A Victorian Cape Knitting Adventure || Historical Victorian Knitting

Hello everyone and welcome back to another video. Last time I had just finished sewing all of the pieces to my 1890s walking ensemble and I mentioned that I only had a few knit items left before I could call my entire outfit complete. One of those knit items I want to make is a shoulder cape to wear on those chilly winter days in the middle of July. So when looking into exactly what capes were like in the 1890s, I looked through several different references. I always really like going back to some original video footage that's around from the mid to late 1890s and it shows a large number of women wearing capes, especially dark colored capes. I also usually go back to some fashion magazines at the time and this one in particular is really exciting because not only does it list like woolen and fur capes, but it also lists some woolen capes, so some crocheted woven capes as well. Taking that one step further, I actually managed to find a antique Victorian hand crocheted shoulder cape on Etsy for sale. I so want this cape but I just couldn't justify spending the money so I've decided not to buy it, but if you do decide to buy it please send me pictures, I would love to see some more. Okay so knowing that I wanted to actually knit my own cape I went back to my antique copy of the 1892 version of The Art of Knitting and the first actual pattern in there with a picture is a shoulder cape. So I went with that pattern not because it's just the first one and I love the picture but also because Gwen from Gwen Shanigans has already made this cape once, so I know what it looks like and I love how her version looks. I'll leave a link down below so you can go check it out, I think it's really beautiful and so that's why I decided to choose this particular cape pattern. It also really helped that I had someone to ask questions to when I got a little stuck trying to interpret the pattern, so thank you so much Gwen for answering my questions when I had them along the way. Okay let's get started making the cape. For my cape I decided to use KnitPix Wool of the Andes in worsted weight. I'll leave a link down below if you're interested in also purchasing some of this wool, it is very warm and I will say very nice to knit with, though I would generally recommend it as outerwear and nothing next to the skin. I decided to make my cape black as I saw that many other capes of the time, especially those that were knit or crocheted, were all also done in black. If you've been following along you'll know that I spent a lot of time in the last few weeks and months sewing the items for my walking ensemble, and while I really enjoyed learning all those new techniques and really brushing up on a new skill set, I very much missed knitting and I miss the portability of knitting. I could always put my yarn in a bag and walk out to a beautiful overlook and watch the sunset as I worked on whatever project I had going. That's why it felt so nice to get back to knitting this cape on this project, as I got up incredibly early, as this was in the middle of summer, so near the longest day of the year, to watch the sunrise and listen to the birds as I worked on a historical cape. Not only can you peacefully enjoy a beautiful sunrise while knitting, you're also able to take quite a few excursions, maybe even knit in the car depending on how carsick that you get. This summer we went to Antelope Island, which has a native population of five to seven hundred bison that we were able to see very up close and personal, which was super exciting, but I also really loved the feeling of getting to experience something new while keeping my hands busy working on a project that I am incredibly invested in and incredibly interested in. Of course, we hiked some and when we got to the peak of the mountain that we were hiking, we took a break and I broke out my knitting to knit with some more incredible views around us. When we were taking a walking tour of a historical farm that was actually built in the 1890s, I sat next to the well house where it was a bit cool in the shade and knit some more on my cape. It almost feels like every time that I'll be wearing this cape in the future, I'll have some of those memories and places knit into the very fabric of what I'm wearing. I'll always think back to where I was as I was working on this project. I also got a little bit silly with my knitting when we went away for a beach day at the lake. I decided to try my hand at some knitting on a stand-up paddleboard. Definitely would not recommend as any kind of extended thing, but I will say it was quite fun to do just to prove that I could. After taking my cape on all of those different adventures as I was knitting it, it was finally wide enough to actually start casting off. The cape is a drop stitch pattern, which means that as you're casting off all of your stitches, every fourth one you're actually dropping. I had to really work up the courage to actually drop a stitch. This is the first time I've ever intentionally done this. Usually when I see that I've dropped a stitch, it is a horrible feeling as I know that I have a lot of work to try and fix what I've done, but this is the first time it's actually quite intentional to give the cape more an airy feel and kind of create puffs along the entire width of the cape. After casting off, I then had to unpick all of the drop stitches along the entire width. I will say I thought it would be much easier anytime I've dropped a stitch before, it seemed like it was racing to get all the way down to the bottom I work, but with this particular yarn it was like it really wanted to hold on and keep its stitch formation the entire way, so it took a pretty significant amount of time for me to actually be able to drop all the stitches all the way down the entire width of the cape. Once I had finally finished dropping all the stitches all the way down the width of the cape, I was left with this beautiful airy puffy fabric. I put it around my shoulders and it still feels quite warm but it has this wonderful texture to it that I really love and I actually think it kind of evokes the same look as the original cape that I saw on Etsy that is crocheted. Now the top and the bottom of the cape are the same width and I will say that my neck is not the same width as where I am around my elbows, so you have to draw in the top of the cape. Going off of the pattern is pretty vague but I end up following the same guidelines of doing a row of single crochets across the top to gather it in. I've also come up with a pattern for this particular cape, so my own interpretation of what was suggested with different sizing options for however wide you'd like your cape to be, so if you're interested in that I will leave a link down below so that you can also purchase that. Of course you are more than welcome to see the free version online as well which I've also linked below to do your own interpretation. The cape is fastened at the top with a ribbon drawn through openings that are actually crocheted with double crochets around the previously gathered together edge of the neck area of your cape. This is very similar to the kind of open stitches that I did for the top of my combinations and I think it's kind of interesting that the combinations were one of the first pieces that I knit for this outfit where I had to do this and now my cape which is one of the last pieces that I knit, I'm doing the exact same thing. Following what's suggested in the pattern once again, I added a row of scalloped edging to border the top of where the ribbon would go through to close the cape at the top. I really like how this looks, I was a little bit worried how it would look after I gathered it together after tying my ribbon, but as you'll see shortly I actually really like the effect that this gives around the neck edge while I'm wearing the cape. In the pattern they also suggest adding a fringe, I did do a few inches along the bottom of adding the fringe exactly how was suggested in the pattern given in the book, however I personally didn't really like the extra length that it gave or how it really looked so I decided to forgo adding a fringe altogether. In the pattern that I've posted down below that you can purchase from me, I also add instructions on how you can add this fringe so if you like how it looks and you want to add the fringe, I've added those instructions there for you and of course they're also there in the free version from archive.org And that is my 1890s cape! I actually really enjoy how it turned out and I liked wearing it even though it's the middle of summer. It can get a little bit chilly here in the evening so it's nice to have something to throw around my shoulders to keep some of the wind and chill out. While it's really great to wear with my 1890s walking ensemble, I do find myself reaching for it at home because it's lightweight yet warm and perfect for sitting at my computer. I want to say thank you again so much for watching, I really appreciate all the support and the advice and the help that I get from everyone in the comments and I hope that you'll join me again next time as I try my hand at dyeing some of my yarn with natural dyes for the last bits of knitted items for this outfit. I'll see you then!