The History Of Knitting

I thought to bring in an article about knitting; seeing we're coming into Winter here in Australia and it's a great hobby and skill to pick up.  I've been a knitter since I was around 12 years old when my Grandma taught me during my Christmas school holidays and I was about to go into high school.  Over the years, I've knitted off and on, however it's been only over the last decade or so that I've really picked it up as a permanent hobby; something that I sit down and do every day.  However, where knitting actually came from is still something I don't know about, and no matter who I ask, I don't get full or straight answers.  So, here we go:  into the world and history of knitting.

Mostly, where the history of knitting began is a big mystery.  However, it's been in our lives for a long time; but shorter than we think; as the term 'to knit' has only been around since the 1400's or so and even then, it's only through guess work on how old items are kept in museums.  

Knitting is made of wool, silk, and other fibers that decay rapidly, even under perfect conditions; knitting needles are essentially sharpened sticks, and hard to identify as knitting needles beyond a doubt; they could be hair picks, skewers, spindles, or any of the other zillion uses there are for a sharpened stick.

Before the term of knitting was created, there was nailbinding; which was used to make stretchy fabrics. Termed 'one needle knitting' by some museums, it is similar to knitting in structure, but stronger, less stretchy, and a lot more difficult to create. The resulting fabric would look very sloppy unless done by a master, and it wasn't something you could have the kids do while tending the sheep -- unlike knitting.

The oldest knitting (formed on two sticks by pulling loops through loops) we've got is 'Coptic Socks' from Egypt, dating to around the year 1000 CE. There are quite a few fragments, all of them done in shades of white and indigo, in stockinette. Many of them have Khufic (a decorative Arabic script) blessings knit into them, or symbols to ward off evil, or both. All look really cool. All of the ancient knitted fragments are knit out of cotton. Wool wasn't used for knitting until a much later date.

Coptic Socks1 

However the first important - and datable - piece of knitting was found in Spain in the year 1275.  All the pieces of knitting found in this time, have had writing on them.  Socks had 'Allah' knit in bands on them.  And the pillow has 'Blessing' knitted in decorative Arabic script knit around the edges.  Knitting words in knitting was done from the very first piece made up; at a time Europe was largely illiterate.  It was the Islamic world that had wide-spread literacy. So, the early knitting fragments were produced by someone literate, and most literate people were found somewhere in the Islamic world. Particularly literate people with a knowledge of decorative Arabic scripts. for the first four or five hundred years of knitting's history, the most common materials were cotton and silk - not wool. Cotton and silk were far easier to come by in the Middle East than in Europe. If knitting had started in Europe, they'd have used wool first; or maybe linen.  

Have you notice we work the stitches from right to left along the needles; however it's in our left hand? Ever wanted to know why? We write left to right... it would make sense that we would knit left to right.  But it seeing how long it's been around, it's been passed along as this technique for so long that people are only knitting both left to right and right to left due to the invention of double-ended needles coming onto the market in the last 30 years or so.

Knitting has been around for a long time; since the 1200 - 1400's; according to museums in the UK and Europe.  After finding the first pieces in Egypt and Spain, more were found throughout the world as time went on.  How it became so popular and widespread is still a mystery; however, as our more modern needles came into play - as well more decorative yarns and wools became more available - knitting became something we all could do to make clothing, gloves, hats or scarves... all from a couple of balls of knitting yarn.  Really, you can knit anything and make anything.  It has become a craze where everyone does, then it's not something to do... personally, I enjoy it all the time.

I obtained all the information for this article from a knitting editorial.  Here's the link to it

the history of knitting 

There's pictures of the knitting I talked about (as they are too big to put in here).  I hope you have enjoyed this article about knitting. And until my next post, keep creating!

Old Work Becoming New Again.

Now, as most of you are artists yourselves, have you ever come across some of your work from the past and thought: 'I can improve on that without beginning another one.' and just worked on the painting, sculpture... or whatever piece it is; and improving it out of sight? If so, you'll understand where I'm coming from with this post.
I've picked up a couple of paintings from my past that I've done, looked at them and realised I rushed them. So, in the last week, I've sat down every afternoon and worked on them to improve on their structure and depth with wonderful results. The one I've begun on looks great! I can't wait until I finish it - which will be in a few weeks' time. Until then, I'll keep you all updated with reports on how it's going. Here's the first photo of it's improvement. First I'll put up what it looked like before I worked on it (I'm sorry I haven't got a better photo, but I forgot to take a before shot, so this one will have to do).

So, what do you reckon? Is it an improvement? Or have I made it look worse? Leave a comment and let me know.

A Lifetime of Practice

Some years back, I visited my Oma's house at Christmas-time.  She's a retired oil-painter and her studio used to have a huge amount of natural light until a church claimed that they owned the land next to hers and built a house right on the boundary blocking out the much-needed light for her work.  However, she had been painting for a long time; and she was nearing the end of her interest in it and had found the internet a lot more interesting.  But she did keep her studio exactly the way she had left it and showed me her work.  I saw one impressive piece up on her wall and asked what it was and she said it was her very first painting and she kept it to remind herself where she had begun; where she started her painting career.  She advised me to do the very same thing. 

And so, I do still have my first painting after thirteen years of painting with acrylics.  More recently, I pulled that first piece out to show one of my neighbour's kids when she said she wasn't any good at art and maybe shouldn't even try it.  When she saw it, she laugh at it saying it looked like something she'd probably do.  I said I was twenty-four when I did it; and then I pulled out my self-portrait from this year and and put it next to it.  She said that I had improved so much!  I said it's all to do with practice; the more you paint the better you'll get... like with anything (not only painting, it can be also applied to music, writing, knitting... the whole lot of things when you think about it).  I think I made her feel better about herself and what she wanted to do in high school.  

So, here are the two paintings that I showed my neighbour's daughter.  My first one from 1998 and my self-portrait from 2011; and yes, I have to also agree, it's a great improvement.

I painted this one out at a cattle station outside Roma, QLD in 1998, age: 24

I painted this one over 4 months Feb - May in 2011 here in Logan City, Brisbane, age 37.

So, when did you start out in your chosen artistic field?  How old were you?  Did you keep your first piece, or did you sell it?  If you've got your first piece still, leave a comment and a link to a photo of it so we can all see it; and a photo of your most recent piece as well so we can see how brilliant you've become.

Vivian Maier's Photography

Last year, I saw a program on a fantastic photographer from Chicago from the 1950's to the 1990's named Vivian Maier.  Her images were breath-taking, raw and brilliantly captured.  However, she wasn't all that well-known.

Recently, her work was discovered at an auction in Chicago and over the last three or so years, John Maloof has been revealing her works to the world.  Some of the photos haven't seen the light of day for decades; many haven't been off the rolls ever and still have yet to be developed.  But John has put her work onto a blog for the world to see and enjoy.  You can have a look at it on the side bar at any time, however, I'll also  put it here:

Vivian Maier Discovered 


I hope you see the brilliance in her photos that I have.