"So I got myself a reader"s card at the British Library in London, and started doing research. I found Weldon's Practical Knitter, and other early knitting writers. One of them produced ten books in ten years! These weren't the Victorian wallflowers we assume women were at that time. These were career women––not Victorian-wife stereotypes, warming their husband's slippers––who didn't care about Victorian convention, and did what they wanted. I really admired them––and I really wanted to learn more.

"When you read their books, you begin to absorb a little of the character of the person. Most of these women seem determined, dogmatic characters, and you can almost imagine them rapping your knuckles if you make a mistake. They're very prim and proper, even though their patterns may not always be clear or correct. Nobody had ever done this before: there was no system for abbreviations, pattern instructions, for drawing charts. They had nothing. They had to start at the beginning.

"It was a learning process, and their books gradually got better. Still, for a modern knitter, deciphering it all would be just dreadful: now we say, "Knit 2tog 17 times." This was 1840, and they would write, "Knit 2 together" literally seventeen times, and it might take many lines. I used to get dizzy reading some of these patterns, it was a nightmare. Even up to 1886, it was all there, but you had to be so on the ball. I can imagine those knitters in groups, in their drawing rooms, in the afternoon, trying to decipher these patterns. I can"t imagine lone knitters would have got anything else done, because it took me hours and hours and hours. Once I broke them down, I realized the patterns were incredibly simple. I felt a kind of duty to have their voices heard.

"The Victorians went in for hugely strong colors, much stronger than those of my shawls, actually. There was a change going on from natural to chemical dyes, so the colors became a lot bolder. I chose bright colors that the Victorians would have loved, but I also love natural colors and fibers, and yarns that make a fashion statement. That's why I wanted to see these Victorian shawls brought to life, into the 21st century––not have them look like lovely museum pieces.

At the time these patterns were written, an engraving is all a knitter got to see. From that point of view, if one of these knitting writers joined us on our photo shoot as a ghost, I should imagine she would be thrilled to bits."

Could any visiting apparition from the Victorian era be half as thrilled as Jane's visiting photographer at the idea of photographing beautiful Victorian shawls on models, in historic settings" And the second half of Jane's Victorian adventure began. "It was frantic, absolutely frantic," Jane says with a laugh. "I've never seen anything like it. I was lagging behind by day four! But absolutely exhilarating, shooting in those magnificent locations."

If there were any remotely suitable Georgian, Restoration, and Elizabethan stately homes, Victorian houses and walled gardens, lighthouses in East Anglia, a lace museum and lace villages in Bedford, and timber-frame houses in historic Lavenham, you visit them all. With Jane's husband, David, at the wheel, you travel through country lanes bordered with"scout's honor"Queen Anne's lace, dots of white set against the bright yellow of oil seed rape in full bloom.

And then Belton House, Grantham, Linconlnshire, comes into view. Its billing as, "Undoubtedly one of the finest examples of Restoration domestic architecture with 36 acres of gardens," surely is an understatement: Belton House stands amidst a sea of green, its magnificent golden façade punctuated with acres of gray panes of glass. A central pediment crowns the front of the house, an airy cupola soars above six gables and eight tall chimneys, and a carved balustrade runs the length of the roof, lending a lacy feel to this impressive, stately home.

This magnificent country estate looks oddly familiar. Then you realize where you've seen it before: as Lady Catherine de Bourgh's Rossings Park, in the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice! A grand, stately, home, 1,300 wooded acres filled with wildflowers and formal gardens, and Jane Austen, too" Can you imagine the excitement of Jane's photographer, an English major in college"

And speaking of colleges, Cambridge is full of them, courtesy of English Kings and Queens. The town grew up where the road crossed the River Cam (hence its name), has been home to dons and students for over 700 years, and is filled with magnificent Tudor, Medieval, and Gothic buildings. Their sculpted pinnacles resemble golden lace borders outlined against the blue of the sky. Even the incomparable fan-vaulted ceiling of King's College Chapel––completed by King Henry the VIII in 1515 and home to the world-famous King's College Singers––seems to be made of lace carved in stone.

"It is impossible not to marvel at the skills of the builders all those years ago," Jane says as you walk down the narrow lane that leads from King's College Chapel to King's Parade, the busy heart of the city. "I love it here: the atmosphere of activity, the bicycles, the eccentricity, the visitors, the students. Cambridge is a city which is truly alive."

But Cambridge's town and gown bustle is only a memory as you cross the river and reach The Backs, the college lawns and green fields that border the Cam. Here, amidst the willows and gardens that line the riverbanks, King's Parade is replaced by another: that of waterfowl and punts gliding below.

"The River Cam runs behind Queens', King's, Trinity, and St. John's Colleges, and I've contacted them about shooting there," Jane says. "They have been quite nice, but being very academic, they wondered what the connection is with my book. So I explained what you said about the colleges' architecture complementing Victorian lace."

Jane's, and your, Victorian adventure continues, for 14 glorious, consecutive days of sunshine. Before leaving, there's one more adventure to go: you treat yourself––and the XRX photo crew––to a ride on the London Eye, the popular ferris wheel that towers above the English capital. London's panorama spreads at your feet. There are the Houses of Parliament; Hyde Park; Kensington Palace, Queen Victoria's birthplace; and the Queen Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace. England"s longest reigning monarch holds the orb and scepter, but from high above, the latter looks a lot like a knitting needle. ∩