To take under-To pass the cotton from one needle to the other, without changing its position.

Pearl, seam, and rib-stitch, all signify the same.

N.B. The sizes of the needles are given according to the filière, drawn at page 94.

It is necessary in giving or following directions for knitting, to caution knitters to observe a medium in their work-not knitting either too loose or too tight.

HINTS ON KNITTING.

A plain stitch at the beginning of each row, called by Madame Gaugain an edge stitch, is a great improvement in most instances, as it makes an uniform edge, and the pattern is kept more even at its commencement. In most knitting, the edge-stitch is slipped.

It is said that knitting should be taught to children, when young; it is curious to observe how much more readily those persons handle the needle, who have learnt it in childhood.

It is easiest to learn to knit by holding the wool over the fingers of the left hand; the position of the hands is more graceful when thus held.

It is always advisable to cast on loosely.

When it is requisite to cast off, and continue the row on a separate needle, it is sometimes better to run a coarse silk through the cast off stitches; they are easily taken up when required,

and the inconvenience of the idle needle is avoided,—as for instance, in working children's shoes.*

It is not perhaps generally known, that the crimson caps worn by the Turks (some of which are occasionally seen in this country), are knitted. The Fez manufactory of Eyoub, at Constantinople, established by Omer Lufti Effendi, is thus described, from a recent visit by Miss Pardoe.-"As we passed the threshold, a most curious scene presented itself. About five hundred females were collected together in a vast hall, awaiting the delivery of the wool which they were to knit; and a more extraordinary group could not perhaps be found in the world. There was the Turkess with her yashmac folded closely over her face, and her dark feridjhe falling to the pavement: the Greek woman, with her large turban and braided hair, covered loosely with a scarf of white muslin, her gay-coloured dress, and large shawl: the Armenian, with her dark eyes flashing from under the jealous screen of her carefully-arranged veil, and her red slipper peeping out under the long wrapping cloak the Jewess, muffled in a coarse linen cloth, and standing a little apart, as though she feared to offend by more immediate contact: and among the crowd, some of the loveliest girls imaginable."

This establishment is on a very extensive scale, three thousand workmen being constantly employed. The wool is spread over a stone-paved room, where it undergoes saturation with oil; it is then weighed out to the carders, and afterwards spun into threads of greater or less size, according to the quality of fez for which it is to be knit. The women then receive it in balls, each containing the quantity necessary for a cap; and these they take home by half a dozen or a dozen at a time, to their own houses, and on restoring them, receive a shilling for each of the coarse, and seventeen pence for each of the fine ones.

The fèz afterwards undergoes various operations, such as felting, blocking, dyeing, etc., when it assumes the appearance of a fine close cloth. It is then carried to the marker, who works into the crown the private cypher of the manufacturer, and affixes the short cord of crimson which is to secure the tassel of purple silk, with its curious appendage of cut paper. The last opera

tion is that of sewing on the tassels, and packing the caps into parcels containing half a dozen each, stamped with the imperial seal. Fifteen thousand caps a month are produced at the manufactory of Eyoub.

We must not close the subject of knitting, without briefly alluding to the productions of Barège, the Shetland Isles, and Sanquhar.

The village of Barège, situated on the French side of the Pyrennees, at the foot of these lofty mountains, is celebrated for that peculiar description of knitting, where various coloured wools, and sometimes gold and silver, are introduced to form most elegant patterns. The knitting from the Shetland isles

The

is very similar to that of Barège, but generally of one uniform colour. wool with which the real Shetland knitting is done, is peculiar to these islands, and spun by the peasants; the particular race of sheep from which it is produced is said to resemble those in the mountains of Thibet, more than any other European breed. Sanquhar, in Dumfriesshire, was formerly celebrated for its manufacture of knit stockings; but that branch of industry received a fatal check at the commencement of the American war, although it still affords employment for numerous families; and the particular description of stocking there made is still much prized.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Netting.

"Not aine damzell, which her vaunteth most
In skilfull knitting of soft silken twyne;
Nor aine weaver, which his worke doth boast
In diaper, in damaske, or in lyne;

Nor aine skild in workmanship embost;
Nor aine skild in loupes of fingring fine;

Might in their divers cunning ever dare
With this so curious networke to compare."

SPENSER.

"Ideal visits I often pay you, see you posting round your sylvan walks, or sitting netting in your parlour, and thinking of your absent friend."

SEAWARD'S Letters.

N the museum of Montbijou, at Berlin,* are preserved specimens of the nets made by the Egyptians above three thousand years since; and in this, and other collections, are some of the needles they employed in netting-instruments similar to those of

the present day. These nets are such as were used for fishing

* This collection of Egyptian antiquities was formed by M. Passalacqua and General Minutoli, and is one of the most curious in Europe.

and fowling, but we are not to infer, that even in this remote age, they were ignorant of netting of a finer description: indeed, if we may credit the ancient writers, their productions of this kind far surpassed those of modern times.*

There is scarcely a hunter or a fisherman who does not understand netting in its rudest and simplest style. The instruments requisite are, a pin or mesh, on which the loops are made, and by which their size is consequently determined; and a needle shaped into a fork of two prongs at each end, the ends of the

* Their nets were made of flax, and some of the threads used for them were remarkable for their fineness; so delicate were these nets, says Pliny, (lib. xviii. c. 2) "that they would pass through a man's ring, and a single person could carry a sufficient number of them to surround a whole wood. Julius Lupus who died while governor of Egypt, had some of these nets, each string of which consisted of one hundred and fifty threads; a fact perfectly surprising to those who are not aware, that the Rhodians preserve to this day, in the Temple of Minerva, the remains of a linen corslet, presented to them by Amasis, king of Egypt, whose threads are composed each of three hundred and sixty-five fibres; and in proof of the truth of this, Mutianus, who was thrice consul, lately affirmed at Rome, that he had examined it; and the reason of so few fragments remaining, was attributable to the curiosity of those who had frequently subjected it to the same scrutiny."-Herodotus (lib. iii. c. 47) also mentions this corslet, and another presented by the same king to the Lacedæmonians. He says, "it was of linen, ornamented with numerous figures of animals worked in gold and cotton. Each thread of the corslet was worthy of admiration, for though very fine, every one was composed of three hundred and sixty other threads, all distinct; the quality being similar to that dedicated to Minerva at Lindus."