Knitting developed into an important commercial activity in early modern Europe. As a result, knitted objects, such as stockings, became widely available on the market. While people at all levels of society wore knitted objects, there was a stark difference between the relatively ordinary items artisans used themselves, and those they knitted for the wealthy elites. 

This citizen science project focuses on early modern stockings and their reconstruction. By combining scientific testing, close reading of surviving objects, and archival evidence with the expertise of skilled makers, the aim is to gain a deeper understanding of what early modern stockings originally looked and felt like, how early modern objects were knitted, and what tools and level of sophistication were needed to knit stockings of different kind.With the help of 35 experienced volunteer knitters, our citizen science knitting project reconstructs three different types of early modern stockings, each with different focus and aims.

The most complex of these is the reconstruction of a surviving silk stocking, discovered from the coffin of Elisabeth Bure (d. 1668) in Turku Cathedral. In order to recreate the stocking as accurately as possible and to produce a digitized pattern, we will study the original stocking closely, and carry out a fibre and dye analysis. Once the knitting is completed, the stockings will be treated and dyed using the period methods. The project has so far shown that ot takes up to 200 hours, or more, to knit one stocking with 1.0 mm needles.

This project allows us to render visible lost and fragmented historical objects, including those routinely made objects that have not survived in our museums. This way, we hope to gain a more concrete access to the manifold layers of meaning that were associated with wearing, making and using these objects.

As we make process in our reconstructions, we will update this page, as well as our blog.