Without having the original Ytre Norskøya hat in hand, or at least a first-generation photo, it's difficult to do much more than improvise the shaping, and so this isn't really a pattern so much as a guideline. You will need to adjust the shaping both to accommodate your yarn gauge and to fit the wearer, anyway.
A little less than 40 sts are visible in the photograph of the original hat, so there would be about twice that in the knitting. A circumference of 50cm at "1.6-1.8 stitches per cm" works out to 80-90 sts total, but remember that this measurement is after fulling.
As for shaping, Vons-Comis says that the stitches are "decreased regularly at two points in the cap which lie directly opposite one another", which is certainly how it looks in the photograph, where there are no decreases visible at all, even when by the shape of the crown they must surely be there! It might be wishful thinking on my part, but it looks to me as though in the last few cm there really are some decreases spread (evenly?) across a decrease round, so for my reconstruction, I've used a slight modification of the round-toe shaping I used on my blue Smeerenburg hat. There certainly might also be some shaping in the now-damaged parts.
I am a bit puzzled, I admit, by this description of only two shaping points lying directly opposite each other, since in my mind's eye this makes something more like a garrison cap, though perhaps the fulling and subsequent wearing of the Norskøya one makes it more rounded. I decided to shape my version more according to the general shape in the photograph, than to the description --
In full, Vons-Comis’s paragraphs about the cap are as follows (all question marks in the original):
The deceased [in grave 579] wore a woollen cap on his head (fig. 20.3). This is a single thickness (red?) brown cap with a turned-up brim, with light brown (originally white?) and dark blue stripes. The cap is 26 cm long including the 5cm turned-up brim. The circumference of the cap at the junction from crown to brim is 50cm, with the greatest circumference, 60cm, reached at the lower end of the brim.
Knitting probably began at the lower edge, by casting on stitches with (red?) brown wool and knitting one row in plain stitch. After this, two rows in purl stitch were knitted alternately light brown (white?) and dark blue. There are 1.5 sts per cm, and 4 rows per cm (table 1) [which is a chart of the various twists, plies, thread counts, and colors of the Grave 579 textiles]. As the brim is felted it is not entirely certain whether the yarns are (Z-?) plied or not. The number of stitches is decreased regularly at two points in the cap which lie directly opposite one another.
After 5cm, one round was knitted in purl with (red?) brown, thinner wool. Then the cap was continued in the same colour using plain stitch, so that when the brim was turned up only plain stitch would be visible on the outside. Yarn composed of two 8-twisted threads which were not plied, or hardly plied, was used for the crown. The count also differs: 1.6-1.8 stitches per cm and 3 rows per cm. The cap is slightly felted inside. Some damage seems to have occurred in the coffin as a result of either the effects of the decay of the corpse or soil conditions. No patches or darns were discovered.
I have used Paton's Classic Wool because it was to hand and is 100% wool, so fulls easily. After over 250 years in the ground, the colors of the original cap have apparently browned considerably, and Vons-Comis suspects though is not quite sure that its original main color is red, with dark blue and probably white (now light brown) rounds on the brim -- Classic Wool's "Cognac Heather" is a brownish red, which may at least roughly substitute. I chose "New Denim" as a mid-range blue, and "Natural Mix" as a compromise between the original "white?" and the aged light brown. At 20 sts per 10 cm, the gauge is finer, though, than the 15-18 sts of the original wools. I have not tried to use two different weights of wool, as in the original cap.
You will probably want to work a swatch in your chosen yarn and full it, to get an idea of how much the knitting will shrink, though I did not.
By the way, I seem to be using "hat" and "cap" interchangeably. Technically there is a difference, but it still isn't a simple matter to place the Smeerenburg/Ytre Norskøya ones on one side of the divide or the other. "A hat has a brim, a cap doesn't, or only a bill" = this is a hat (though some of the other Rijksmuseum ones are therefore caps). "A cap is usually made of [some] soft material, whereas a hat is grander" = this is a cap. "A cap fits closely to the head" = this is a hat. I don't know!
Ytre Norskøya Cap 1
The finished dimensions of the original cap -- after fulling, mind -- are 5cm for the height of the brim, then 21cm from there to the top of the crown, 26cm total, and 60 cm circumference at the cast-on edge, narrowing to 50 cm at the join between the brim and the beginning of the crown, though it is not clear if this is through shaping of the knitting or stretching of the fulled cap.
Use slightly larger needles than usual for the yarn, to allow for shrinkage later.
Cast on 80-90 sts plus 10, or desired number (also plus 10, to allow for slight shaping on the brim) using either the long-tail or Old Norwegian cast-on, in red wool. Join for working in the round.
Work 1 round in red.
Work 2 rounds in natural in reverse st st, then work 2 rounds in blue in reverse st st. Rep these 4 rnds 3 times more, or until brim measures about 5 cm; at the same time, dec 5 sts evenly on 5th rnd and 10th rnd. Cut natural and blue yarns, and work on in red.
In red, work either 2 rnds reverse st st or 4 rnds garter st. This completes the brim.
Work in st st. The decreases in the original are apparently made at beg of rnd and at midpoint of rnd. Work for about 16 or 17 cm, decreasing occasionally as desired at first, then more rapidly, to make a pleasing shape, until the piece will be about 24 cm after fulling.
