64 Fun Facts About Knitting

The oldest known true knitted artifacts are cotton socks from which country?

Egypt's socks already show fine gauge and complex colourwork, so knitting was probably practised there well before these finds.

Which looping technique worked with one needle made sturdy socks and mittens before knitting was known?

Nålebinding works short lengths of yarn much like sewing, and some ancient pieces once thought to be knitting turned out to be made with it.

Europe's earliest known knitted items were made by knitters of which faith, employed by Castilian royals?

Muslim knitters worked the Arabic word baraka, 'blessing', into a cushion cover buried with the Christian prince Fernando de la Cerda.

The Buxtehude Altar, painted around 1400, shows which holy figure knitting?

The Virgin Mary knits Christ's seamless tunic on four needles, the garment medieval tradition said he wore until his crucifixion.

The cardigan is named after an earl who led which cavalry charge?

The Charge of the Light Brigade made Lord Cardigan a brief hero at home, and the knitted waistcoat named after him became a hot commodity.

Red silk knitted stockings were found among the burial clothes of which Medici duchess?

Eleonora de Toledo was long rumoured to have died of grief after one son killed another, but tests on her bones confirmed that malaria killed her.

Which protest movement began in 1811 among Nottinghamshire framework knitters?

The Luddites smashed so many knitting frames that Parliament made frame-breaking a capital offence in 1812.

Which ruler incorporated the Worshipful Company of Framework Knitters by letters patent in 1657?

After the Restoration, the company Oliver Cromwell had incorporated applied to Charles II and won a fresh royal charter in 1663.

Fair Isle knitting takes its name from an island in which archipelago?

Shetland's Fair Isle knitters traded with passing ships, rowing far out to barter their brightly coloured knitwear.

Fair Isle's 1920s craze is credited to which royal, who wore the jumpers in public?

The Prince of Wales wore his Fair Isle jumper to play golf, and the pattern has been linked with golf ever since.

Aran jumpers are named after islands off the west coast of which country?

Ireland's Aran jumper emerged as a product in the 1930s, after Muriel Gahan's Country Shop in Dublin began selling island knitwear.

The myth that Aran patterns identified drowned fishermen is often traced to a 1904 play by whom?

J. M. Synge's Riders to the Sea identifies a drowned man by a sock his sister knitted, from the stitches she dropped, not by any jumper pattern.

Aran knitting is often traced to which body set up in 1891 to relieve western poverty?

The Congested Districts Board encouraged island families to knit garments to sell, and a knitwear industry grew on the islands.

Heinz Edgar Kiewe, who fabricated the romantic 'meanings' of Aran stitches, ran what kind of business?

Kiewe, who ran a yarn shop in Oxford, even claimed that Daniel in the Book of Kells wore Aran-patterned stockings, a claim historians dismiss.

Which folk group popularised Aran jumpers by wearing them on The Ed Sullivan Show?

The Clancy Brothers wore sweaters their mother had sent against the New York cold, and manager Marty Erlichman made them the group's stage trademark.

What is the undyed cream wool yarn of traditional Aran jumpers called?

Báinín was often spun from unwashed wool, so each wash left the sweater whiter and softer but less rainproof.

The gansey, a tightly knitted seaman's sweater, takes its name from an island in which group?

The Channel Islands' Guernsey lent the sweater its name, which travelled so far that the Norwegian word for a sweater, genser, comes from it.

What is the diamond-shaped piece knitted into the underarm of a traditional gansey called?

A gusset adds extra fabric where sleeve meets body, taking the strain off the underarm so the wearer can move freely.

The finest traditional lace shawls from Unst were judged by their ability to be drawn through what?

A wedding ring was the test for island lace, which became popular in England because Queen Victoria loved it.

Which Danish TV drama's detective made a patterned Faroese jumper famous?

The Killing's star Sofie Gråbøl picked the jumper herself from wardrobe suggestions before filming began.

Which organisation's c.1918 poster told the US home front 'Our boys need sox – Knit your bit'?

The Red Cross wanted socks because dry pairs helped soldiers in wet trenches ward off trench foot.

