A History of Hand Knitting

138 Pages·1987·118.304 MB·English

by  Richard Rutt

A History
of Hand Knitting
Richard Rutt
To Joan
her whytte hands
She sayd as re knyttynge, .
whytte hosen we s to be married.
What pleasure ytt y
A History . .
f Hand Kn1tttng
o .
. .. .• . L d London
1' T Batsford t ,
Contents
© Richard Rutt 1987
Preface vi
First published 1987
Reprinted 1987 and 1989 Acknowledgements vu
Introduction 1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced, in any form or by any means, Definitions and techniques 7
without permission from the Publishtr.
2 Before 1500 27
ISBNO 7134 51181
3 Henry VIII to the Commonwealth 62
Typeset by TekArt Limited, Kent
and printed in Great Britain by 4 The Restoration to 1835 85
Anchor Press Limited
Tiptree, Essex 5 The Victorian age and the belle epoque 111
for the publishers
B.T. Batsford Limited. 6 The First World War and after 139
4 Fitzhardinge Street
London W 1H OAR. 7 Some local traditions of the British Isles: 162
Wales 162
Shetland 167
The Channel Islands 185
Ringwood 191
Aran 194
Sanquhar 199
8 The Americas 203
9 Eastern knitting 208
Appendices: Historical glossary 225
English knitting literature 2.34
The oldest extant English knitting
pattern 239
Table ofd ates for Weldon's
Practical Knitter 242
Selea bibliography 243
Index 245
Preface Acknowledgements
William Turner, my grandfather, was the village From 19 54 to 7 4 I gave it up completely. During The quotation from Queen Victoria's unpublished Cadoux, generous in lending books and
blacksmith of Langford in Bedfordshire. He those years I was working in Korea, where knitting journals is given by gracious permission of Her specimens; Bernard T Lee, archivist of Needle
taught me to knit when I was 7 years old, to keep yarn was then unobtainable. Not until I returned to Majesty the Queen. The tune of 'Tarry wool' is Industries; Stowell Kenyon, former manager for
me quiet indoors on a rainy day. The year was 1932 Britain and found myself depressed by 'return printed by permission of Mrs Ralph Vaughan Patons and Baldwins in Shanghai; sons and
or 1933. He himself had learned to knit in about culture shock' did my wife suggest that I resume Williams. daughters of Marjory Tillotson, Mary Thomas,
1873, when he was a little boy in the neighbouring knitting as a gently therapeutic craft. It worked; but I should never have undertaken the labour of Jane Koster and Margaret Murray; Alec Dalglish
village ofHenlow. two decades of having Oriental history as my preparing this book had I not been encouraged by of the Knitting Craft Group; Susan Raven of The
So far as I know, he did not knit garments. He principal hobby made me question the history of Kathleen Kinder, that inspired enthusiast for Sunday Times; Tessa Lorant; and Rohana
was a craftsman in iron and wire, who understood knitting. For the past ten years seeking out the machine knitting as a craft, who persuaded Darlington.
and respected a craft that used yarn, and conveyed history of hand knitting has given me as much Batsford to persuade me. Dr Helen Eennett, Librarians rarely receive their due. Jack Smirfitt
to me the fascination of fabric construction by pleasure as has the craft itself. professional historian of costume and textiles, has of the Hosiery and Allied Trades Retail
interlooping rather than weaving. I learned more This book is the first monograph on hand been generous with materials and advice. Association in Nottingham gave me much
by pestering my mother and studying Woo/craft, knitting history. It has the weaknesses to which Members of the Knitting and Crochet Guild guidance, as well as help with books; Aubrey
and before long had mastered the turning of a sock pioneer writing is liable: it is incomplete and have helped enthusiastically: especially Montse Stevenson, Local History Librarian of
heel. My shop-bought woollen gloves never fitted, uneven, it is an amateur work, it asks questions it is Stanley, Sue Leighton-White, Edna Treen, Olga Leicestershire, worked hard and patiently for me;
so I designed myself better fittings with ribbed not able to answer. I hope that by giving a general Edwards, Mavis Walker, and Paul Cochrane. Leslie O'Connell Edwards of Aberdeen University
fabrics and longer fingers. Fair Isle knitting was survey and indicating the various types of source Numerous people have helped me with special helped me over some rare items. The British
again in fashion, and, like most children, I for further research, it will be useful in stimulating knowledge and experience. These include: Library Reference Division, the National Art
preferred pictures to patterns: struggling to knit a others to write in greater detail and with greater Professor Denis Munden of Leicester Polytechnic Library, the School of Oriental and African
picture of a pet guinea-pig, I discovered by rule of accuracy. School of Textile and Knitwear Technology; Studies, Leicester University and the Amateur
thumb the principles ofintarsia knitting. Because this is not an academic thesis I have Sheila MacGregor, Mary Wright, Alex:andra Swimming Association at Loughborough have all
When the war came I was positively en forsworn the full delights of notes and page Rowlands; Margaret Meikle, keeper of C owichan been indispensable. The staff of Stamford Public
couraged to knit because of the clothing shortages. references. Where it may be helpful I have given knitting at Vancouver University; Jane Forsyth of Library has coped weekly with requests for the
I was called up into the navy (though I never went page numbers in brackets after quotations. Sanquhar; Howard W. Ayles, Beatrice Dennis, recondite.
