Inspiration Found in a Knitted Victorian Border

When I first looked through my Weldon’s Practical Knitter series, I was fascinated by the engraving of the French Trellis Border in Weldon’s Practical Knitter Edgings, Fourteenth Series, published in London in 1890 (and compiled in Weldon’s Practical Needlework, Volume 5). It didn’t look like anything else I had seen in other stitch dictionaries. I was sure this wide dramatic border would make a distinctive edging for a lovely large shawl. When I knitted up a swatch of the border the first time, I clearly saw that there was a mistake in the instructions that was not visible in the engraved image. I always love a challenge, so any errors found or yardage restrictions just add to my enjoyment of the designing process.

Weldon's is a wonderful source of inspiration.

I envisioned a design that had a section of plain garter stitch to support and not distract from the beautiful edging. After I corrected the error in the Weldon’s instructions, I created the chart and completed the design with a simple wide garter-stitch body. Because of the wide edging, the body on this piece is smaller than usual for this type of crescent-shaped shawl.

Want to make Carolyn’s shawl? This shawl pattern and others can be found in the Fall 2019 issue of PieceWork.

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Since her family was traditional, in that all the women did needlework, Carolyn Wyborny has been crocheting, knitting, and tatting since she was very young. She works as a software engineer for a large high-tech company but spends most of her free time coding up knit and crochet designs. She lives with her husband, two children, and several pets.

Originally published October 3, 2019; updated February 17, 2025.