The History of Knitting - UK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

The History of Knitting - UK - Essay Example This trajectory demonstrates two qualities of knitting: it is a highly practical, flexible and expressive art form which encourages creativity in design, and it has a deep cultural significance which uniquely combines tradition and modernity in British fashion. These two qualities have ensured thus far that knitwear will remain an important part of any fashion designer’s collection. Origins and early history. The origins of knitting as a hobby and as a fully-fledged industry are lost in the mists of time, and it is impossible to say with any certainty where it first began. The general consensus is that knitting may have been invented in the Middle East by nomadic peoples and have been brought to Europe along with traders in the early Middle Ages. (Hubert: 2010, p. 7) Earlier Roman socks dating from the first centuries AD were made by a knotting technique which is not fully understood by modern scholars, but it is agreed that these were not proper knitting. There are references to the activity in the United Kingdom from as early as AD 1100, and there is evidence of this in the Anglo Saxon verb cnytte which means â€Å"to join, fasten, or fuse with knotting† (Wilson: 1988, p. ... ons of knitting, partly because the ready availability of high quality wool from sheep provides good raw materials and partly because their cool climates ensure a steady demand for warm garments. One advantage of knitting over weaving is that all of the processes from the gathering of the wool, to its cleaning, combing, spinning, knitting and sewing into a garment can be carried out in a small space such as a living room. Looms are large and unwieldy, while knitting can be done on wooden, or later metal needles, with minimal outlay in terms of equipment. From the very beginning cottage workers provided the backbone of the knitting industry and this is an important part of its appeal to wearers. Wearing a knitted garment can identify the wearer with a particular local community and this attribute is still a feature of woollen garments to the present day. Another advantage of traditional knitting over sewing techniques is that the manufacturer can tailor each garment to the wearer by m odifying stitch numbers within a general pattern. This is a highly skilled, but extremely economical use of expensive yarns and ensures that the finished article has an excellent fit. It was not until the mid-sixteenth century that the purl stitch was invented and from then on techniques and styles diversified, with complex new stitches and patterns emerging in different regions of Europe. The geography of knitting in the UK: regional specialisms. Across the UK, different regions developed their own specialities in the production of knitwear. Even within one region, such as Scotland, there can be quite significant geographical segmentation because traditionally individual knitters develop their own unique styles and over time specialize more and more in these directions, with the end result