to sea), where knitting was still acceptable as a craft In most of the quotations I have modernised the · Alma Wilcox and Lilian Bursey, who all know Museum staffs have given generous help,
for men, and I remember knitting through long spelling and punctuation for the sake of clarity and Ringwood and its gloves; Benjamin G. Cox of especially at the Victoria & Albert, the Museum of
slow journeys to Plymouth in darkened trains. I to avoid the risk of quaintness. .Blandford Museum; Clara Sedgwick of Dent; London, the National Museum of Ireland, the
worked an Aran jumper from the famous picture in Some charts have been deduced from · Kathy Goostrey of Wilkinson's Cornish Knitwear; National Museum of Scotland, Bankfield
Mary Thomas's book, and for long used fawn photographs. Bishop Daniel Pina de Cabral and his wife, other Museum, the Ashmolean, York Castle, Gawthorpe
bathing trunks that I had made to fit; but knitting Portuguese friends and Miss Edith Miller; deacon Hall, Letwick, the Royal Maritime Museum, the
infesto BMV21.8.1987 >I- Richard Leicester
was by no means my only hobby. · George Bebawi of the Coptic Church, his wife Mary Rose Trust, the Wordsworth Museum, the
.0:llrol, and Jane Handford, on knitting in Egypt; Newarke Houses and Jewry Wall Museums in
Michael Harvey, historian of Patons; Aldyth Leicester, and Textilmuseum, St Gallen.
VI vii
Introduction
Acknowledgements for black and white photographs , 'ThefirstEnglish recordsofthe history ofknitting of a capknitters' guild under the patronage of
' 'fi~ in Edmund Howes's two famous stories, St Fiacra, guessing that St Fiacra was chosen
Halberstadt Domschatz 8, 52, 53; Gwynedd County Council 14, 122, ,p ubµshed in 1615, of the knit hose seen by William because he was a Scot and the Parisians thought
123; Bernard T Lee 17; Yale University Art Gallery 21; Victoria & .~~er in the Mantua merchant's house, and the that knitting came to them from Scotland. It was a
Albert Museum 55, 57; .10, 71, 72, 75, 108, 156; Leicestershire · made for Queen Elizabeth by Mrs bad guess in more ways than one - St Fiacra was
Museums Service 23, 8J; Detroit Institute of Arts 26; Metropolitan Howes believed these were the first actually Irish - but Ephraim Chambers copied the
Museum of Art, New York 27; Kulturhistoriska Foreningen, Lund 31, stockings and silk stockings made in story and the mistake goes on being repeated to this
32; Ministerio de Cultura, Madrid 3 5, 39; Abegg Stiftung, Riggisberg ,,:1$):igla,ncl. (See below page 67.) day. I have discussed it further in the section on
42; Museo Poldi-Pezzoli, Milan 43; Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna next recorded reference to the history of cap-knitting. (See page 60.)
44; Hamburger Kunsthalle 45; Musees de Sens 54; Museum of
"lffl1!ttir1g was an unacknowledged quotation from Cham.bers's reference to knitting was picked up
London .56, 58, 67; The Mary Rose Trust 59, 60, 61, 62;
William Howell, a fellow of Magdalene and further developed by l\falachy Postlethwayt,
Soprintendenza Beni Artistici e Storici, Firenze 63, 64; Museum
Cambridge, published in 1680 and 1685 who produced in 17 51 an English yersion of Savary
Narodowe, Szczecin 65; Grimsthorpe and Drummond Castle Trust 68; magnificent volumes on the history of Greek des Bruslons's work and called it A Universal
Deutsche Fotothek, Dresden 69; Museum Narodowe, Wroclaw 74; Roman civilization entitled An Institution of Dictionary of Trade and Commerce. This was not a
Castle Museum, York 84, 85, 86, 120; Hispanic Society of America 89,
era/ History: or the History of the World. In translation, but a book modelled on the French
90; Mrs R Leighton-Wbite 91; Dove Cottage Trust, Grasmere 95;
cribing the encouragement of silk production one, in which references to English hand knitting
Michael Harvey 100, 119; · Scottish Fisheries Museum Trust,
the Emperor Justinian at Byzantium in the were entered under the various county names.