In order to have the shaping start rather gradually, before starting the crown shaping proper, I worked [dec 4 evenly around circumference, work 4 rnds st st] twice, with the second dec round offset, so that the second set of decreases came roughly centered between the first set.
I used the following crown decrease:
Rnd 1: K5, K2tog, rep to end [substituting K1 for K2tog 4 times because I had 74 sts total].
K 5 rnds.
Next rnd: K4, K2tog, rep to end.
K 4 rnds.
Next rnd: K3, K2tog, rep to end.
K 3 rnds.
and on in this manner until there were 11 sts rem, the previous rnd being all K2tog -- then K2 tog twice, K3tog (why? I don't know!), K2tog twice, then cut the yarn and draw through the rem 5 sts.
This made a fairly similar crown shaping, though as I said, without having the original in hand or photographs from different angles, I'm a bit puzzled as to its shaping.
I fulled mine in the sink, since the stitches in the original cap are quite visible, and it is easier to stop when the fulling is "done" if you can see it. I did decide to safety-pin the brim to the body of the cap to keep it from rolling during this process, though, not having enough experience with it to know if it would lie flat -- this worked pretty well, and it stayed flat without markedly-obvious "waves" at the pin placement points (though these are a little more visible on the purl side of the brim, as in the photo just above!). My version did shrink a bit more -- to the point of obscuring the stitches, I mean -- on the crown than on the brim. Interestingly, the brim shrank only a fraction of an inch -- I noticed this as I was fulling it and worked at it a bit more than the crown, though as to whether this slow shrinkage is because of the different dyes in the wool, or because I'd pinned it up, or some other reason, I've no idea.
Dimensions before fulling: brim 3", total height 17", width 12". Dimensions after fulling: brim 2.75", total height 10" (with brim folded), width (just above brim) 9.75".
Let me add my praises, by the way, to the numerous ones already being sung in favor of Classic Wool's feltability! It has a lovely, rather velvety texture after this mild fulling, and would have a bit more body (which this particular hat does need) after a bit more time in the hot bath, perhaps, but the ease of the process and the resulting hand of the fabric make up for that.
On the whole, I think this a fairly reasonable reproduction, though obviously not a strict one, of the original Grave 579 cap, with the caveats I've mentioned above. Taking into account the differences in wool and in the unpredictable results from fulling -- mine is definitely more splayed towards the bottom than the original! -- I'm quite pleased.
The Project: an Ytre Norskøya hat, based on the knitted hat from Grave 579 on that island in the Svalbard archipelago
Year or Period: ca.1700
Materials: 1 skein Paton's Classic Wool worsted (100g/3.5 oz.; approx. 192m/210 yds.) in "Cognac Heather" (MC), with less than 15g each in "Natural Mix" (CC1) and "New Denim" (CC2); US8 needles
Hours to complete: about a month of not-particularly-dedicated knitting, plus a few days for fulling/drying time (18 May-27 June 2016)
How historically accurate is it? fairly accurate considering the modern materials, but the lack of better photos of the original garment is a handicap
Sources/Documentation: "Kleren maken de man: zeventiende- en achttiende-eeuwse kleding van Spitsbergen" by S.Y. Vons-Comis (pp.97-118 in the book Walvisvaart in de gouden eeuw: opgravingen in Spitsbergen, ed. by Louwrens Hacquebord and Wim Vroom, De Bataafsche Leeuw, 1988); "Seventeenth century garments from grave 579, Zeeuwse Uitkijk, Spitsbergen" by Sandra Vons-Comis (pp.175-186 in “Textiles in Northern Archaeology”, NESAT III : Textile Symposium in York, 6-9 May, 1987); "Workman’s clothing or burial garments? Seventeenth and eighteenth century clothing remains from Spitsbergen" by Sondra Vons-Comis in "Smeerenburg Seminar" (Rapportserie, Norsk Polarinstitut, no.38, Oslo 1987), also containing the paper "Textiles from Danskøya" by Ingrid Lütken, plus others noted in the previous post
Hat, cap, phooey. It's a toque. If it were shorter I'd call it a beanie. ;-)
Beautiful work!
Posted by: =Tamar | June 29, 2016 at 08:33 PM
Regardless of the nomenclature, you have done a very good job with it. Well done.
Posted by: Toffeeapple | June 30, 2016 at 02:09 AM
Tamar suspects elsewhere that the fore-and-aft shaping refers only to the brim, since she also clearly sees all-around shaping at the crown of the Grave 579 hat. It could certainly be inferred from Vons Comis's description that this is the case, though regrettably Vons Comis isn't quite clear on the subject. Tamar also points out the apparently-fore-and-aft shaping of the brim in the Rijksmuseum hat no. NG-2006-110-2 https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/collectie/NG-2006-110-2, which I had assumed was shaped with the decreases spaced evenly around, in the same manner that I made my "New Smeerenburg" version, posted here http://mathomhouse.typepad.com/bluestocking/2016/05/thoughts-on-a-smeerenburg-hat.html.
I'm going to repeat this comment on the "New Smeerenburg" post as well, so that anyone who is interested in these hats can avail themselves...
Posted by: Jeanne | June 30, 2016 at 08:25 AM