HOW IT BEGAN

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXXI, Issue 8834, 19 October 1942, Page 1

HOW IT BEGAN

ORIGIN OF KNITTING ARABS DISCOVER ART USED IN THE YEAR A.D. 200 Knitting is said to have ibegun in Arabia Felix, whence it has penetrated to the far corners of the earth, carried by the Arabs who were the great traders of early times. Egypt learned her knitting from the Arabs, and it is only in Coptic Egypt and where Arabian influence could penetrate that Egyptian knitting discoveries dating from the fourth and fifth centuries have been found.

At what date knitting actually originated no one knows, but in the ancient city of Yemen, in Arabia Felix, earlier known as Shabwa, the city of the Queen of Sheba, it is said to have been known for ever, and that the pattern on the serpent’s hack was knitted by Eve! Historians place the date about A.D. 200, but legend claims that the seamless garment of Christ was knitted and so could not be cut or divided and lots were cast for it.

In early times knitting appears to have been taught by men and right up to the end of the nineteenth century men as well as women knitted. In the heyday of the Guilds, when knitting was as much an industry as weaving, men served an apprenticeship in its cause. This needed six years: three to learn and three to travel; after which the apprentice made his masterpieces, usually in about twelve days.

Knitting and Hosiery Guilds as formed in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries both on the Continent and in England, brought the standing of knitting to great perfection, especially after the introduction of silk to Europe, where garments would be knitted in several colours and in designs that resembled brocades, often outlined or part-knitted with gold or silver. This was knitting fit for kings and courtiers, and by such was worn. The knitted shirt worn by King Charles on the day of his execution in 1G49, and now in the London Museum, belongs to this great period, and was no doubt the work of a masterknitter.

Siik completely changed the appearance and objective of knitting. Hitherto woollen fabrics had striven to imitate woven cloth even to the extent of disguising its appearance through a process of felting; a treatment which completely obliterated the stitches and gave the effect of a solid fabric.

The object of felting was to induce a rainproof fabric, as weather conditions have ever been the problem of man and his clothes. The fisherfolk of Aran, in Ireland, still knit and felt their socks. The Russians knit and felt slippers, boots and thigh-hose. Mistress Lee, the wife of William machine (1589) was a great knitter,

and helped to swell the family funds with her knitting; and we read it was to lighten her task that Lee invented his machine. This is one'of the earliest records, for a woman, mentioned by name, as earning money by knitting.

Silk knitting, which made such a stir in Europe and in England when Queen Bess decided she would never again wear woollen hose, was supciseded in the early eighteenth contuiji by white knitting in linen and cotton yarn. The white knitting of Germany, Holland and Scandinavia is renowned to this day.

Knitting was always highly regarded as a feminine accomplishment in the home, and in old documents a bride’s ability to knit was quoted as part of her dowry. In the late nineteenth century lovers even went courting with their knitting and it was a thing well understood in the dales that when a young couple married, if both were expert knitters, no matter what their shortcomings in housewifery and husbandry were, they would “do all right and get on in the world.”

The earliest knitting-needles were made with a hook at one end like crochet-hooks, and those fashioned of copper wire were used by the old Arabs, and can still be found in use round the Mediterranean and in places where Arab influence penetrated. The addition of knob ends is comparatively modern, and before their coining little stoppers made of wood or cork were used to prevent stitches falling off.