Anstruther 102; Norfolk Museums Service 103; Punch 104, 107, 130;
century, Howell digressed: The whole question of knitting history suddenly
Patons and Baldwins 106, 111, 113, 117; BBC Hulton Picture Library
became of interest to all educated Englishmen in
109, 154; Costume Museum, Bath 110; Mrs C Fraser-Smith 112; Silk is now grown nigh as common as wool and
1782 when controversy over the Rowley poems was
Richard Thomas 116; David Koster 118; Knitting Craft Group 121; ·· r\:'become the clothing of those in the kitchen as
rife. These poems were supposed to be the work of
RoyalMuseumofScotland 124,125,126,127, 129; Illustrated London well as the court ... even that magnificent and
a fifteenth-century priest of Bristol named
News 132; Howard W Ayles; National Museum of Ireland 140; .expensive prince Henry the Eighth wore
Thomas Rowley, discovered in the 1760s by
International Broadcasting Trust 144; Margaret Meikle 147; ordinarily cloth hose, except there came from
Thomas Chatterton, who was the son of a lay-clerk
Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation 155, 156, 157. ~pain, by great chance, a pair of silk stockings.
at Bristol cathedral and nephew of the sexton oft he
. (II 222)
church of St Mary Redcliffe. Chatterton claimed
,e theme did not attract other writers until the to have found Rowley's poems in St Mary's
ing of dictionary writing, two generations muniment room.
Howell. Ephraim Chambers, who died in Chatterton was a gifted poet in his own right -
,. , published in 1 728 Cyclopaedia . . . or Wordsworth called him 'the marvellous boy' - and
ary ofA rts and Sciences in two volumes. He in April 1770 he set off to seek fame and fortune in
n a French source, the Diaionnaire Universe/ London. His quest was fruitless. He remained
.' merce of Jacques Savary des Bruslons, squalidly poor, and on 25 August was found dead
din 1723. at his lodging in Holbom, having taken arsenic. He
,Qc::}r the heading 'Bonneterie', Savary des was 17 years old .
. Olllj. described the foundation in Paris in 1527 Chatterton's early death gave him romantic
viii
2 Introduction lntroduaion 3
appeal. Some citizens of Bristol believed his story 1783 brought the subject of knitting history before Bible, saying that Penelope knitted, and giving a Patons and Baldwins, a television lecturer and
about the Rowley manuscripts, and the poems the educated public. reverent account of Christ's seamless garment. pioneer in travelling to discover local knitting
were published in 177 8 and 17 82. Immediately The first serious scholarly monograph on Both these stories have been often and uncritically traditions. From about 1951 till he retired in 196 7,
some scholars suspected they were forged and knitting history was the work ofJ ohann Christoph repeated. he frequently lectured and published on historical
denied their authenticity. The controversy raged Beckmann (1739-1811), professor of oeconomyin William Felkin (1795-1874), a younger questions, contributing the article on knitting in A
for some time, in pamphlets and in the columns of the University of Gi.ittingen. It appears in volume acquaintance of Gravenor Henson, and like Hist01J' of Science and Technology for Oxford
The Gentleman's .Magazine. One of the central IV of his Beytrage zur Geschichte der Eifmdungen, Henson largely self-educated, published his University Press in 1957. He too was untrained as
points of the argument was a reference to knitting published in parts from 1780 to 1805. This History of the Machine Wrought Hosiery and Lace a historian and drew broad conclusions from
in one of the poems. compendious work was translated into English and Manufactures in 1867. Felkin was born in the slender evidence. Yet he was in his lifetime second
The masterpiece of the Rowley collection is a published in several editions between 1797 and mining and hosiery village of Ilkeston in only to Mary Thomas in the influence he exercised
verse tragedy 'JElla', which tells of a Saxon hero's 1846 as A History of Inventions, Discoveries and Derbyshire to the family of a framework knitter on thought about knitting history.
