Fleas on Rats
Last semester I took a class titled “England after the Black Death.” As one might deduce, in this course we studied the spread of the Black Death in England and how people and the economy were affected by the disease. Fleas and rats were integral to the rapid spread of the plague. The legacy of these small but mighty creatures has been immortalized in the song “Fleas on Rats.” I am very grateful that the professor shared this beautiful tribute with the class. The song was in my head all semester and even inspired one of my latest knitting projects.
For Christmas I received a copy of Andrea Rangel’s new book KnitOvation Stitch Dictionary. While paging through the colorwork charts I stopped when I saw the “Rat” design. Immediately an idea sprung into my head. I had to make something that fit the “Fleas on Rats” theme. For months I had been considering knitting a cowl, but had not ever gotten around to making one, a decision I only regretted every time I stepped outside into the frigid winter air. I still had to finish some last minute Christmas presents (dish towels), so I once again put aside the idea.
As I wove dish towels I kept thinking about what colors to use for the cowl and what designs to use. Should I have one row of rats? Two? Should I border it with a fancy stitch at the bottom? I wanted it to have an elegant look even though rats would be on it. The “Rat” pattern was worked over 32 stitches, so any other stitches had to be a factor of 32 in order to look right with the repeat. Once I finished the dish towels, I looked through the book again and decided to use the “Twist” pattern on the top and bottom and the rats in the middle.
The next task was to choose what colors to use. My initial thought was black and white, but that was too sharp of a contrast. I wanted a subtle look so that one could only tell there were rats upon close observation. This way people would have to get close enough to see how kind I am before rashly judging me as a crazy rat girl. I found a deep red and a dark brown in my yarn stash that provided the level of subtlety I was looking for.
I excitedly cast on the stitches and began knitting. Each time one of my siblings asked what I was doing I proudly declared, “I am making a fleas on rats cowl!” Their next question was always, “What the heck is a cowl?” “It’s like an infinity scarf,” I replied. From then on I decided it was just easier to tell people I was making a rat scarf when they asked what I was making.
I was able to keep a steady tension for the “Twist,” but my stitches for the rats were a bit tight. After I finished the cowl I learned that people often knit colorwork inside out to achieve the proper tension. After I cast off the cowl, I began topstitching the fleas in black yarn. But I liked the rats better without the fleas. So I put fleas on two of the rats and left the others as they were. Thus my cowl can properly be named “Fleas on Rats.” The height of the cowl was perfect, but the width was too wide. Since I had never knit a cowl before, I cast on 160 stitches (5 rats) but that made the cowl too large to be of any practical use without pinning it closed. Next time, I will only knit 4 rats.
