The knitting teacher's assistant: Designed for the use of national girls' schools

The knitting teacher's assistant by Elvina Mary Corbould is an instructional manual written in the Victorian era, likely in the late 19th century. Aimed at teachers and pupils in girls’ schools, it provides practical, step-by-step guidance on knitting, with a clear focus on making stockings and socks to standard sizes.

The book begins with a concise preface and proceeds in a question-and-answer format that teaches core techniques: casting on, forming knit and purl stitches, ribbing to prevent curl, establishing a seam, fastening new yarn, recovering dropped stitches, narrowing for the calf, working the heel flat (with purl return rows and a turned center), picking up along the heel flap, shaping the gusset and foot, and decreasing and finishing the toe. It then supplies precise “recipes” for multiple sizes of stockings and socks—detailing cast-on counts, rounds before narrowings, heel and instep stitch allocations, heel length, foot length between narrowings, and toe-decrease schemes—along with a measurement scale in inches to match age and size. Summary tables at the end allow quick reference for children’s, women’s, and men’s sizes, with notes on suitable needles and wool.