struggles against the Danish horde threatening Origins. Beckmann had read Howell, Howes, The who in the year of William's birth became an More serious work was done by Marie Hartley
Bristol. In it are the lines: Gentleman's Magazine, Holinshed, Pals grave and Evangelical Baptist minister. During the Luddite and Joan Ingilby of Askrigg. They have written only
more besides, but had much less material from disturbances William was an apprentice in one book on knitting, but its influence has been
A.s Elynour hie the green lesselle was syttynge, France or Germany. Nottingham. In his late twenties he (like Henson) great and good: The Old Hand-Knitters oft he Dales
A.s from the sone's het~ she harried, Beckmann brought Germanic scholarship to his transferred to the lace trade, eventually becoming a (19 51 ). It is a specialist study of a local industry,
She sayde as her whytte hands whytte hosen work, offering a definition of knitting and gently man of some influence in Nottingham affairs; but \vith an introductory section on general knitting
were knyttynge, criticizing some of his sources. He noted, for he was an intellectual rather than a politician. His history.
What pleasure ytt ys to be married. example, that Savary des Bruslons's conjecture as book, which is better planned than Henson's, The next historian of knitting was the American
to the Scottish origin of knitting 'rests only on a begins with 20 pages on the history of hand Milton Grass, whose History ofH osiery appeared in
The anti-Rowleians claimed tlia.t this was very slight foundation'. Referring to Henry VIII's knitting, highly speculative and much informed by America in 1955. Milton Grass was an executive in
anachronistic, because Howes's storjes of William garments with 'every cut knit with points of fine his nonconformist faith·. He draws on Beckmann the textile industry, writing out of curiosity and
Ryder and Mrs Montague showed that knitting gold', he adds: 'What the word knit here signifies and Henson for details, and perpetuates Benson's interest in the history of his industry. Much of his
was unknown in England before 1560. The Dean might perhaps be discovered if we had an English legends without adding anything new. work is unreliable, though it has useful pictures of
of Exeter retorted that Chambers' s story of the journal of luxury and fashion for the sixteenth The next contribution -was by Sophia Frances artefacts in American museums. In 1966 Mr Grass
guild of St Fiacra showed that knitting was older century'. In two sober judgements he says it is Anne Caulfeild and Blanche C. Saward. The brief collaborated with his wife Anna in writing Stockings
than 15 60, for if the French had learned it from the 'more than probable that the art ofknittingwas first historical introduction to the section on knitting in for a Queen, a life of William Lee, inventor of the
Scots before 152 7, the English must have known it found out in the sixteenth century'; and 'did the The Dictionary ofN eedlework, which they published knitting frame. This is a better book. It contains
at least half a century before that, which meant that invention belong to the Spaniards, I should be in 1882, introduces the Spanish Armada into the some general history of knitting, but often reaches
knitting was known in England ln the reign of inclined to conjecture that these people obtained it history of British knitting; gives a romantic account wrong conclusions because the sources have not
Edward IV (146'1-83), when Thomas Rowley was from the Arabians.' of the women knitting round the guillotine during been completely examined. The Grasses, like so
supposed to have lived. The controversy rumbled In 1831 Gravenor Henson (1785-1852) the French Rnolution; and mentions some details many writers on knitting, have a distinct bias
on till it was decisively settled by Walter William published his History of the Framework Knitters, about Shetland knitting. towards the romantic.
Skeat's 1871 edition of Chatterton's works, which which has become a classic in that field. Henson Little more was published about the history of The most romantic writer of all in the mid
proved that Chatterton himself wrote all the poems was a Nottingham framework knitter who moved knitting foranother SO years. Then Mary Thomas, twentieth century was Heinz Edgar Kiewe. I have
in mock Middle English. into lace-making. He became a trade unionist at 23 a leading fashion journalist, published Mary written more about him in my chapter on Aran
This controversy explains why so many and developed into a legendary figure of the Thomas 's Knitting Book (1938) and Mary Thomas's knitting. He described himself as a textile
subsequent writers, including Adam Smith in The movement, once imprisoned for Luddite Book of Knitting Patterns (1943). The historical journalist, and it was in that role that he ,-Tote his
Wealth of Nations (1776), were anxious about complicity. He was self-educated and much matter in them has been influential. Some of it is rhapsodic The Sacred History of Knitting - a book
whether or not the English could knit stockings in influenced by Methodism. In a period when free misleading and some wrong, but the illustrations which has not won the approval of scholars.
