The church cap and the crypt cap

Early modern knitted fragments found in Denmark

Abstract

Two Early Modern knitted caps are compared in terms of the quality of the fabric and way they were constructed. One is a flat cap which was probably knitted in the round on more than two needles. It was found in 2014 amongst rubbish on the site of a naval shipyard under a building dating to 1562. This suggests it is the oldest knitted fabric in Denmark known to date. The other cap is a brimless, head-hugging style which lay unnoticed in the National Museum of Denmark’s collection for almost a century. The dating is uncertain but it is likely to be 17th century. This was probably not knitted in the round but worked back and forth with two needles or on a knitting frame.