Cowichan sweaters, with shawl collars and bold motifs, are made by Coast Salish knitters based where in Canada?

After Vancouver Island's Cowichan knitters protested a look-alike 2010 Olympic sweater, they won a deal to sell their own at the Hudson's Bay Company's Vancouver store.

The knitted Monmouth cap of soldiers and sailors is named after a town in which country?

Wales's Monmouth caps kept their name even after much of their making moved to Bewdley in Worcestershire.

Which knitting stitch looks like a knit stitch seen from the back of the fabric?

Purl rows form raised ridges beside knit rows, which is how shadow knitting hides pictures that appear only when viewed at an angle.

Knitting every single row in knit stitches produces which fabric?

Garter stitch lies flat instead of curling, so it can edge a garment without needing any other finish.

Which smooth knitted fabric has columns of stacked V shapes on its front?

Stockinette's edges naturally curl, so garments knitted in it usually start with a hem or a flatter border.

What is the stretchy knitted pattern of alternating vertical columns, used on cuffs and hems, called?

Ribbing naturally draws the fabric in, so a ribbed edge fits snugly without any extra shaping.

What is creating the first stitches on the needle at the start of knitting called?

Casting on by the popular long-tail method means guessing the tail length first, and a tail too short means unravelling and starting again.

Ripping out rows of knitting by pulling the yarn free is humorously known among knitters as what?

Frogging is said to come from 'rip it, rip it', which sounds like a frog's croak, and crocheters use the word for unravelling too.

Continental-style knitting fell from favour in Britain and the US in WWII because of its link to which country?

Elizabeth Zimmermann spent decades coaxing American knitters back to the faster left-hand method.

Which colourwork technique uses yarns in segregated blocks instead of carrying strands across the row?

Intarsia is the usual way to knit argyle sweaters, with each colour wound onto its own bobbin to keep the yarns from tangling.

Which short needle holds stitches aside while a knitter crosses them?

Cable needle stitches held in front make the cable cross to the left, while holding them behind makes it lean right.

The invisible sock-toe grafting stitch is named after which British field marshal?

Herbert Kitchener is believed to have backed seamless sock toes during WWI, since a seamed toe rubbed soldiers' feet on long marches.

When yarn is plied, how are the strands twisted together relative to their original spin?

Twisting in the opposite direction balances the yarn, making it stronger and letting it knit up evenly instead of skewing.

Scottish weavers in Paisley copied the patterned shawls of which Himalayan region?

Kashmir was once spelled Cashmere in English, and the fine wool in its shawls still carries that name.

Which animal produces angora fibre, prized by knitters for the fluffy 'halo' it gives a finished garment?

Angora rabbit fur hit the headlines in 2013, when secret PETA footage of live rabbits being plucked in China led H&M and other brands to suspend angora products.

Which country was the world's largest mohair producer in the early 2020s?

South Africa's Angora goats came from Turkey, whose Sultan later forbade exporting any more.

Before the 18th century, exporting Merino sheep from which country was a crime punishable by death?

Spain later relaxed the ban, and a flock sent to Louis XVI's farm at Rambouillet in 1786 founded the Rambouillet breed.

Alpaca fibre is often described as hypoallergenic because, unlike sheep's wool, it contains none of what?

Lanolin, the waxy grease that sheep secrete into their fleece, is purified for use in face creams and soaps.

In 2019 the knitting site Ravelry banned posts supporting which politician?

Donald Trump support was banned because Ravelry said backing his administration was undeniably support for white supremacy.

Yarn bombing is often credited to Magda Sayeg, who covered her boutique's door handle in 2005 in which US city?

Houston's first knitted door handle grew into the Knitta crew, which wrapped stop signs, trees and car antennas across the city.

In 2010 the street artist Olek covered which famous New York statue in a crocheted suit?

Charging Bull stands about eleven feet tall, yet Olek gave it a full crocheted suit, which was cut off within a couple of hours.

World Wide Knit in Public Day is held on the second Saturday of which month?

It grew from about 25 local events in its first year to nearly 200 by 2007, all run by volunteers.

Which British-born knitting author's motto was 'Knit on with confidence and hope, through all crises'?