the reign of Edward IV. trade was gaining ground, he argued for from items in continental museums, the first The next essay on knitting history - and the best
The anonymous scholars, dilettanti and anti government control and protectionism. His book publication in England of the Buxtehude so far - was the first chapter of Patons Book of
quarians who discussed the Rowleian controversy was inspired as a tract for his political doctrine, Madonna, and the first account of Aran jerseys are Knitting and Crochet by Patience Horne and
in the pages of The Gentleman's Magazine in 1778 rather than as an essay in history for its own sake. only a few of the features of these books that have Stephen Bowden (1973) who worked for Patons
published further snippets of knitting history. The The first chapter contains a brief account of deeply influenced subsequent approaches to and Baldwins. Their essay, though unpretentious,
Gentleman's Magazine (the first periodical to be knitting before the invention of the knitting frame. knitting history. draws on a wide range ofbooks and was the first to
called a 'magazine') was widely read, and the 11 The devout Henson here published for the first James Norbury (1904-72) was a friend of Mary call attention to the importance of Daniel Defoe in
articles that appeared in it before the middle of time the myths of knitting in the Odyssey and the Thomas and chief designer for the spinning firm the chronicles of the knitting trade; the backbone
4 Introduction Introduction 5
of their material, however, is still Beckmann's cardinal-archbishop of Milan, Carlo Borromeo ·, bably from the same root as the German strikke, came in the more general sense of 'drawing close
account of1800. (1538-84), in his Latin regulations on a word meaning 'rod' or 'stick'. The Italian together', which is found in the fourteenth century;
The same firm published the next account of ecclesiastical dress used contextus, 'interwoven', to ' , 'mesh' and Spanish punto di media 'stocking but not until the end of the fifteenth century do we
knitting history: Michael Harvey Patons: a Story of describe the fabric of bishops' gloves. He had no . t' are not known to be older. Scandinavian find it used to mean making a fabric. Then it
Handknitting (1985), celebrating the firm's bi accurate Latin word for 'knitted', so he was driven ids have similar short histories. In Norway the occurs first in relation to cap-making.
centenary. Professor Harvey was commissioned to to use a slightly unusual word meaning 'woven'. etn word is strikke (as in Denmark, sticke in The older meanings survived, and many new
write a history of the company. He interlaced it An eighteenth-century French scholar, Louis eden) from the German, but before the mid ones developed by the Tudor period. A mid
with a general history of knitting, notably critical Poinsinet de Sivry, thought he had discovered a ttenth century Norwegians used binde, fifteenth-century proverb, Know well or thou knyt to
about legends and romances, but nevertheless Latin word for 'knitting'. In 1771-82 he published 'g.jng'. Russian has vyazat' 'to interlace' or 'to fast, for ofte rathe rewythe at last, shows 'knit'
lively and stimulating. a three-volume edition of Pliny the Eider's Natural ,'., e', and lacks a precise word: the common word meaning 'marry'. It is an early version of 'Marry in
Academic historians have been discouraged History, which was completed shortly before Pliny •1/ odem use comes from French: trikotazh. Even haste, repent at leisure'. Further meanings include:
from writing about hand knitting for several died in AD 79. Chapter 73 of the eighth book of the '~"' bcic, in whose region the oldest pieces ofk nitted to twine, weave, or plait; to clench (of the fist); to
reasons. Hand knitting has relatively little to show Natural History deals with wool, and describes have been found, has no true word for pack hard or solidify; to set fruit (or blossom); to
in museum collections; books about it are in the sheep whose fleece is more like hair than wool. · ng: hayyak is used, but it also means weaving swarm (ofbees); to join by a pact; to cement or join
main either journalistic or amateur; the Such sheep were found, Pliny said, in Croatia, . pla~ting. Many Arabs prefer to use the French together; to congeal. By the eighteenth century two
domesticity of the craft hai. .r ~duced its attractive Narbonne, Egypt and Portugal, where their fleece d. China, Japan and Korea use words further meanings at least can be found: to conceive
ness to historians; and thcere is no outline of the was used for making scutulatum textum. Later in the . 'owed from weaving and netting. offspring (of a female animal); and to ferment. It is
subject to which monograph studies can be related. chapter he said thatpolymita, a cloth woven of many ';l;• 'fhe contrast with words for 'weaving' is striking. only from the late sixteenth century onwards that
Other textile and costume studies have wider threads (probably damask) was first made in :\I,' n10st languages there is a precise, ancient and the word is frequently used to mean the textile craft
support from industry. Machine knitting attracts Alexandria, but cloth decorated with scutula was ~ll <developed vocabulary for weaving. Weaving is we now call knitting. More than one writer has
local interest and loyalty, especiall,r in the East first made in Gaul. Poinsinet de Sivry, noticing that '~lderr than history. The apparently simple process been misled into thinking . that 'to knit' always
Midlands; hand knitting has not yet received the elsewhere Pliny speaks of a spider's web as ;ti'<~tting turns out to be much less ancient. meant what we mean by it today, and therefore to
attention it deserves from professional historians. scutulatum, quite illogically deduced that the word claim that knitting was known in England during
Irena Turnau Historia Dziewiarstwa Europejskiego meant 'knitted', gave himself credit for discovering the fourteenth century or earlier.
