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Introduction
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| Alex had her heart set on being a knight for Halloween when she was five.
I had been curious about making costume "stage mail" for quite a while.
I was familiar with the look and feel of real linked mail, having helped make some
in my ecclectic past. I tried out a couple of yarns of various fibers and weights, and decided that
this heavy cotton cordage had the closest weight and drape to the real thing. |
Materials
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- T.W. Evans Cordage Company's Cable-Wound Seine Twine #18, 200-yard balls, about 4 oz. each
(approx. $4.29 US in 1996). I bought it in an Ace Hardware store. This is a worsted
weight tightly wound 100% cotton twine. It's so dense that it's difficult to make a
thumbnail-dent in the string when pinched between thumb and forefinger. The coif takes
about 1.75 balls; the mail shirt, approximately 3 balls.
- US #11 (8mm) needles. I used a set of 5 10-inch long double pointed needles to
start the coif and to do the sleeves; and a 26-inch long circular needle to finish
the coif and do the body of the shirt.
- Leather thong or leather shoe laces as trim.
- Water-soluable black or charcoal grey acrylic paint
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Gauge
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Stitch gauge: 3 stitches = 1 inch in garter stitch
Row gauge: 4 rows = 1 inch in garter stitch |
Coif
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Cast on 4 stitches and knit one round "I-cord" style. Transfer one
stitch to each of 4 needles and knit in the round alternating knit and purl
rounds to produce a garter stitch fabric. The end of the round where you change from knit to
purl should be marked with a stitch marker. It will become the center of the
front. Using one of the invisible increases rather than a YO, increase one stitch
at the start of every other row until there are six stitches on each needle; then add a
second point of increase in the middle of each needle. After the sixth round you should
be increasing at the rate of 2 stitches per needle every other row.
When the piece is large enough to cover the top of the head stop increasing and continue alternating
rows of knit and purl until you've made a beanie shape. Some time during this point I switched to
the circular needle from the DPNs. Continue to knit this beanie shape until it's large enough to cover
the top of the specimin child's head like a cap, with the edge reaching down to about 1/4 inch above the
eyebrows. On the next round bind off the last eight stitches before the marker, and the first eight of
the next round (if the kid has a big face you might want to bind off one or two couple more). I made
sure that the chain formed by my bind-off lay on the inside of the piece - it's more metal-looking
that way.
Continue to knit around the back and sides of the coif alternating rows of knit and purl. As a nice
touch I decreased another stitch on either side of the face opening by an K2tog (or P2tog), to make the
transition from the top of the coif to the sides neater.
Keep knitting in garter stitch until the coif's sides hang down to the bottom of the target's ear lobes.
Start increasing one stitch at each end of the row every other row until you've added approximately 5
stitches to each side. Try the coif on the kid again and make sure that the two ends almost meet together
under the chin without straining. Ideally there should be a two-finger gap between the bottom of the
chin and the point where the ends will join.
Join the ends back into a round, casting on six stitches at the center front (place your row marker
at the center point of these six). Knit and purl three or four rounds. Try the coif on the target
again. Make sure that there is enough room below the chin and that the kid can get his/her head into
this narrowest spot of the neck. The "jog" where you switch from knit to purl will be in the center
front. Don't worry about it. It will look fine when the mock closure is added later.
Now begin the increases that spread the collar out into a semicircular drape over the shoulders. My rate of
increase isn't perfect, so some tinkering might be in order here. I counted up my stitches
and divided them up into six equal parts, placing markers in between divisions. I increased once
per division every other row for approximately 12 rows (6 stitches per division). Then I upped the
rate of increase by adding another increase point in the center of each division. I continued to
knit in garter stitch, increasing every other row until the coif was long enough to drape over the
point of my daughter's shoulders by about 2 inches. I bound off making sure that the chain formed by
the bind-off row was on the inside of the coif. |
Hauberk (Mail Shirt)
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I measured around my kid at her hips, multiplied out by my gauge, added 12 stitches for ease and
cast on using the circular needle. Again, the "jog" between knit and purl rounds was marked as
the center front. I continued knitting in garter stitch in the round until the piece reached from
her hip bone to 3.5 inches below her armpit. When I got to that point, I counted out the
stitches and bound off about 15 on each side to form the base of each arm hole.
I attached a second ball of twine to the back and continued to knit the front and back separately in
garter stitch (preserving the jog in the center front) until the front was 2 inches below my
daughter's collarbone. At the center front marker I formed the base of a neck slit by doing a SSK
and K2tog. On the return row I knit up to the center, then joined another strand of twine and
finished the row. I now had three strands going: one for the back; one for the right front; and
one for the left front. I continued for another two inches, then bound off approximately 9
stitches at the neck edge on both sides of the front. I continued for another two or three rows.
On the last row I bound off the centermost 18 stitches of the back.
I joined the back and fronts together at the
shoulders using Kitchiner stitch, but you could use any seaming method
that doesn't leave a bulk underneath. I now had something that looked like
the diagram at the right.
In making the first sleeve I took the time to jot down the numbers of
stitches in each of these steps and the overall sleeve length so that I could
make sleeve #2 identical.
Using the double pointed needles, I picked up stitches along the vertical part of the
armhole at "A” above. I don't recall how many - enough so that they flowed evenly
over the arch of the shoulder. I knit out from the shouder, continuing in garter
stitch. At the end of each row I picked up a stitch in the horizontal part of the
armhole and knitting it together with the last stitch in the row. This made a
"barrel vault" sort of shape. I continued until there were only six
stitches left in the center of the horizontal part of the armhole. These
I picked up on the next row and joined the twine to make a a full circle. I
continued knitting the circle (the sleeve) out from the body using alternating rows
of knit and purl to make garter stitch. The "jog" where the rows joined was in
the center bottom of the sleeve. I kept knitting until the sleeve was long enough to
reach to my daughter's wrist. Again I bound off with the bind-off chain on the
inside.
I made the second sleeve exactly like the first. |
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Finishing Both Pieces
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When the coif and mail shirt were done I used acrylic paint to make them dingy grey. I
dissolved about 3 tablespoons of water-soluable acrylic hobby paint in a cup of water. I
dumped that mix into a bucket containing about three gallons of slightly warm tap water.
(If you don't pre-dissolve the paint in a small quantity of water you'll never get
an even distribution of color).
I stuffed both pieces into the bucket and kneaded them until they achieved the dirty
color I wanted. It took about a half hour of squeezing, kneading and soaking. Then
I let the pieces drip dry for a couple days.
The next step is highly optional. I wanted to highlight the ridges with something a bit
shinier so I laid the pieces flat in a big cardboard box and sprayed them with chrome/silver
color rustproofing paint. I held the can obliquely so that only the ridges picked up
the shine. Although it looked just a bit nicer, the extra effort and expense wasn't
worth it. And the silver paint took a long time to dry, and even when dry rubbed off very
easily. This final touch might be good for theatrical chain mail, but not for kids costumes
- especially if the kid insists on sleeping in her costume as mine did the first day.
(Anyone know how to get specks of silver off polyester blend sheets?)
The finishing touch was running a lengths of leather thong or lace criss-cross up the
center front of both the shirt and the neck and bib part of the coif. This turns the
knit "jog" into the semblance of a laced closure. Spiffy! |
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