring historical misconceptions even in academics. Once there is an accepted general idea that something was a certain way, no matter the source or how baseless, it can be hard to get rid of again.
I grew up near Stirling, and as a child we were taught to knit as soon as we entered the school system. Started off with the basic bonnet 'T' shape for babies, then socks and gloves...and believe me, you needed then through most of the year.
My mother worked in a wool mill making very fine wool up the thicker one as they grew more popular.
I wish lol. My nana crocheted and knit but as always we get interested in things after they are gone, my mom has said she would try to teach me but.... Never has time. I've got circle looms and mastered a hat (well it was good enough to give away as a gift I guess lol) but that's it. It's hard on the fingers when they bend backwards while trying to do things. I wish I had known how to do this when I was younger.
The lack of historical accuracy for Claire’s costumes was purposely done to show that she doesn’t quite belong. And it’s done quite cleverly in some of the seasons. Anyway, love the video ❤
This makes sense...thank you.
Outlander was how I got back into knitting in my late teens. My mother had taught me around age five as something to do while sitting still, but I stopped when kids at school made of it. The scene in the first book where Jamie is shocked that Claire can't knit got me thinking "if this big strong awesome Scotsman knits, then why I should I be worried about it?"
I really appreciate your approach to the historical accuracy of the series. I don't like the "it's fantasy so anything goes" take-- Diana Gabaldon put so much research in that it feels disingenuous. Having Claire wearing chunky knits doesn't bother me as much as say, Jamie's sister wearing them, because Claire is from the 1940s and would have a different perspective on what things should look like (her brilliant zip-front stays, for instance) and likely no patience for the smaller gauges in the 1740s. She could have used hand spindles to knit, or had Jamie or someone fine tune some sticks. As for the yarn itself, hand-spinning would have been as ubiquitous as knitting, and she likely would have been expected to pick it up. Chunky yarn is much easier to make than finer stuff.
Hadn't thought about Jamie or someone making some larger needles for her! Really great thoughts you've shared here - thanks so much!
Just to say, my grandfather taught me to knit. He spent time in bed with rheumatic fever and his north Northumbrian mother taught him to knit to pass the time. I knit lots of sweaters/cardigans for my children and grandchildren, and now preparing for a great grandchild. I point to a photograph of an 1890s bride and tell them because of that lady I can knit your sweaters.🙂
@@brendapowell4795 I love that you're able to pass on that narrative along with the results from it. (And maybe the skill itself? I hope so, anyway.) It seems your great-grandmother taught her kid to knit for the exact opposite reason that my mother did-- I couldn't sit still at all, and if I wasn't given something to do with my hands, I'd find something. A bit of a dangerous habit for a five-year-old.
@angryhistoryguy - During WWI my lovely late FIL remembered knitting mittens with his 3 older sisters, mittens they sent to "the soldiers in the trenches"!
My daughter taught me how to use a drop spindle, and I LOVE DOING IT, EVEN IN THE CAR! (Only when I'm a passenger, of course!) I find it much easier to spin *_VERY_** FINE YARNS* than to spin chunkier yarns, so was surprised by your reversed observation.
Wow! You are a really good public speaker! Your program moved along quickly, yet the sentences and information flowed one to the next with clear simplicity and no distracting comment asides or sounds. I really enjoyed this lesson and will look forward to more. Thanks much,
Very interesting! I’m glad they took liberties on the show because the pieces Claire wore are just beautiful!
Yes - some of those pieces are just lovely!
Totally agree. The behind-the-scenes in the costume design shop were fascinating actually.
I've been a knitter for more than 50 years. I found this very interesting. I have tried to do this kind of research myself years ago. I agree that The Victoria and Albert Museum has some great examples of knitting. I love to see the clothing of the Bog Bodies as well. Thanks for an excellent presentation.
The internet certainly makes this kind of research easier! I'm glad you enjoyed the video. ❤
We also have to remember that the garments that survived are survivors bias - sometimes only things that weren't worn alot survived..
Excellent comment! I, too, have knitted 50+ years, but still learning. (Always!)
