Shetland lace christening robe

The basic dimensions are from a modern pattern, but, instead of a dress-type upper robe, I split the back, making it a faggoted-edged apron that buttons from the waist up. The buttons are crocheted on both the upper and under robes and there’s an extra row of holes under the upper robe buttons so that a cord can be threaded through both sides and used as a tie - for a baby who is too big for the buttoned robe. It also means that a different underobe can be substituted, if necessary.

I’ve also attached sleeves to the underobe using the same edging as the robe and scattered some crocheted flowers and a butterfly across its skirt. Dimensions: 36 inches long and to fit up to a 22 inch chest.The knitting up takes the time. I calculated it took about six months, knitting for two hours per day. A quick, full-time knitter might take about a month to two months.

I altered the motifs, insertion and edging on the robe, and, picking up some of the motifs in the border, made the body of the skirt a design of trees and flowers where possible. There’s also an extra slant-sided, flower motif on the bodice. The robe could have been very airy, but I wanted something of a closer knit, with a denser edging and insertion, so used a 2/48 or cobweb type wool and, as I’m a tight knitter, 2mm needles and didn’t block it to its limits. There are also a bonnet and bootees using the same edging.

It took a short while to conceive; about a week. A pencil and graph paper are all that's needed because the motifs are traditional. The only new one that's mine is the palm tree above the diamonds - and I expect a Shetland knitter came up with a similar one sometime in the past! The traditional motifs, stitches and stitch groupings, and there are lots of them, can be arranged in endless ways, though there were some developments of then new motifs in late Victorian times - crowns, swags of flowers, crosses, dalek-like creations and such nonsenses, mostly, to my eyes, pretty hideous.

This type of lace is really heirloom knitting; there are very few occasions on which something as delicate as this would be worn.

Shetland stole

Another interest of mine; lace-making - knitted lace, crocheted lace, needle-made lace. This stole is knitted in fine 2-ply wool, using No. 10 needles(UK), so it's not the finest Shetland knit. The diamond-shaped motifs at each end are known as shells and, traditionally, these borders differ in knit motifs from the centre. Dimensions are 2' x 5'.

It's from a traditional Shetland pattern from the 1940s, but with a different edging and more faggoting (the lines of criss-cross, very open stitch just above the edging) created by using herringbone stitch to fix the edge to the body of the stole.

The history of Shetland lace is interesting. Although Shetlanders had, for some centuries, knitted stockings and gloves for export, some lacy, some not, the finest lace knitting using delicate homespun yarn didn't really get going commercially until about 1830, when it started to be sold on the mainland. It turned into a cottage industry and knitters from all over the islands supplied Queen Victoria's court and other wealthy buyers with shawls, stoles, christening gowns, caps, gloves, socks, stockings and other items until the early part of the C20th. It then fell out of fashion and the art was in danger of being lost until the latter part of the century. Now, there is growing interest in this kind of lace which means that trade, too, is beginning to pick up.