do Poczatku XIX Wieku ('The History ofK nitting in the Latin word for 'knitting' and demanded that
,t I
Europe till the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century') Latin dictionaries should be revised accordingly. wiidem English the verb 'to knit' still has several Shakespeare
Warsaw (1979), has not been translated into The dictionaries were never revised. Poinsinet · gs. Besides meaning 'to make a fabric with Nothing shows more clearly how wary the reader
English, save for the first chapter. It is to date the de Sivry was wrong. Scutulum means a little shield "' g needles or knitting machine', it means 'to must be of the meaning of the word 'knit' than
only work that covers the history of knitting or plate, usually square, perhaps lozenge-shaped. ' (as when a broken bone knits), or 'to draw study of the way Shakespeare used it between
throughout Europe, and it concentrates on the A pattern of little squares or patches, or a tlier' (as in knitting the brows). We can push about 1590 and 1610. The word occurs in his plays
industrial aspect of the subject. A rich mine of chequered pattern, was described as scutulatum. history of the word itself back to Old English 38 times. In 18 places it means simply 'join' and is
references to works in European languages, it gives Pliny used the same word to describe an erly called Anglo-Saxon), in which cnyttan used of broken bones, of hands, hearts, souls,
no attention to literary references, depending ornamental pavement; other writers use it to :~e11ns 'to tie in or with a knot', and is closely persons and scattered ships after a naval battle.
largely on academic writers and museum describe the colour of certain horses, as well as of {t~~ted to cnotta, 'a knot'; but in Old English there Four times it refers to knitted brows. In Romeo and
collections. I find some of Dr Turnau's clothes. When applied to a spider's web it refers to ' ii,; 'no known case of the word being used to mean Juliet it means wedding, as it does once in A
conclusions rather bolder than the evidence would the quadrangular spaces between the threads of ~lltat we now mean by knitting. The Anglo-Saxons Midsummer Night's Dream. In Timon ofA thens it
allow me to be, but anyone with an opportunity to the web. Pliny's reference to Gaul probably not knit. They used the word for 'fasten' or means gathering corn into a sheaf; and in the
ferret out all her references could greatly improve indicates a primitive Celtic check or tartan. There eh' (as in a famous leechdom book that tells workmen's play in the Dream Thisbe speaks to the
on parts of what I have written aboutknitting in is no justification for Poinsinet de S ivry' s guess that . to 'knit' coriander seeds to a linen cloth used wall of its 'stones with lime and hair knit up'. The
continental Europe. Pliny knew about knitting. ~.~tiring easy childbirth) or for' marry'. Attempts same meaning is found in Othello. In five cases
Not until the Renaissance do we find words that further back and connect the Sanskrit nahyat 'knit' means 'tie' or 'knot', as when in King John
mean 'to knit'. At first they are confused. Words . with knitting are unreasonable. Hubert knits a handkerchief on Arthur's brow
Words for 'knitting'
related to 'mesh', 'net' or 'knot' were tried. At the 'ddle English the word, often spelt knytt, because Arthur has a headache. In Timon ofA thens
Just as there is no ancient Greek word for knitting, same time words related to the commonest knitted Qadened its meaning. It still meant 'to tie in a man making a noose is said to 'knit' a cord to hang
so there never has been an accurate Latin word for objects - caps and stockings - were used. ' a knot', as when William Langland in the himself.
it, not even in mediaeval and Renaissance times. French in the early sixteenth century used lass er, e to The Vision of Piers Plowman told the In The Taming of the Shrew the servants wear
Even in the sixteenth century, when knitting was 'lacing' and bonneterie, 'cap-making'. The modern ~f!'rats belling a cat by taking a bell to 'knytt 'garters of an indifferent knit', which, although
widespread in western Europe, the saintly French word tricot is not known before 1660. It is ,Jtis colere'. An extension of the meaning some scholars assume this means the garters were
6 Introduction
· Definitions and techniques
of knitted fabric, more likely means tied in simple The 'knitting cup'
(not ornamental) knots; Macbeth speaks of 'sleep,
An inappropriate drawing in Mary Thomas 's
that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care', where
Knitting Book has led to a mistaken idea that there
'knit' clearly means repair, and would as easily
was a knitting cup at mediaeval marriage feasts.
