Textiles: Knitting

What is knitting?

It's process of using two or more needles to form a series of interconnected loops in order to create a fabric.
The word is likely derived from an old Dutch or old English word for knot

History Links

Knitty magazine
Sheep and Stitch
Victoria and Albert Museum
All Free Knitting
Wikipedia
Sustainable Fashion Collective History of the Knitting Needle

It's though to have originated in Egypt

Done all over the world - each area has patterns and styles they like to use.

Oldest pieces found are quite complicated - so it started before the samples we have

Stitches

knit and purl - reverse of each other if you flip the fabric over

Needles

2 (or more) pointy sticks

can be pointy on both sides

They can be connected

They don't have to be round

Can be made of: bone, ivory, shell, wood, bamboo, steel, aluminum, casein, plastic/actrylic, glass, etc.

Ways to Knit

Continental (yarn in left hand) vs English (yarn in right)
Norwegian

Writing For The Senses

How are the needles made

turned, carved

Make your own

How Is the Yarn Made?

spinning (the twist makes the yarn)

many knitting yarns are plied

plant fibers (cotton, linen), hair fibers (wool, alpaca, llama), milk fibers, silk, acrylic

done with a drop spindle or spinning wheel -

Feel and Sight:

brush of the yarn on your hand/thumb - is the yarn rough or soft? (depending on the wool it could be very soft)

how fine or thick is the yarn? (samples)

how long have you been doing the craft in one setting - your hands and wrists hurt and start to cramp up

How heavy is what you are working on? socks are light and easy to hold up. Sweaters are often heavy and can be hard to hold up. People sometimes use pillows to support their arms

texture of the cloth - there's bumps of the stitches. But you can also create texture - such as cables

how fine a yarn you use and how tight you knit affect the drape

what is the yarn made of? Cotton - usually thicker and heavier, wool can be super soft (Merino) or scratchy (carpet wools), alpaca (silky, lots of drape), llama is like wool, milk fiber - like silk, linen - cool and has nice sheen

Smell:

depending on the time period and purpose, you may have lanolin (which is often found in lotion) still in the yarn. It's great for weather proofing.

The type of fiber in the yarn can affect it - there is still a yarn spinning factory in finland that processes a wool and dog hair blend - but it was a hugs amount (44 pounds at a time)

dyes - one common ingredient in dyes was urine (in modern dyes we use a chemically made Urea) to help the fabric stay wet and concentrate the dye in the vat

needles - may have a smell esp. when new. wood fresh carved and sanded smells lovely.

Sound:

click of the needles - and the needle material will determine the sound

the SHHH of the drawing of the yarn from a center pull ball

the bump of a yarn ball rolling on the floor or in a container (yarn bowl, box, etc)

snip of the scissors cutting the yarn

Fiction Books featuring Knitting:

Knitting in fiction is quite popular. Especially in mysteries.