I’m not a knitter, but I listened to this video because it was a great lesson in history and it was well presented. You have an excellent voice that does not bore. It appears it was well researched as well. Thank you so much for the lessons
Glad you enjoyed it!
My father who is turning 88 yo in December, is a knitter. Mostly socks, some baby blankets.
I'm a bit surprised you didn't mention that after Clair told Jamie the truth about who she was, Jamie told Clair, in both the books and the show, that he and the whole family knew how to knit and made their own socks.
Yes! Jamie knits often in the books
in the show it was young ian, during ther early times in America he told Claire that he knits. Mostly socks, ad that every one knits in the family.
@@redzora80 yup.
I have been knitting and sewing for over sixty years and am a huge nerd and find the history fascinating...thanks so much for this video. I have to go back and start at your beginning...thanks so much for sharing.
You are so welcome!
Such a lovely overview! Some of the original knitwear in the show was bought from my Inner Wild Etsy shop by the costume department. I've written up knitting patterns for some of these items now and they are available to buy in my Inner Wild Etsy store and website. Thank you for all the knitting knowledge you bring us.
Oh wow - that's so cool! It must be such a treat to see your knits on the screen!
Nice presentation. I may be the only knitter who has neither read nor watched the series, but of course, I am familiar with the beautiful costuming. Love the pieces salvaged from the unfortunate guy who fell into the bog. Amazing. Makes me want to drop my almost-finished shawl, and knit some stockings.
I don't care about Outlander (watched it once on the recommendation of a friend who thought I'd be interested in the knitwear and it was not my cuppa ) but I found this very interesting. I sent the link to my daughter, a trained costume designer who has an interesting in historical fashion as well as knitting.
Loved that you included the gauges the garments were knit to.
One aspect of knitting in the mid 1700s not mentioned, was that wool would have been the most available fiber for use in knitting, since not that many people kept silkworms in the UK, and most people had a couple of sheep. Another part of that thread is that fiber was valuable, and so wasn't available for making a bulky item when 5 pairs of warm socks could be made of fine yarn that would use much less wool to create.
Not a fan of Outlander ...but this was very interesting. I didn't know that shawls were not popular in that time period (I knit and crochet a great deal and love my shawls!) I knew about the finer threads and have done research about the medieval period. Good job!
I thought shawls would have been a thing during that time - I was so surprised to learn they weren't. Medieval crafting sounds like a fascinating topic!
Fiscues , triangular pieces of cloth were period to cover your chest ,they remind me of smaller shawls
Wow! You are an excellent teacher, truly gifted. I don’t even knit, but this came up as a suggestion at two o’clock in the morning. You have a pleasant voice, so I thought I would listen to you and fall asleep. The excellent content kept me awake. :)
Glad you enjoyed it! But a little sorry you couldn't fall asleep to it 🤣
Even in the early and mid 20th century, people would knit mostly in much finer gauges than is popular today. According to my late mother and grandmother (born in 1900 and 1936), one reason for this being that wool was always sold by weight, while your time was "free". From the same amount/weight of wool, you could make one bulky garment or two finer ones (if you invested a lot more of your time), and those two garments could be layered, so they could serve in many weather conditions, while bulkier garments have a more limited usefulness.
(From the other side of the equation, there was the fact that women and girls weren't supposed to have "idle hands". So if you were to be knitting most of the time anyway, it would of course have been cheapest to go through super-fine yarn).
Great video! I loved learning about the knitting history!
A very enjoyable dive into historical knitting. Your picture research is excellent.
Thank you!
