over on Knitty.com's bb (you have to register to read)

someone posed the question about a collective noun for knitters:
so a group of geese is a gaggle

a bunch of lions is a pride

an assembly of crows is a murder

and a crowd of knitters is....?

i suggegest a knot of knitters...other a skein, someone else a knaggle. (a nonce word i think)

what would you suggest?

A buttonhole of knitters? No?

Well, how about...

A bobble of knitters? No?

Well, dadgumit, how about...

A dip stitch of knitters?
A knitpick of knitters?
A knicker of knitters?

Oh heck, Helen, I give up.

Why don't you girls take up bowling or robbing liquor stores instead?

a purl of knitters

Close, tsuwm. A necklace of knitters.

In fact tsoum was right, the plural is purl. knit one, purl two you know TEd.

Peggy suggests a row of knitters.

Knits.

What? Wool is itchy.

Wool is itchy? you really think so?

when did you last feel wool

Merino wool isn't itchy.

blue faced lester isn't itchy.

lots of wools aren't itchy.

a lot depends on breed (and there are breed that have itchy wool (and good meat) and breeds that have good wool and OK meat.

and it depends on how its spun, and treated.

Ted, tell Peggy, i like a row of knitters best!
(i'll bring back all your suggestions.. and let others deside what they like best)

What about;
A 'Close' of knitters
A 'Pattern'
A 'Brother'

>when did you last feel wool

My grandmother used to knit me cable-knit turtle-neck sweaters and believe you me! – they were itchy.

I like "knaggle" myself. BTW calling it a nonce-word is sort of beside the point. If you're looking to apply a name to an as yet unnamed idea, do you really care if it is brand new word or a recycled one? Once it acquires the meaning it isn't a nonce-word anymore.

yes, hydra they were!

but wool, like many things, has changed.

wool garments were valued for their durability, and coarser wools were more durable, and the same goes for spinning, harder (tighter) spun, (worsted vs mule) are more durable too. wools produced from coarse fiber, hard spun, were (are!) itchier.

softer wools,(like merino) looser spun (in the US these were called 'Germantown' (from Germantown PA, where there were many mills that spun wool in this style) always existed, but they are less durable.
(germantown wools were often specified for baby's stuff, they were softer, (less itch) but less durable (but then babies aren't climbing trees, or working in a feild, or doing other activies that wear out clothing!)

nowdays, while most fibers (wools, and other natural or synthetic fibers) are still spun worsted, but the actual fibers are finer, and softer (and less durable!).
but since few who wear them are fisherman, or feild hands, or doing any sort of hard work, it doesn't much matter!

Knitters can still find 'hard wearing wools', but in general the market is saturated with soft wools. even sock yarn is made from merino, (and not always spun super tight!)

as little as 50 years ago,it was cheaper to knit a sweater than to buy one, but nowdays the wool (or other natural fiber) needed to knit a sweater cost about 5 times more than the average purchase price of a sweater, (and about twice as much as the purchase price of a hand knit wool sweater, produced commercially.)

so hand knitting is an expensive way to produce garments!
(knitters buy yarn at retail, manufactorers buy yarn at wholesale, knitters (in US and other industrial area) have higher wage expectations, so even machine made knit good are expensive, (third world contries comp 'hand knitters' pennies per hour, so a hand knit sweater from china cost less to produce than the same amount of wool costs (at retail) )

there are interesting words about knitting(and google knitting, and you'll find more than 50% of the time, the word is not used in a 'fiber' context, but 'bones knitting' or communities "knitting" (coming together) or in some other way!

(google "of troy" + knitting and my blog comes up on the first page of results!)

How about a sockful of knitters?

i submitted the suggestions from here to the knitting board last night, but by then, most thought "a knot of knitters" was the best choice.

I wonder what you would call a group of candidate words?

A shudder of nouns.

Helen: Maybe there's no exact word, but you might try entering in OneLook reverse dictionary as follows:

crowd of knitters

a spool of knitters.
a treadle of knitters.
a needle of knitters.
a skein of knitters.

I like skein.

Yeah, but you live in Vermont.

How about a pick of knitters?

Quote:

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Yeah, but you live in Vermont.

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heh.