They say that what’s old is soon new again, what was in style will come in style again, that Retro is “in.” With all that in mind, I decided to design an easy-to-knit tabard, cinched at the waist with cord ties made with a Viking era lucet.
The tabard (comes from the French tabarde) had humble beginnings around the 13th century. It started out as a simple tunic outer garment and was worn by monks, peasants and soldiers. It had no sleeves and no side seams! Hey, I told you it was SIMPLE! It was held together by a belt or side ties. Later on, in the 15th century, it became fashionable for knights to show off their coat of arms on tabards worn over their armour. The belts that held the tabards together were used to hang useful things like swords and such. If you’ve ever been on a tour to anyplace in Europe, I bet you’ve seen likenesses of “Old Tyme” tabard-wearing people on tombs and monuments.
Clearly, the tabard went out of fashion but I don’t understand why. It can be short like a vest, or long like a tunic, or really long like my bathrobe! I had a black wool tabard when I was a kid in high school back in the mid-60’s. LOVED THAT THING! I wore it over skirts or slacks and tops, cinched it with a matching belt and I was like — ya’ know — cool! — while I stayed warm during Brooklyn, NY winters.
I’d be curious to know if you ever had a tabard. If so, what was it like and when did you have it? You can publish a note to this post.
So you remember I mentioned tabards had to be cinched with belts or side ties? I decided to make side ties with my much loved handy dandy Viking era lucet. Lucets were invented by the Vikings and used for a very long time to make cords and braids. At first it was for practical purposes, such as to hold your clothes together, hang or carry things, etc. but by the Medieval and Renaissance times, lucets were used to make beautiful decorative cords and braids.
Here’s a photo of my lucet taken while I was working on the cords for my tabard:
Cool, huh?
And here’s the cord on my tabard:
If you’re interested in learning how to use a lucet there are many wonderful videos on YouTube. My favorite is by Evelyn Skae and you can find it at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh3l85F9LAE
An excellent resource book is Elaine Fuller’s Lucet Braiding, Variations on a Renaissance Cord. It’s published by Lacis Publications, copyright 1998 and the ISBN is 978-1891656-06-4. It’s available on Amazon and through Woolery.com and other places too! Look for it with your favorite Internet Search Engine.
There are many different types of lucet cords. The one I used for my tabard is the Basic Single Thread Cord, which makes a strong, slightly springy 4-sided cord. Besides plain cords you can add other threads, yarn, ribbon, etc. to your cord by weaving it in as you work up your cord. The added piece that you weave in is called a gimp.
If you’re interested in knitting up my tabard, please go to my Craftsy, Etsy, Ravelry or Amazon pattern stores to purchase the pattern. You’ll find the links on my Patterns tab. Look at the top of your screen, next to the tab that says “About.” See it? Great!
Next post will be about weaving on a rigid heddle loom. I’ve just obtained a Schacht 15 inch Rigid Heddle Loom, took an excellent class on beginning weaving on Craftsy and have made a few plain weave scarves. What fun! And what a great way to use up my yarn stash!!
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Lena's Legacy Hand Knits 