Bluebells, Cardinals and Sontag Shawls

Hi Dear Folk,

I had a dream last night that I found a most wonderful wood full of bluebells here in Pennsylvania.  It was a small woodland area which you entered almost through a canyon on the edge of which they had built new town homes, once through there and round the corner it opened up to this glorious sea of bluebells in the woods.

Funny what you dream, must be all those UK pictures of bluebells.  I love bluebell woods so much that I have an old print in my bedroom.  I picked it up at a Sunday car boot sale in the Lake District, for fifty pence.

We have a lot of bird life in our garden, and almost every year the robins nest by the backdoor in the honeysuckle, or in the climbing hydrangea, but I did not see any nests this year and was a little disappointed.  Then yesterday I noted cardinals coming and going into the pine tree just outside my bedroom window, not that you could even see the nest, but tiny tell tale grasses where hanging out, where they hadn't quite got them into the nest.  Also Tuppy was taking a keen interest from her perch on top of the radiator, looking out the window.  Yes cardinals have a nest there.  Will listen to their progress.

This morning I saw a blue jay in the garden, they used to be around all the time and then haven't been for a while so it was with great pleasure I saw one this morning.  Or maybe I haven't been around to see them and I am now.

I am enjoying the cooler weather, some showers are thrown in but low temps and low humidity I can go with that.  Crocheting is continuing.  Also coffee on the patio with Mr. B. on the days he doesn't work.

I have almost finished my star shawl, but need just a tad of green to finish two edges, so will have to buy another ball of yarn, I will use the balance to make a hat, maybe a beret.

I have been looking at wrap around shawls.  My friend Candyce came over for lunch yesterday and she mentioned a tie in the back shawl that she had seen on Lark Rise to Candleford.  So I did a little research and found a nice crochet pattern, most are for knitting.  I also found a 1912 Lion Brand Knitting and Crochet book, the entire manual to download, which has several Sontag Crochet patterns in there.  I would call these the ladies genteel version as opposed to the larger, thicker,  working women's shawl.

The Sontag is a cape or shawl with long ends that cross the body and tie in the back, or cross again in the back and are tied around the front.  I have seen it spelled online with both one 'n' and two n's', in German Sonntag is Sunday.  The Victorian German singer Henrietta Sontag wore the shawl and made it popular, so therefore the correct spelling I think would be with one 'n"

There is a write up on them see here, by In The Rounds. The Sontag shawl must have also been a staple in America as you have Civil War Sontags for dress reenactments.  Also Kate Davies, here did a write up on Sontag shawls. The crochet pattern I found is a take off on the shawl worn by Tess of the D'Urbervilles here, taken from the TV film, from the book by Thomas Hardy.  Fish Knits has a write up on the authenticity of the shawl.

Of course a shawl that ties in the back and some actually have long cords on, and go round the back and tie in the front in a bow, would have been very handy for a working woman, to not have to pin, or keep slipping off the shoulders.  I think the working woman's would just have tied in the back and the fancier ones would have come around the back then tied in the front in a bow, I'm sure you would have found this style of shawl in wide use.  If I remember rightly in the film, Fiddler on The Roof, the youngest daughter Chava is wearing a shawl tied in the back, as she leaves the village with her husband.  I have also seen it called a Prairie Shawl, Cache Coeur/Bossom Friend and a Danish Shawl.  This pattern seems to have been published in both the United States and England around 1861, but I'm sure it was in use before then.

So many possibilities, my head is spinning with ideas.

Christine