A 19th C ancestor of mine had a knitting frame. This was how she survived as an elderly widow. When I was a child, hand knitting was much finer, from finer guages of wool. In fact I’d say up to the 1980s. Shetland shawls are so fine that you can get them through a ring. And worsted was a process rather than a “weight” of wool, it still is in Scotland - “hard”, solid and hard-wearing . There was not much cotton in mid-18th century Scotland, it was still linen. Cotton didn’t become big until the mid-19th C, imported from India and from the Americas. One method was sometimes called “Scotch knitting” elsewhere, or “shepherd knitting” (fishermen and shepherds commonly knitted). Arisaid is pronounced “YAR-a-sitch”. It isn’t two-piece. It was made of three woven lengths sewn as great big square roughly eight feet (give or take a foot) on a side. (The male kilt had approximately the same amount of fabric but longer and only two wide) The arisaid drapes over a belt so that it forms a double layer of skirt. You can leave the outer, slightly shorter layer down, or bring up over your shoulders, or right up over your head. So it is a skirt, shawl and cloak in one. Sometimes better off women also wore what was described as “sleeves”, which I think was a kind of bolero common in many european countries. In summer, richer women wore linen ones. The arisaid was often white, or with a white base, and black or blue stripes. (In fact other than shape,:this type fits the descriptions of the lowland shepherd’s plaid, a few of which survive.) If the arisaid was tartan, it’s described as often having a smaller sett than the kilt tartans.
Oh, on “scotch knitting” or “shepherds knitting”, this is thought to have been a form of one-pin or crochet knitting. I was intrigued to find that “Tunisian” crochet, which I had never heard of before the internet, turns out to have Scotland as one proposed origin - this shepherd or “Scotch” type of crochet/ knitting. One thing that seems certain is that its origin is not Tunisia. It seems pretty obvious to me that it’s just a mangling of the word in Gaelic or Irish whose root is “toinne” - maybe toinnesian (TOON-i-shjan). The root idea is waves, waviness, and words from this root describe the act of spinning fibre and plaiting, as well as “twisting & turning”, the purling or rippling of water, adjectives meaning “complicated”.
Wow! Thanks so much for sharing all this wonderful information!
I think it's very interesting that blue was common among the working class because blue was one of the most difficult colors to obtain and the process took a lot of work. I don't know if they used other than plants colors at that time but originally it came from a plant that needed to be cooked in Ammoniak for a certain time and the fabric had to be cooked with the plant together later for several hours more and then it was dried in fresh air. By this process the blues varied, sometimes u got a really shiny blue or a dark blue or turquoise. It used to be a color that was expensive that's why it's interesting to me that in Scotland at least it was a commoners favorite color in the 18. Century
I also have to say that watching this video was very great though I don't knit, I crochet but the research u did is amazing. Thank you
Interesting! I hadn't even considered anything about the dyes that would be commonly in use at the time. Thanks for sharing the info!
The blue would have come from woad which grows like a weed, so it wouldn’t have been expensive. It sounds like you are thinking of indigo, which is expensive and complicated to use.
Indigo for blue dye was imported to the British Isles in bulk in the 16th and 17th centuries, so it became less rare. And even before indigo became more common, woad had been used for hundreds of years so blue dye was common and accessible for almost everyone. The Romans wrote about the indigenous British people who painted and tattooed themselves blue with woad and maybe even dyes made from copper and other minerals, so blue has always been a color common people would have access to. Fun fact: the chemical dye extracted from woad is identical to the dye extracted from true indigo, just in a lower concentration.
@@jenk4545 thank you!
in the uk, woad/ blue has been one of our most plentiful dye plants, famously used by the celts and everyone since. Purple was probably the most rare. where I come from in coventry built it's medieval industry on woad. The vikings also very commonly are found wearing woad blue. It does have a better concentration of indigo compound when imported from sunnier climates. Madder Red has also been very common and was something that we used to export, so was common for british folk but very expensive on the continent as madder didn't grow there.
Thank you for the historic background on the clothing from this show! This show is one of my favorite to date from Netflix aside from the Witcher. You do have to keep in mind she and her daughter were time traveling and could have brought over those chunkier knits from the later centuries. Over all great video and much appreciated!
Glad you enjoy it!
Great historical information! I love history. I am a crocheter, but admire knitting. Hoping I can find some crochet tutorials to make a caplet inspired by the show. Thank you for putting this together.
Fascinating! Thank you so much!!
You're welcome!
I so enjoyed your tutorial,,, video on this subject ,, thankyou so much
You did such a lovely job presenting this information. Its clear you have a passion for this. Thank you.