refer to netting as to knitting. Then in Twelfth Night
The phrase 'knitting cup' is not mediaeval. It
Orsino speaks of the 'spinsters and the knitters in
occurs in BenJonson's play The Magnetic Lady (IV.
the sun' and 'the free maids that weave their thread
i or ii), which was written in 1632, the last but one
with bones', which many commentators under
of his plays, during the reign of Charles I. A scholar
stand as a reference to lacemaking, though it may
and a lawyer are planning a wedding. The scholar
refer to knitting.
says: ' ... mind the parson's pint, to engage him in
In only one place (where the word occurs twice)
the business: a knitting cup there must be.' The
does Shakespeare unequivocally use 'knit' to mean
parson's pint and the knitting cup are the same e definition of knitting Knitting differs from weaving in that all the
knitting as we now understand it. At the beginning
thing: the lawyer means there must be drink for the courses (usually called rows or rounds) of knitting
of Two Gentlemen of Verona the comic servants
Launce and Speed have a punning conversation wedding guests. There is no evidence of surprisingly difficult to say what knitting is. lie parallel, in one plane. In weaving there are at
about the girl Launce loves and he says that she ceremoniousness, such as attends the 'loving cup'. e.. Jv.ternational Standards Organization has least two sets of yarn, normally at right angles to
can knit him a stock (that is~1 stocking). Here 'knitting' simply means marriage and has no ined many knitting terms, but not knitting itself. each other. The courses of knitting are secured to
reference to hand knitting. .~ difficulty springs partly from the necessity to one another by the bights of the yam, not by
~ the structure of knitted fabric rather than weaving the whole length of the yarn as in basketry,
techniques of making it. Simply to determine woven textiles, and certain rare primitive fabrics
actope of this book, it is necessary to attempt a that bear a superficial resemblance to knitting, but
''pdrary definition. in which the whole length of the yarn passes
·'' through the loops. (See figs 1 and 3b, the latter for
,l(nitted fabric is a fabric consisting solely ofp arallel
the same principle in some forms of nalbinding.)
· i()ursesofyarn, eachcoursemeshedinto thefabricby
The yarn of a knitted fabric is not necessarily
#ting
looped into bigkts ofa course above. Only in the
continuous throughout the piece. Since the yam
,, ,~ft course are the loops locked by being laterally
can be carried from one course to another, a piece
·:tlfoped into tke same course.
of knitted fabric can be made of a single continuous
C.f:' '"
definition allows for a great variety of fabric piece of yarn; but each course may consist of
res and methods of working. It is based separate pieces ofy arn, especially in coloured work
,the definition given by Irene Emery in The or in fancy work employing different qualities of
ry Struaures ofF abrics (1966). yarn.
A course may also consist of two or more yams,
either to produce a denser fabric or to produce
coloured patterns. These yams may or may not be
meshed into the next course by a similar pattern of
loops: thus stranded-colour knitting and slip-stitch
effects can be obtained. The yam can also be
changed in the midst of a course, and either spliced
or otherwise secured (as in intarsia knitting).
The number of stitches in a course can be
increased or decreased by the method .of looping
the bights of the previous cours.e. ln any case every
loop will finally be meshed by one or more loops in
a course above; equally, a loop may mesh one or
-'knitted mesh, with parallel courses twisted, not more loops from the course below. Loops may be
.After Max Schmidt 'Die Paressi-Kabisi' Baessler slipped or twisted before being meshed by a loop in
1.l :~1914). From Matto Grosso, Brazil. a succeeding course. The meshing may be affected
Definitions and techniques 9
8 Definitions and techniques
making fabric by manipulating the parallel threads
by a loop in a course two or more above the course (1) Netting
of a warp that is fixed at both ends'. The fabric is
of the loop that is meshed. This is the principle of
Netting includes a variety of fabric structures.
formed at both ends of the warp simultaneously
the slipped stitch, of 'mosaic' knitting and certain
Although the yarn of netting is worked in parallel
with corresponding but contrary plaited structures,
fancy lace stitches. Loops may be open (as in plain
courses, it differs from knitting in that the end of
growing towards the centre, which must always be
knitting) or twisted (as in 'crossed knitting' or
the yarn is drawn through the loops and locked in
locked by a central linking line.
'knitting through the backs of the loops'). Twisted
a knot for each unit or 'mesh' of the net. Unlike
stitches are often described as 'closed'. They are
knitting, netting will not unravel. Netting is of such
typical of hand knitting and cannot be made by
high and universal antiquity that its origins cannot
machine.
be guessed.
