Handknitting - A Brief History

Knitting is a young craft, in comparison to spinning and weaving, but fixing a date for its origin is complicated by the perishability of natural fibres. Some sources, without offering any evidence, claim that knitting predates the time of Christ namely 3000 BC.

The word "knit", meaning to tie or join, clearly predates knitting as a craft. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest literary reference in English to the primary modern meaning of "knit" is from 1530.

KNITTING SPREADS THROUGH MEDIEVAL EUROPE

Knitting may have been transmitted from the Middle East to Europe through Spain, by Moors.

Throughout the Middle Ages, knitted hose and stockings, of both silk and wool replaced bias-cut cloth hose among the upper classes. Samples from the period show knit and purl patterning, as well as eyelet patterning.

Stocking knitting grew rapidly during reign of Queen Elizabeth I and was seen as a suitable occupation for the poor to provide income. Schools for knitting were established, with varying degrees of success. Knitting spread throughout the countryside and to the Scottish Islands as a source of supplemental income.

Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries knitting made its entry in Europe in the form of luxury goods such as stockings, gloves and shirts worn by upper classes. The working classes learned the technique to meet the demand; the wearing of knitted garments eventually filtered down as the working classes adapted luxury items to more prosaic garments for common use. Cable knitting came to the islands at a much later date from the sea faring traders. Scottish missionaries and immigrants taught knitting in America and other colonies that in turn developed knitting patterns on their own.

Mothers would teach a cable pattern to a daughter who would experiment and invent a new cable pattern. So it took generations to develop all the many cable patterns that are found today. Sometimes a Scottish relative in the new Americas would send a newly invented cable stitch pattern back home to be copied, learned and passed on. It is only very recently that knitting has been written down. Even today in the Scottish Shetland Islands some woman cannot read knitting patterns and only knit the patterns they have been taught as very young children.

BRITISH KNITTING IN THE 19TH AND EARLY 20TH CENTURY

British knitters in fishing communities produced dense, weather-resistant sweaters called ganseys, decorated with knit-purl patterns and simple cables. Knitters of the Shetland Isles, which lies at the confluence of a number of trade routes, developed a rich vocabulary of stranded multi-coloured patterns. The knitters of Ireland's Aran Isles adapted cable and twisted stitch patterns to the traditional fishing shirt shape to create elaborately cabled sweaters in natural-coloured wool.

KNITTING TODAY

The abundance and low cost of manufactured goods means working class knitters need no longer labour to supplement their incomes with production knitting; knitting is primarily a hobby for women (as well as more than a few men) in America, Europe and Asia. Still, women are employed for production knitting for export in China and South America, making coarse gauge patterned sweaters and hats.

Whereas the early part of the 20th century was marked by manuals that demanded strict adherence to instructions, knitters now enjoy the freedom to knit their own creations and translate them onto knitting machines for speed.

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