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
It always amazes me how finely detailed they made old fiber garments. I don’t knit (can’t wrap my brain around it, lol) but I do crochet, and I love looking for vintage patterns for inspiration. Some of these old doilies and lace inserts are made from _thread_ - not crochet thread, like sewing thread. Crochet is a bit more modern than knitting, but it has partial roots in the irish lace trade, one of the few ways women could earn money at the time. During the famine in the 1800s, some irish women would make lace to sell by bending the tip of a sewing needle into a teeny tiny hook.
Thank you for sharing that info - I didn't know that crochet was related to Irish lace. That's so interesting!
Dear Singer of Songs. Greetings from another person that loves Irish crochet!
Thanks, I'm not a knitter but I love clothing and costume history, this was well done. Must admit when I saw those big knits on the show, I wondered about the accuracy. Thank you for doing the research and providing the info.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great presentation , good speaker and information.
I only just started knitting in the last couple of months, so I never noticed it the first time I watched. But I have since re-watched and all I see is the knit clothing! This was a great video, thank you :)
Now that you're a knitter you'll probably start to notice the knitting in everything you watch - I know I do (and I sometimes pause what I'm watching to grab a picture if it's something I really like 🤫).
@@NerdyKnitting ha ha That's actually a great tip! I know it will be a bit before I can figure out my own patterns, but it will be good to have a folder of ideas waiting :)
So maybe Claire brought some knitting ideas from the future and used them for herself and her family! Hah!
Thank you for the video. I found it especially interesting to see the bog man's clothing.
That's a great theory! 👍 Glad you enjoyed the video!
Funny thought but unlikely. In the books it's mentioned that Claire is not really a great knitter. :)
@@caro.s. Yes, and discussion about Jamie knowing more than she did and helping her learn.
Claire n'était pas vraiment douée la broderie et la tricot. Elle était avant tout une infirmière et plus tard médecin. Rien à voir avec le ménage.
@@raoullevan6550 Why are you '' trying'' to write in french raoul ? 🙃
Great video! I'm not a knitter, but I've watched some of the series and I love learning about the historical accuracy of movies and books.
Glad you enjoyed it!
You had me at "Outlander"! Lol
I came across your post and hugely enjoyed your video. As a few others have commented, listening to you is wonderful as you speak clearly, succinctly, and you don't have "umms" and "humms" scattered throughout. I deeply appreciate that ALL this wonderful free content I find on the 'net is largely produced by volunteers and 'amateur' bloggers/vloggers, but trying to listen to an explanation/pattern etc. filled with ummms, errrrs, and worse yet "I know I'm rambling but bear with me" is truly difficult. So I truly appreciate and enjoy your clear speaking style.
The historical detail you provided was awesome. I loved seeing the knitting preserved from the bog and like others, was surprised that shawls haven't been around *forever*! So I popped over to your site to see what else you've produced and ... wow!
Your site is a treasure trove of treats. It's as though you've heard me muttering as I fumble through my first (completed) sock, seen me hesitate over starting a gorgeous new shawl project, wondered what to do with my stash and remnants, and many more concerns.
A recent terminal diagnosis has meant closing down my (largely) online business. I'm a nerd too - love technology and have been a computer instructor since dinosaurs roamed. Now I get to pick up my needles and finish projects and clear out my stash. Finding you and your lovely site of practical, useful information will keep me happily occupied for the time I have. Thanks for your great shares (and time-stamped videos!!! 👍👍) Linda, a new subscriber
Linda - ❤️ I just saw your email too and will respond there as well but just wanted to say welcome and thank you! I'm so glad you find the videos helpful.
Hi! I'm so glad to have found your channel! I liked this video and even if I don't watch Outlander anymore, I still like the knitting from the show. If you still want to do some more similar videos (just saw this one is from a year ago) I'd like to suggest a couple of shows ... Poldark, and North and South there are some knitted items in both. We already know about the shawls but maybe it still may be accurate for the later seasons in Poldark (already 19th C) and North and South is from the Victorian era already. I'm still amazed at the fine knitting they were making, it would take me forever to knit like that! But I guess when survival depends on it, people would do it and be efficient at it. Great video, thanks for the info!
