Historical sewing / knitting terminology 1800's

Question

We have recently found the murder case trial transcripts in which our great-great-grandmother testifies to identify clothing worn by the victim, her husband. The husband-wife were from northern Ireland but now living in Canada and the year is 1896. It seems the family was desperately poor after losing their working-age boys in one year and now the husband leaves home for more lucrative work in the northern Ontario lumbering and railway construction boom. The clothes he had with him were intended to last him all summer and winter, and were not in the best condition already. The motive was robbery and the body hidden. The murderer was found wearing and in posession of the murdered man's clothes. The body was too far gone to identify, so the questioning attempted to identify the victim by the clothes made by his wife, specifically to differeniate it from clothes commonly worn by others.

Any clues to what the following terms refer to, would be greatly appreciated!

------------>'worked around':

- How do you know that is the same shirt? - I know because I made it. It was worked around with red yarn, home-made yarn.

--------->'yellow-top' used for dye?:

- 'Those stockings my daughter knit them, and I coloured them with that yellow-top that grows around the fences.

---------> the difference between stockings and socks for men?

--------->'footed out'

- The other pair of stockings? - They were footed out of an old pair of good legs that I footed out.

--------> the difference between wool and yarn

- Do you remember the wool with which each pair was darned? - They were darned with yarn. - And you could tell me the kind of yarn you darned them with? - Some of it was ravelled out yarn, and some of it the first little piece I got ahold of.

---------> Ravelled out yarn - what is it and why is it unusual?

- Have you never seen socks knit that way with ravelled out yarn? - Never with no one buy myself.

-------> common yarn and fingering yarn:

-And the shirt, you say that you stitched in some red thread into that yourself? - Yes. - So that idea of trimming the shirt, was that altogether yours, or had you seen that on other shirts? - Not very often in this country, of common yarn. They most generally put it on with fingering yarn or something nicer, but I just had the common yarn and I done it.

--------Thanks for taking a look ;)

Lisa

Answer 1

*Worked around* most likely refers to being knit in the round.  In that era this would have been done on a succession of double pointed needles and the knitting done circularly.

*Yellow Top* may be a reference to common marigolds or goldenrod both of which are and were commonly used to distill natural dyestuff for wools.   Both are common weeds in North America .

*Stockings and socks*  well, what's the difference between them today?  Socks were calf high and stockings were (ask your grandmother about the days before pantyhose) thigh high and held up with garters.  Since the common use of undergarments didn't exist until the mid to late 19th century, stockings were often worn by all persons for warmth and comfort.

*Footing out* refers to the recycling of old stockings or socks where the heels, soles and toes were no longer suitable to be darned or otherwise mended.  The foot was cut off and then reknit with stronger yarn or new yarn, which effectively saved time and money.

*The difference between wool and yarn*.  These were used interchangeably, since in that era nearly all commonly available yarn, whether purchased or hand-spun was spun from sheep's wool  Acryllics didn't exist and cotton was used mainly for weaving.

*Ravelled yarn*, which the last question also refers to is yarn that had previously been used in another garment that was no longer wholly useable, due to sections of wear or had been outgrown, or was no longer needed.  The garment's seams were picked apart and the knitting ravelled out and rewound to be used again.  While it may not have been as strong as new yarn, if one was poor, and you must remember that cash in hand in that time period would have been minimal, one used what one had.  Certainly if her husband left his family behind to work away, the family's cash resources would quite possibly been non-exisistent.

*Common yarn and fingering yarn*  Common yarn is most likely what we today refer to as worsted weight,  which was the common diameter yarn that would have been locally for sale or hand spun.  Fingering yarn is what we today would know as sock or baby yarn, a finer diameter yarn used then, as now, for baby clothing or trims or shawls.  If she trimmed his shirt with common yarn she may have been too poor to purchase fingering yarn which was generally spun from softer finer wools than common yarn generally was.

Answer 2

I'm not sure I have all of your answers, but I can give you some reasonable guesses.

worked around - probably means that she knitted or embroidered a pattern in red around the neck and shoulders (or maybe the waistband) of the sweater

yellow top - probably a flower like coreopsis which provides a strong yellow dye.  It could also mean marigolds or dandilions.

stockings vs. socks - there probably isn't a difference  however, stockings might be taller than socks

footed out - I think she means that she took an old pair of socks and reknitted the feet because they were too worn to repair.

wool vs. yarn - probably no difference, but yarn could refer to cotton or linen, or she could be talking about the difference between knitting yarn and something that was unraveled from old clothing or blankets

ravelled out yarn - when materials were scarce during the civil war, woven blankets were unravelled and the yarn was reused to make new garments for the soldiers, I suspect that the same would have been true in Canada, and the original items could have been blankets or bits of knitted clothing that was beyond repair.  It would have been identifiable because no one else would have had clothing unravelled from the same source or in the same colors.

common yarn vs. fingering - I think this is about the size and possibly eveness of the yarn.  Fingering is a thin yarn used in socks and sometimes lightweight garments.  I'm guessing that common yarn would have been thicker, like what would normally be used in sweaters for warmth.  If she was embroidering with common yarn it would be very identifiable because it would have made the fabric very thick.  The fact that she called it "home made yarn" makes me think that it was handspun and that the fingering would probably have been made in a mill.  That could also be the difference between wool and yarn, because wool would be a common term for handspun.

Answer 3

What a great and informative answer, Mickiinpodunk.  Thanks.