Some patterns from the mid-1800's

I've been adding some patterns to Ravelry's database of historical mid-1800's patterns. What is frustrating to me, is that they don't have a historical, or Victorian or vintage attribute that can easily sort old patterns out. Luckily, I figured out how to add the old engraving prints to the pattern while still giving credit to the original authors, so people looking for old patterns can see them for what they are. However, it would be nice if they could maybe put in an attribute that allows you to search for historical patterns- preferably by year, or decade even!

This is a really interesting pattern to me, for a "leggin" which appears to be a sort of legwarmer/spat combo- with ruffles. Awesome! I haven't seen any other pattern that resembles it, to date. It's from the December 1859 issue of Peterson's Magazine. I created a really nice, easily printed-out .pdf version of this pattern, and it is available at the The Wooly Spider site. http://woolyspider.com/2010/06/knitted-leggin-1859/ 

It's nice to have an online place for patterns that I put together to "live" since I can't create downloadable .pdf's and house them with blogger's free blog- which this blog is. 

The other pattern I added to Ravelry was this pattern by Isabella Beeton (1870) for Knitted Braces.

This is from Beeton's Book of Needlework. Awesome book!! I'm not really familiar with vintage knitting cotton sizes, so I don't know the modern equivalences for Walter Evans and Co. Knitting Cotton No.8 or 12. It says it is a "coarse" cotton, so maybe regular dishcloth cotton would work. I need to do some more research. It also doesn't recommend a needle size, but I would imagine that small needles, for tight, non-stretchy stitches is what would work best for a pair of suspenders- or rather, braces. :)

I also made a .pdf of this pattern at this url: http://woolyspider.com/2010/07/knitted-braces-1870/

Enjoy!

Maja Cape...in Danish

I found the most amazing cape pattern on Ravelry! Written by Katrine Wohllebe, it's beautiful! I love it- it's knit in pearl knitting, which I think looks so stylie, and I just really want it as an addition to my winter wardrobe. Even more amazingly, it's a free pattern. Here's the catch...the pattern is offered only in Danish.
Ok- what to do?
I'm stubborn.
I found online resources for translating Danish knitting patterns- yes- there are more than one! And I translated it out. It appears to make sense, I think it will work. How cool is that?
One thing I was struck with as I was translating, was how knitting patterns, once you get past the specific language, have a language all their own. That's one of the reason's I think my translation will work, even without a working knowledge of Danish. The pattern flows, it makes knitting sense. I can't wait to try it.

Here's the link to the Filcolana site where you can see what I'm talking about- and download the pattern if you speak Danish! Here