I have been thinking about doing more videos like this with other shows that have knits in them - so thank you for the suggestions!
“7600 dozen pairs” is a fascinating way to breakdown a number.
I don't knit but I thought the topic was interesting. You are an excellent speaker! Congratulations!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Not familiar with Outlander (horrors! will I be struck off your comments page?!!) but decided to have a peek at your video as I'm a knitter, started at age 4, Continental thanks to my gran and mum, and then had to convert to English once I started school in Manchester, UK. I'm 69 now, and still love knitting. Really enjoyed your presentation and will look for some of these patterns. A new fan!
Welcome! So nice to 'meet' a fellow knitter!
It’s so cool to see your video on recommended, I remember seeing your channel reviewed months ago not sure if it was VidIQ or Think Media. You’ve come a long way!!
I think you could have mentioned that Outlander did get some things rights besides the “bonnets”, we saw knit stockings like the ones you showed here and in later seasons in North Carolina they did have some finer knit cardigans or jackets. Maybe when the show airs season seven you can review American knitting practices as represented on Outlander. Also something that seems accurate on the show which you mentioned here was that men knew how to knit too. Young Ian explains that he learned how to knit and that Uncle Jamie had also knit something for one of his siblings. While it’s not a visual knitted item on the show, they did mention the practice which you confirmed was common in Scotland.
All in all, still super fascinating to hear about the really fine knitting at the time.
Thanks for sharing! I hadn't thought about doing a video that specifically explored knitting in America at the time - great idea!
Thank you for the video. The historical info is SO COOL! I have always loved learning about garment history. A knitter and Outlander fan, love the knits in the show, I also own the Highland Kitting book. Of course I want the Outlander knitting book. Thanx again for the fun video.
I'm so glad you liked it!
You are no nerd! This is a wonderful tutorial!
This is so interesting. Thank you so much. So much info. Great information.! Really live this information. Again thank you. Bless you 🙏🏻😊❤️✨
Wow! I was curious about the knitting in outlander but I never expected to find such a detailed and well researched lesson on the topic. Thank you :)
Glad you enjoyed it!
EXCELLENT VIDEO! Instantly subscribed, _AND_ sent your link to my daughter, who also taught herself to knit - then started inventing lace patterns for socks! (I would NOT "teach" her myself, as I'd "taught" myself at about age 12-13, and ended up doing everything "bass-ackwards," a truly awkward result when trying to follow someone else's knitting patterns. She was far better off learning it by herself!)
I just stumbled upon this today and had to watch. I read the Outlander books, watched the series, and definitely loved all the costumes in the show. I have unrealistic aspirations of learning to knit, and I’m always in awe of people who have mastered the craft. I appreciate the historical background, and once Droughtlander ends and the show begins again, I’ll look at Claire’s lovely knit work with a more informed eye - and still want the pieces for myself. 😂 I’m going to Scotland this summer! I look forward to museum hopping!
Enjoy your trip to Scotland (I'm only a little bit jealous)! 😁
@@NerdyKnitting oh thanks so much! I really hope to see some of the 18th century pieces you highlighted in your video❤️thanks for making such a great video. 🙏✨
I so enjoyed watching the featured historical knitting research and accuracy comparison from the Outlander time period. I do want to add the thought that Claire was time traveling into these different points from the future where these knits already were introduced, so it stands to reason she could very well have included those influences in addition to so many others she left behind or rather brought forth so to speak. Enjoyed the post. Thanks for sharing.
Very true - Claire certainly brings her own strong influence to the time period so it stands to reason that would affect what she wears as well! Thanks for sharing your thoughts - I love hearing everyone's differing viewpoints. 😁
Subscribed! Great information and especially shocking was the shawl's use coming so much later in history than expected. Funny that I watched this while crocheting a shawl! YOur video makes me want to learn knitting, now!
Haha! Always happy to convert someone to knitting! 😁
I'm a crocheter and I can't knit to save my life, but I love stuff like this. Thank you for a very interesting and well done video!
Glad you enjoyed it!
