βI cannot let the fear of the past color the future.β
β Julie Kagawa
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Knitspiration
π¨π» How men changed the history of knitting
Father's Day is this Sunday in Estonia, so today's story is a nod to the men of knitting.
The average person wears at least four knitted things every day. Socks, underwear, t-shirts, sweaters, all sitting on store shelves for ridiculously low prices.
There's a reason for that. It's the same reason you get to knit for fun instead of for a living.
Men.
And before you start emailing me about the patriarchy, let me explain.
Where it started
Nobody knows exactly when knitting began. Our best guess is somewhere around Egypt between 500 and 1200 A.D., probably growing out of a one-needle craft called nalbinding.
Whatever its origins, it was work that drove it: fishing nets for the boats, and socks for the men wearing sandals to do their jobs.
Hand knit wallhanging from a Strasbouurg knitting guild (1781)
The knitting guilds
By 1268 Paris had a knitting guild, and over the next few hundred years they spread across Europe. They worked like a labor union. They guarded trade secrets, set standards for finished pieces, and trained young apprentices.
And they were only for men.
Becoming a master took the better part of a decade. A boy spent three years as an apprentice, knitting goods the guild sold to wealthy nobles. Then he spent three or four more as a journeyman, traveling to learn new techniques.
When he came home, all he had to do was knit a cap, a woollen jacket, a pair of gloves with fingers, and a wallhanging patterned with flowers.
In 13 weeks.
William Lee with a knitted stocking
The clergyman and the stocking frame
In the 1500s, knit stockings were all the rage. Men's fashion meant short pants, and short pants meant stockings. Britain alone was knitting millions of pairs a year.
A clergyman from Nottinghamshire named William Lee looked at how slow that was and thought, "there has to be a better way."
In 1589 he built the stocking frame, a machine that copied the motions of hand knitters. It's considered the first big step in mechanizing the whole textile industry.
He showed it to Queen Elizabeth I along with a pair of stockings it made. She turned down his patent. When he improved it to knit fine silk, she turned him down again, worried that the machine would put her poor subjects out of work and turn them into beggars.
So Lee took his brother, nine workers and nine frames to France. King Henry IV granted the patent, and Lee was about to sell machines across the country when the king was assassinated in 1610. The deals fell apart, and Lee died a few years later, never seeing what his invention would do.
Patent for Jedediah Strutt's Derby Rib machine
From stocking frame to factory
About 170 years later, Jedediah Strutt worked out how to alternate the loops on Lee's frame. That gave us ribbing. Stretchy, fitted stockings that stayed up, and quickly the style everyone wanted.
Strutt then helped back Richard Arkwright's water-powered spinning mill at Cromford in 1771. Plenty of historians point to that mill as the start of the Industrial Revolution.
In 1849 Matthew Townsend invented the latch needle, which made faster, finer knitting possible and led to the first circular machines. They made seamless fabric and were small enough to carry.
Then Henry Griswold added a second set of needles so a machine could knit seamless ribbed socks. They caught on so well in England that every sock machine got called a "Griswold." During both World Wars, volunteers could literally crank out a pair of socks in about 40 minutes.
Colorwork wizard Kafe Fassett
Men and knitting today
For better or worse, not a lot of men are knitters. About 15% of our own readers are from last count.
But there are men doing important work in the industry today.
Kafe Fassett has been making mind bending colorwork for decades.
Jared Flood showed the industry how to manufacture 100% American made yarn that were unique and beautiful.
Stephen West is one of the most innovative designers working today.
And Norman Schwarze has taught millions of people to better understand knitting through Nimble Needles.
That doesn't even include all of the ranchers who raise sheep, millers who spin yarn, and other men who work in the industry helping make the fiber economy move.
Injured soldiers knitting during recovery
Conclusion
As a man working in a female dominated industry, I think it's important to periodically shine a light on the contributions of men to this craft.
All those men are why knitting stopped being something people had to do by hand to make ends meet.
And because machines handle the everyday stuff, we get to knit for the joy of it.
We get to chase the stitch patterns, colorwork and constructions no machine will ever do.
Daily Stitch
Half Fisherman's Rib Stitch
This stitch looks a lot like traditional fisherman's rib (the manliest of all knitting stitches in my opinion) with one major difference. β It's only half the work! π β All kidding aside, this stitch looks like a combination of stockinette and ribbing, with shorter, fatter stitches on one side.
One man knits a famous landmark into a sweater. Then he travels to the real thing and stands in front of it, wearing his handiwork. What does it look like when the
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