Tradition in Stitches: Sanquhar Gloves

Midge and flea, rose and drum, diamonds, and tree of life—these are some of the patterns that Dales or Sanquhar knitters conjured to make gloves with tiny needles and three-ply wool. Writing in stitches is even involved!

Dales and Sanquhar gloves are distinct two-color, geometric, knitting traditions that reach back as far as two or three hundred years. Though distinct, they are similar enough to make knitwear scholars hope for connections. Think of them as glove cousins whose family tree is obscure, because knitting was rarely concerned with studying itself before the 20th century and no written records of possible connections survive.

Photo of a Dent knitter (name unknown) shown to our study group by Ann Kingstone.  The museum at Hawes will host another study day with Angharad Thomas on May 17.

What we do have are examples of both types of gloves held in museum archives. We also have contemporary communities actively researching and preserving stitch names and techniques.

So, let’s peer into these very exquisite gloves.

Back in 2023, I wrote an article for MDK on the Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes, Yorkshire, and one of the greatest knitting treasures they hold is a drawer full of Dales gloves.

Dales Gloves and pattern diagrams by Hartley and Ingilby on display at the Dales Countryside Museum, Hawes, Yorkshire.

The main characteristics of Dales gloves are:

Two contrasting colors.

Colors used: scarlet and white, green and white, brown and white, black and white, and similar variations.

Palms often in a midge and flea pattern.

Backs of hands in geometric patterns.

Cuffs in two color rib.

Upper cuff (nearest to hand) usually with the initials of the wearer and date.

Lower cuff (nearest to wrist) sometimes with two color fringe.

Knitted in the round on curved wires made by a local blacksmith.

Wires inserted into knitting sticks at the knitter’s waist held by a belt.

Made for children and adults alike.

If you travel 120 miles northwest of Dent to Sanquhar in the Dumfries and Galloway region of Scotland, you can see the glove cousins of the Dales gloves. Here’s what we find about Sanquhar gloves:

Sanquhar Gloves, Tollbooth Museum.

Two contrasting colors.

Traditionally black and white.

Knitted in geometric patterns based on an 11×11 stitch grid including midge and fly.

Cuffs in two color rib.

Upper cuff usually with the initials of the wearer and date.

Knitted in the round on wire thin needles.

Made for children and adults alike.

Sound familiar? Though separated by 120 miles geographically, Dales gloves and Sanquhar gloves do resonate visually and in many aspects of their construction.

Knitting historian Ann Kingstone’s research draws a connection between the lead mining heritage of the Yorkshire Dales and Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland. With work for miners ebbing and flowing in these two regions and a wool trading route leading between them, it’s a compelling hypothesis that these gloves met each other along the trail as mining families migrated from one region to the other.

Dales gloves knitted by Ann Kingstone shown at a Dales gloves study day, Hawes.

Though historical connections are still vague, today’s knitters are busy sharing the thrill of knitting these challenging gloves. Twenty years ago, Mary McCormick in Sanquhar started writing down those patterns, which were only transferred orally. She learned them by watching her mother and a Miss Jane Forsyth.

The art center in Sanquhar also organizes learning tours and in-person courses. You can find Mary’s patterns on the Sanquhar Knits website. Beth Brown-Reinsel also provides modern interpretations of Sanquhar gloves on her website as does Angharad Thomas in her 2023 book A Knitter’s Guide to Gloves. Both of them use the 11×11 stitch grid as a springboard for new designs.

Sanquhar patterns also look great on socks! Here are pair from the Dumfries Museum alongside the 3-ply wool and 1.75 mm needles (US fingering can often be substituted). Patterns on Ravelry.

Sanquhar gloves were heavily promoted in the late 1800s by Scottish lairds and have maintained their tradition more seamlessly from knitter to knitter and because of several pamphlets released in the 20th century by Patons and Baldwins and The People’s Friend magazine. These outlets also provided  patterns for Sanquhar socks and scarves.

Dales knitting historians are also busy studying archives and encouraging glove knitters. You can find a pattern by Penelope Hemingway and Tom van Deijnen for Dales gloves reverse engineered from an existing pair in the 2014 edition of Hartley and Ingilby’s The Old Hand-Knitters of the Dales.

Angharad Thomas also provides a Dales pattern in her book. Both books have charts and written instructions. And it’s not all down to gloves, Ann Kingstone uses Dales patterns as the inspiration for her Barbon beret.

I’ve only scratched the surface of the origins of these two regional glove traditions. There’s much more in all of the books I’ve mentioned as well as in the Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes, in the extensive Sanquhar glove displays at the Toolbooth Museum in Sanquhar, and the Sanquhar glove displays at the Dumfries Museum.

If some knitters of Estonian gloves feel these images are ringing bells, you’re right. Textile historians are pursuing potential links between two-color, patterned gloves in Britain and continental Europe as well. How great to be part of it all by knitting these gloves and preserving and growing patterned glove traditions.

I’m off to knit some midges and fleas and spell my name in wool!

The author makes a start on Dales gloves and knits her initials.

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