The show runs a 30 year span at least so the shawls maybe aren’t as far off as you think because those shots are mostly once the are in North America
Thanks for the video! Thought for sure Diana Gabaldon would have wanted Claire and Bree to fit in and NOT stand out and thus would want their TV costumes to be historical as much as possible. But I guess the producers won out with their artistic symbolism in the costuming. Yeah, it looks great though.
I don't knit (crochet is more fun, don't ask why pls, I don't know), but I loved the video. To thank the algorythm, here's a comment, a like and a subscription. :D
Thank you for watching!
I know why it’s more fun! You are only dealing with one stitch on your hook. In knitting, you have dozens or hundreds of stitches on your needles to deal with. Nothing worse than having some slip off your needle, or noticing a mistake ten rows back and having to get back there without dropping stitches. Crochet is so easy to rip out and Re-do when you need to. I love to crochet, but learned to knit because I like the products better.
Watching a movie and crocheting a blanket or a hat is the most fun and relaxing thing ever.
@@missmayflower Now I’m feeling the urge to learn how to crochet!
Fun fact. There is not as yet a crochet machine. So, anything you buy that’s crochet is hand made. So, take that into account when you buy one as far as cost. But knitting can make such beautiful! creations. I wish I knew how. Interesting video! The things they made with the detail! Holy cow.
Thank-you for your video. I think it’s great that the series sparked a renewed interest in knitting. I recall Terry Droesbach commenting years ago that Catriona Balfe was freezing during production of series 1, and all the fellas were nice and warm in their plaids, so she commissioned a local to knit costume pieces for Catriona, and voila! we all were hooked, or is that a crochet pun? Cheers, and love your videos.
Excellent and informative video. ❤
Glad you enjoyed it!
I’m so glad you made this video seeing Claire with a bulky cowl drives me nuts. I am only 60 and know that when I was a little girl, there was basically only one weight and needles didn’t come in so many sizes!
Glad you enjoyed it!
My grandmother knitted socks for my uncle into her 90's. She was doing this in 2009/2010. Amazing to me.
I'm not an Outlander fan. Couldn't stay with the show. Claire was such a fool always needing to be rescued. However, I am obsessed with making a sontag but crocheted. I'm not a great knitter but love crochet. I've seen one pattern and video for a crochet sontag that was a little rough. It's a project for the future I guess. Great video. First time I've watched. Thanks.
Thanks for sharing!
I know this is an older video but I just want to add a comment to your 'history' of why there are not many examples from that time frame. Even when the 'rag' was worn out and useless - anything left was sold to the 'rag man' (or woman) who sold those to the paper making company. (Townsend's just had a vid on jobs that noted that). As a knitter, I enjoyed your video!
Good info! Thanks for sharing that!
I've made a crocheted adaptation of the "Outlander cowl" a couple of times (just work in the back loop only for the length one wants for the circumference of the cowl, seam the 2 ends together, and it looks like ribbing). I've also read the first couple of books in the series "The Secret Stitch" by C. Jane Reid, which suggests the early origins of crochet through a series of historical novels. (There are also related pattern books with instructions for the projects the protagonists in the novels are depicted as making.)
Love this! Thank you for researching and sharing this information! I find it fascinating that the needles were so fine.
Glad you enjoyed it!
What a wonderful video! Thank you for doing all that research and sharing it. I had heard of Highlander but never watched it. Then I found the book Highland Knits at the library and had to check out the show that inspired it. I checked that book out so many times just to drool over the settings and the styling. I finally broke down and bought my own copy. Still working my way through the show.
It’s not just the knits though. Her clothes from the modern era were gorgeous. I especially drooled over both Claire’s and Brianna’s outfits from the 60s. 😍
Yes, the clothes/costumes are wonderful and worth watching just for the lovely inspiration.
Thanks for this interesting history. I am amazed by the tiny knitting pins... so time-consuming! But that must have been much better for felting and for purses that didn't allow items to fall out between the stitches.
Very true - fine stitches could probably be felted much more easily.
Yep I have my oma book from the books from the year without sunner. It has everything you could thing of. Socks,capes hats, covers
It's not just films that get things wrong! I read a lot and so many very good authors still get lots of little facts wrong !
