Toorie / Pom Pom

[DavidB80911]

Once again the wife asked a question that stumped me. On the balmoral and glengary and Tam are the Toorie ( forgive my spelling ) or Pom Pom, what is the origin, its purpose and why is it still there??

[thescot]

On the old original knitted bonnets, the knitting kind of ran out at the center, and the yarn was gathered into the toorie, tied, and made into something of an ornament. Now days, It's simply made from yarn wrapped around a card, tied in the middle, and then both ends cut and tied into the neat little ball we call a toorie.

At least, that's the story I've heard, and I'm sticking to it.

[Ryan Ross]

As a knitter, I've never bought into the above story, though I'm fairly positive that the thing in the middle of a French beret really is vestigial from the felted end of yarn that's left over.

...I don't think anyone really knows where the toorie comes from, in spite of the handfull of varying stories.

[Pleater]

I suspect that the housewife making a cap had a few yards of the yarn left over, and rather than cut it off and have it in the bit bag, she wound it around two fingers and tied it up - and that evolved into a toorie.

The little tail in the middle of a beret is the felted end of the yarn.

Anne the Pleater

[Ryan Ross]

Note that the toorie is a rather modern addition, when compared to the whole history of the Scottish bonnet.

It's also interesting that the idea of the house wife knitting bonnets for their husband and boys, romantic though it may be, was likely not all that common, from a historical standpoint. The commercial bonnet trade was very big business in Scotland, from an early age... 17th century, or there abouts.

[Chas]

Once again the wife asked a question that stumped me. On the balmoral and glengary and Tam are the Toorie ( forgive my spelling ) or Pom Pom, what is the origin, its purpose and why is it still there??

There are some questions for which there are no answers - this could be one of them.

Regards

Chas

[Pleater]

Oh yes - I wasn't imagining something archaic - just the thrifty Victorian housewife - there were lots of knitting patterns published throughout the 1800s for felted hats, caps waistcoats, slippers and the like, and the knitted beret/Tam was elevated to an artform - though some of them were enormous. and multicoloured.

Anne the Pleater

[Laochri MacTalabh]

Read this thread and it brought up a question.

I don't really care for the big red one. Can you go with a toorie? Or replace it with a smaller black one?

[Mickey]

Maybe it is simply a little bit of flair added on to compliment the rest of the whole rig? Or something just to be different from a beret?

[chrisupyonder]

Well the answer is simples. You got to have something to get hold of to pull the bonnet off with.

Chris.