Free pattern books online, if you liked VLT...

[redwitch]

Here are links to two books that were part of the source material for VLT, Miss Lambert's book and another is there too I think. Search for just 'knitting' and you will get quite a few results! (Also isohunt.com, where my friend downloads his TV shows to watch, apparently has knitting stuff including patterns somewhere on it.)

http://books.google.com/books?id=ges...tting&as_brr=1

http://books.google.com/books?id=SYI...tting&as_brr=1

Sarah

[marykz]

this ROCKS! if you are into crochet- search that too- lots of books from the 1850's about fancy lady's crochet work. THANK YOU!!!

[suzeeq]

Ahhh, that's the book I saw where the back of `plain' knitting is pearl knitting - the original spelling.

[redwitch]

Are you sure that it is the original spelling, or just that it was used? So, could it have been originally spelled more than one way, with neither correct or wrong (like Shakespeare spelling his name several different ways in text), or purl was correct with it often being misspelled pearl (less likely)? Or was it definitely originally always 'pearl'?
I think that because pearl was already a word with other meanings, it's more likely that this was original (also purls could look like pearls) and it got changed. On the other hand, I have to admit that if purl were correct, I would expect it to be commonly misspelled as 'pearl' for the same reasons.

Sarah

[suzeeq]

I think it was at another point in the book, maybe the `how to' section, that it mentioned pearl bumps, so it seems as though that was how it was referred to then.