That was a very interesting video, thank you.
You're welcome! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
This is so interesting!! I always thought chunkier was more accurate because it knits up faster and you would need to literally make all of your clothes.
What a wonderful presentation. I really enjoyed the pictures of early 17th c. knit clothing. I would have liked to see very close up photos of the bog man's clothes and also tech analysis of them too. But when I thought of your very careful "table of contents" at the beginning of the presentation...well I could see your point in not going off on a tangent. Subscribed and liked. Thanks so much.
Thank you so much!
Very interesting video. Thank you 😊
Glad you enjoyed it!
thanks, I had figured that the Sontag probably only came later, but I did not know anything about the sock knitting machines, that had been used from so early on. You did some fantastic research here.
Thank you! It was really interesting to look into the time period - the sock machines were a surprise to me as well.
Wardrobe design for this series was incredible, and innovative, especially the French segments to show influence and continuity connecting past to contemporary couture. Just beautiful. Although the actors were exploited as per gratuitous sexual content in my opinion. They managed to create interesting story lines and build the characters.
This is really cool and well researched. Thank you for the video :)
Fascinating and delivered beautifully. Thank you. I've always used knitting "pins" maybe because my mam was scottish and an avid and beautiful knitter.
Thanks for your research and information. Great presentation!
Glad you enjoyed it!
You do a grear job of talking, and researching the details for this video. Wonderful and so interesting, thank you!!
Thank you. Glad you enjoyed it!
Not historic, but the latest season of Shetland from the UK has amazing knits. It might be fun to survey the six seasons and how the knits reflect the storylines and current fashions.
Great idea!
KUDDOS!!!! It's nice to see you doing the historical research. I was a member of the Appin Regiment c1745, during the late 1980's. We would go to highland games up and down the state of California and teach Scotsmen about their history. Mind you this was prior to the invention of the internet. We had members that would go to the UK and do the hands on research. One of our members had a PhD in clothing archaeology. Katrina would reproduce the museums clothing exhibits using historical methods. (She got me back into weaving and I taught her bobbin lace making.) We had knitted stockings with the hand woven garters. The hand dyed, knitted and felted wool caps. No knitted shawls but we used our arisaides as cloaks. I was the bobbin lace maker of the group and demonstrated lace making.
Fascinating! I love watching bobbin lace being made - that's like magic!
@@NerdyKnitting 😀
This is an excellent video: perfect information and presentation! I am deep into studying the lives of the French settlers in early 1700’s in Mobile, Alabama and I have found the same information here. I was also surprised that shawls were not a “thing”, and the settlers got the idea from the indigenous peoples here who wore them, usually made from animal skins and very decorative. (They also took quite quickly to wearing moccasins, and who wouldn’t?) Thank you for doing this.
Glad I'm not the only one who was surprised about the shawls! And thanks for the info about the indigenous influence - I didn't know the idea originated with them. That's good info to know!
@@NerdyKnitting I’d assume there were many peoples who used shawls before the Europeans! It would be interesting to see when and why Europeans first started using them in daily life. Maybe when the American Indigenous peoples came to visit it caught on…
We have to remember, while this occured during 1700s, Claire came from the 1900s and could and would influence those around her regarding the items made, like the cowl she wore.
Good video
Thanks for watching!
Since watching your awesome video, I've been thinking alot about the accuracy of the costumes. I came up with a theory that is neither true nor verified but it works to make the knits acceptable. So, while Claire was plotting her escape from the castle, back in the day, she presumably had lots of spare time. Being that knitting was a social activity, there would have been some of it going on in the castle. Now if men used the larger needles for bonnets, and cheifs needing said bonnets, there would logically be a reasonable way for her to get a hold of the chunky needles. Then she could make her knits herself, to her taste but trying so hard to fit in.
Or... It could be on purpose to show that no matter how hard a time traveler tries to fit in with their surroundings, they will always be out of time and Outlander's xx
I love your theory!