The courses in a flat piece of fabric are usually
called 'rows' by hand knitters. In tubular fabric the
courses become a spiral and are known to hand (2) Nalbinding
knitters as rounds. The vertical columns of loops
In Africa, Scandinavia and other places there is an
are known to machine-knitters as \vales' - a term
ancient method of producing a looped fabric using
that could be used with advantage by hand
an eyed needle loaded with a relatively short length
knitters. In tubular knitti.ng the wale of the first
of yarn. The result may be knitted fabric, usually,
stitch made can be identified throughout the work
and its position enables the knitter to divide the
spiral accurately into c()urses. In stranded-colour 4 The 'casting off or locking of a piece of sprang.
knitting and some plain-and-purl fabrics this wale
is easily seen, but in stockinet it can be detected Following Irene Emery The Primary Struaure of
·· .l e nalbinding structures that resemble knitting:
only at the beginning and end of the fabric. Fabrics (1968), Collingwood describes the three
structure identical with knitted fabric; (b) a non
There has been almost no scientific study of \~ nalbinding fabric. fundamental structures produced by sprang as
hand knitting. Mrs Thuc-Nghi Arnold-Baker interlinking, interlacing and intertwining. None of
wrote a thesis on shrinkage for Leeds University in Jul descriptions of nalbinding can be found these three has the same structure as knitting.
1 979: 'The dimensional characteristics of fabrics Nordland Primitive Scandinavian Textiles in When a sprang fabric is closely made it may bear a
knitted from wool hand knittingyarns'.Herworkis .s Netting (Oslo 1961) and DK. Eumham superficial resemblance to knitting, especially in
based on Professor Dennis Munden's studies of knitting; an ancient technique' Textile vertical rib fabric of 'over three, under three,
fabric geometry in machine knitting, published in 2 Na lbinding: method of work. 'III (1972, 116-24). African techniques are interlaced' sprang, which has a herringbone effect
The Journal oft he Textile Institute (1959, 1960 and ed in E.W. Dendel African Fabric Crafts somewhat similar to stockinet. Close examination
1962), in which he establishe.d that the dimensions though not necessarily, composed of cross-knit shows that the courses of yarn run vertically up the
of knitted fabrics in relaxed states are determined stitches (the effect achieved in hand knitting by technique has been used for footwear (in wales, not horizontally across them. Loops that are
solely by their stitch lengths. (See below p. 15.) 'knitting into the backs of the loops', but often . 'ddle East and Europe), gloves (throughout truly of the same structure as knitting are used for
twisting the loop in the opposite direction). In the e), bags and carriers (Africa) and even the essential central finishing line or cast off edge
making, however, the 'knitted' stitch appears with ~body cat-suits for young male dancers of a piece of sprang (fig. 4); and some openwork
the loop at the bottom. In knitting the loop is Africa). Because the fabric produced is sprang can look like knitting from a distance.
Structures readily confused with formed at the top. Detecting whether a piece of es a true knitted fabric, I have given it Tubular sprang fabrics may at first sight appear to
knitting fabric has been made this way can be difficult. The ttention in this book, but I have not dealt be knitting done in the round.
spliced joins between each two needlefuls of yam · binding fabrics that are not structurally Sprang fabrics are much older than knitting.
The study of historical specimens has been so are useful indications. Increases and decreases · fabrics, nor with nalbinding after the The oldest known example is from the Danish
restricted that other fabric structures have been help to identify nalbinding (see p. 29) and 'n ofknittingon rods. Bronze Age circa 1400 BC. Sprang is also known
mistaken for knitting even by careful students. definitively distinguish it from knitting. from pre-ceramic Peru circa 1100 BC, and has
Many a textile keeper in a museum willingly admits Some writers prefer to call this kind of fabric by been done in practically every part of the world. It
to ignorance of knitting and to doubt about such names as looping, needle-knitting, eyed was a precursor of knitting as a stretch fabric, but
whether some specimens are knitted ot not. It is needle knitting, knotless netting, vantsom or other is, strictly, a method of creating fabric because it was always made on a frame and
helpful to know what the fabrics are which Scandinavian terms. I follow Dr Helen Bennett, vian a fabric structure. The classic produced such very different structures from
sometimes have a superficial resemblance to our most distinguished professional historian of JI is Peter Collingwood The Techniques of knitting, it is unlikely that sprang and knitting have
knitting. knitting, in using the Norwegian term. 1974). He defines sprang as 'a method of any historical or prehistorical connection.