knitting, like all yarn crafts is hard date. scraps of knit socks have been found in excavated egyption tombs, and better still, foot prints, left in soft, muddy soil have recorded the imprint of knitted socks!-- so knitting goes back to 1,500 BCE, at least!

knitting lore has it christ went to his death wearing a knitted robe--in the gospel, its is recorded that the roman soldiers cast lots for his robe, be cause it could not be rent..You can't "rip knitting apart" with out distroying it.. so it stands to reason it was knit.

and in preindustrial days, knitting was cheaper (and more likely to be worn by the poor) as it is faster to make a knitted garment that a woven one (setting up loom take time, then weaving, finaly the woven cloth has to be cut and sewn.. where as, with knitting, you take the yarn and just start!

knitting is more flexible and stretchy, so it requires less fitting.. one size fits most sort of thing..again, very suitible to low cost clothing.

So knitting is old. its seems to have traveled slowly, and recorded knitting in italy is dated to the 13 century-- a famous (at least among knitters!) picture of mary, knitting for the christ child, and to germany (again as recorded in paintings of the time) in the 14th century.

styles became isolated, and different geographic areas developed different styles, the guernsey fisherman have very different styles of sweaters than the fisherman of aran island, or of the norwiegian fisherman!

knitting was a guilded craft in the 1300's to the 1600's in england and other northern european countries (several members of the Mayflower were 'master knitter' who had trained in Holland- they couldn't join english guild because of their religious beliefs.)

unfortunately, since knitting was the clothing for the poor, (with exceptions made for specialty items like finely knit stockings, or gloves) very little of its history is recorded. the 2 noteable exceptions are queen Elizabeth's silk (knitted) stockings, and King Charles, who wore a knit shirt to his beheading..(again silk, with a finely knitted in diamond design.) Queen Elizabeth's stocking came from the spanish ambassidore, (giving further 'proof' to knitting being a skill that was learned from the arab world)- there was plenty of knitting going on in England at that time, but it was the work of the very poorest, and they seemed to be engaged in making coarse stocking, mittens and gloves.

knitting may have been one of the 'knowledges' that came to europe with the crusades.. it might have been common in egypt, or other places, but it seems to be virtualy unknown in most of europe until after the crusades.. and since it is an easier skill to first learn and simpler to get started with than weaving, it might be after the black death sweeped through europe, knitting suddenly was a quick cheap alternative to weaving.. and it spread rapidly... but as populations recoved, they went back to weaving...

so its likely the vikings (as we know them, ie, peoples of the north countries, before the 1200's) didn't know about knitting.


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