I came across your video by accident and was fascinated. I recently finished reading Independent People by Icelandic Nobel prizewinner Halldór Laxness, set in the early 20th century. Iceland’s economy was very underdeveloped at the time and it strikes me things might have very similar to the Shetlands of Gunnister Man. Many in the novel’s family knitted with wool. The grandmother knits all the time-no doubt necessary to keep the family clothed. (Sheep are their livelihood.) There is no mention of undergarments in the accounts of Gunnister Man, so I’m wondering if the men just wore breeches. But the impression I received from the novel was that the Icelandic women of the time wore woolen underwear, possibly knitted on the very fine needles as in your video. Any thoughts?
Interesting! I don't know much about Icelandic knitting but I would guess that with trade routes and such there would be many similarities. And as far as I know, undergarments as we know them today didn't exist then but woolens would definitely be used for layering and warmth so some type of undergarment seems likely.
Thank you for sharing this historical information. I love all the research that you did to figure out what was historically correct. This is an awesome video. Thanks again!
Thank you!
Wonderfuly informative, Thank you, Rebecca
You are welcome!
Fabulous video! Succinct, informative, and entertaining. Loved your bit on the man from the bog's clothes.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for recommending All Creatures Great and Small. Such a nice and easy going series. I enjoy history movies, on the right side of history. I really stop watching if I see inconsistencies. Due to the fact that Outlander is too awesome, I let the knitting slide, I just liked to think that Claire, being out of that world, would just wear/make things different. Like she had made custom large wooden needles for all her knits :) Do you have other history pieces recommandations?
For period dramas I really liked Poldark as well (but there aren't any knits!) and I'm really enjoying Lark Rise to Candleford right now too. I need to find some new period shows with lots of great knits in them! 😁
This video is in so many niches and I fit into all of them.
As much as I would love to make some of these garmets, I can't knit. I've watched videos, got knitting for dummies and took a class. The instructor bless her heart, I think I was an anomaly since I just couldn't. Lol I grew up in a crocheting household. I wish I had payed better attention since I'm not well versed in that as well, but I can crochet simple things which is better than how I knit lol
Very interesting! Thank you!
Thanks, I was wondering about the beautiful shawls on Outlander.
Very informative!!!! Thank you.
You are welcome!
I was never interested in knitting. But I am a mov/tv-nerd. That's very interesting.
Glad you enjoyed it!
912,000 pairs of socks in a year exported overseas from scotland in one year....that seems like a lot!
I agree - that is a lot of socks!
My Dad's family all used to knit, my Grandma was born in 1909 and was raised knitting and crocheting. My Dad could knit his own socks by the age of 9. They all worked in the cotton weaving Mills in Lancashire. Except my Grandma who ran a corner shop.
Lovely family history! Thank you for sharing.
I appreciate that you pronounced plaid -playd- correctly. Arasaid I belive is 'air'-said'.
Thank you for all your work , it was really informative, I started knitting again from watching the show:)
Thank- you for posting this
. My sister loves the styles.
I think these may have come later, like the shawl period, but it would be interesting to know. I have read a bit about them, but don't recall what time period they were. Fisherman's sweaters. From what I read, they were tight knit, and sometimes had designs and what we think of as cable knit and the current version of what we think of when we hear that term, but apparently the designs were more varied, and given the tight knitting, not bulky and big texture to them. Apparently it wasn't unusual for a woman to knit them for her beau/boyfriend. They were felted to make them even more water resistant, which of course was crucial for being out on the ocean. To that end, sometimes the patterns were what a woman would come up with that identified it as mans, or just that she was known for certain types of patterns.
It might be worth bearing in mind, that they probably would have spun their own yarn, although depending on the circumstances they might have bartered for it too.
That's very true!
Hi! Great video! Just finished binge watching Outlander last nite and definitely noticed all the knit clothing. I am sharing this video with my knitty friend now. Tks, 🇨🇦
Thanks! So glad you liked it!
Thank you for your research and posting this, very interesting video.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I believe some of the items were produced because Catriona Balfe was always cold during filming and the knits were quick to produce.
That makes sense! I imagine it was pretty cold during filming.
Thank you for your videos, I love your research component, Fascinating. My father is a Paisley, the family originates from Scotland.