Mrs. Luther's Bonnet (SPRANG BONNETS PART 2)

PART 1 OF THE SPRANG BONNETS starts HERE

The portrait by Lucas Cranach, painted in 1526, of Katharina Luther, wife of the famous Martin Luther, depicts a woman wearing a hairnet. It was Dagmar Drinkler of the Bavarian National Museum who showed me this image some years ago. It is her opinion that Mrs. Martin Luther is wearing a sprang bonnet. I interpret this as possibly an interlinking structure, what I call a doubles grid.

Bonnet, interlinking stitch, doubles grid with a narrow band attached.

The narrow band wraps around the head to secure the bonnet to the head, and is tied at the back of the neck.

This is the plan I followed: I made a wide rectangle of sprang cloth, securing the centre with a chain-across technique. I gathered the loops from one end of the cloth into a tight ring. This ring will be located at the back of the head. I then folded the cloth and joined the selvedges together in a seam. The loops from the other end of the cloth go around the face.

drawings by Carol James

To make this bonnet I selected a 2-8 wool, and set on a warp that measured 15 inches long, and 124 loops (248 threads). I worked a doubles grid stitch.

Arriving at the centre, I chained across to secure the cloth. I chained threads one at a time.

Here you see one set of loops cinched together into a ring. You also see how I sew the rectangle into a tube, stitching the selvedges to each other.

It did not look like a bonnet at this point.
​It looked like a tight tube.

Then I blocked it. I got it soaking wet, and then selected the right sized mixing bowl from my kitchen.

I stretched the wet bonnet around the bowl and left the bonnet to dry.
Then blocking process transformed the piece from that tight tube into something that looked far more bonnet-like.

Mrs Luther's bonnet seems to have a band around the rim. I made a band using my tape loom. I measured out threads of sufficient length to make a band that will go around my head three times, plus a bit extra to tie a knot.

sewing the band to the front 3/4 of the bonnet

the ends of the band pass through the lacy holes at the back of the head

I sewed the band to the edge of the bonnet. I sewed the band to the front 3/4 of the bonnet, leaving the back 1/4 of the bonnet with no sewn-on band. I pulled the ends of the band through the loops at the back of the bonnet. In this manner the band can be pulled tight to secure the bonnet to the head.

I made this first bonnet using a pale wool, hoping you would be better able to see the details of construction. Mrs Luther is wearing a dark colored bonnet. You will also note that the band around the head is rather wide, far wider than the band I made for this pale-coloured bonnet.

I worked a band in a 2-2 interlace stitch, with vertical ribs, and a 4 contrasting colored threads. OK, the red yarn I selected is rather close in color value to the dark green, and the green design does not stand out well on my band. I was also disappointed to note that the design in my band is far more elongated that the design in Mrs. Luther's bonnet. OK. Maybe I should stick to my field of expertise, the sprang, and leave the band to someone else. Perhaps it is another technique, perhaps an embroidered design.

PART 3 OF THE SPRANG BONNETS CONTINUES HERE