Elizabeth Zimmermann wanted to call her first book The Opinionated Knitter, but her publisher Scribner's chose Knitting Without Tears instead.

Which classic pattern is knitted completely flat and then folded, origami-style, into a shaped garment?

The Baby Surprise Jacket was designed in 1968 for the designer's unborn grandson, and it later inspired an Adult Surprise Jacket.

In 1988 Kaffe Fassett became the first living textile artist to have a one-man show at which institution?

The Victoria and Albert Museum's collection later inspired Fassett's 2005 book Museum Quilts, whose patchwork designs draw on its treasures.

Ryan Gosling says elderly women taught him to knit on the set of which film?

Lars and the Real Girl had an all-day scene in a room of knitting women, so they showed Gosling how, and he called it one of his most relaxing days.

Tom Daley knitted what for his Tokyo Olympic gold medal?

A pouch was one of his Tokyo makes, and Daley said knitting helped him switch off and stay sane during the Games.

In 2012 Ravelry renamed its 'Ravelympics' knitting challenge after a legal letter from which organisation?

The US Olympic Committee's cease-and-desist letter caused an uproar among knitters, and the knit-along carried on as the Ravellenic Games.

What nationality was Miriam Tegels, who set a 2006 Guinness speed-knitting record of 118 stitches in one minute?

Dutch record-setter Tegels was still beaten by Hazel Tindall, who won a World's Fastest Knitter contest ahead of her in 2008.

Jim Bolin's 13-foot knitting needles stand in which small Illinois town full of giant objects?

Casey's needles later lost the record to a longer pair made by Elizabeth Bond.

In Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, Madame Defarge's knitting secretly encodes what?

Names of people to be killed fill her knitted register because she wants revenge on the Evrémondes, who caused her sister's and brother's deaths.

Madame Defarge dies by her own weapon during a struggle with which character?

Her pistol goes off in the fight, and the blast leaves the loyal Miss Pross permanently deaf.

Shaun the Sheep debuted in which Wallace and Gromit film, featuring Wallace's jumper-knitting Knit-o-Matic machine?

A Close Shave's Wallace names him Shaun as a pun on 'shorn', after the Knit-o-Matic accidentally shears his fleece.

An ugly Christmas sweater party credited with popularising the modern trend began in 2002 in Coquitlam, in which Canadian province?

British Columbia's party later moved to the Commodore Ballroom, and its founders began using their events to raise money to grant children's wishes.

The knitters' 'sweater curse' holds that hand-knitting a sweater for a significant other leads to what?

One suggested cause of the relationship ending is timing, since a sweater takes so long to knit that a romance may fade before it is done.

What do knitters call the small test sample worked to check gauge before starting a project?

The swatch tells you stitches per inch so the finished piece comes out the size the pattern intends.

To avoid subtle colour differences, knitters try to buy all the yarn for a project from a single what?

The dye lot is printed on the yarn-band along with weight, fibre content and suggested needle size.

Wool is generally the favoured knitting fibre chiefly because of its superior what?

Elasticity comes largely from wool's natural crimp, the wave in each fibre that also sets true wool apart from most hair.

Which Doctor Who star wore an absurdly long, multicoloured knitted scarf in the 1970s?

Tom Baker's scarf was a happy accident: the freelance knitter used up all the yarn she was given, not realising she didn't have to.

Mosaic knitting, which works alternate coloured rows into patterns, is a form of what?

Slip-stitch work lets mosaic knitters build colour patterns while working only one yarn in each row, as slipped stitches carry the other colour up.

Which children's TV host began each episode by zipping on a cardigan his mother had knitted?

Fred Rogers's mother hand-knitted his cardigans, and in 1984 he gave one of them, a red zip-up, to the Smithsonian.

Richard Rutt, the Anglican bishop who wrote A History of Hand Knitting, later joined which church?

The Roman Catholic Church received Rutt in 1994, and he donated his library of knitting books to the Winchester School of Art.

Knitters making pussyhats for the 2017 Women's March caused a run on which yarn in US craft stores?

Pink yarn ran short because many knitters who couldn't march made hats to hand out to those who could, aiming for a 'sea of pink' in Washington.