Charles Dickens doesn’t ever specify what Madame Defarge was so nefariously knitting in Tale of Two Cities. This pattern attempts to imagine just that, using techniques that would have been available to Defarge at the time.

The two samples of this stole were knit in wine-red laceweight yarn from Schoppel Wolle with long oak-leaf edges and the other in white Goddess Lace merino 2-ply with daggered edges. The white example shows how lovely the stole might be if used for a birthday or Christening celebration. Instructions after the pattern have been provided by Wendy McDonnell for dyeing the stole a tasteful blood and wine red.

Materials:

Schoppel-Wolle Zauberball 75% wool, 25% nylon; 876yd/800m per 100g skein; 23 WPI, 2 balls #1872 Plum Sauce
Stole as knitted used about 1,000yds/910m.

US 5 3.75mm circular needle, 40in 100cm long

Stitch markers