70 Fun Facts About Knitting

The oldest surviving knitted artifacts, cotton socks from Fustat, date from which century?

The Fustat socks were worked from the toe up, and their fine gauge suggests knitting was already a mature craft in Egypt by then.

Which single-needle fabric technique, whose Scandinavian name means 'binding with a needle', predates knitting?

Textile historians sometimes have to trace the path of a single yarn through an ancient fragment to tell the two techniques apart.

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

Knitted cushion covers and gloves found in the tomb of Prince Fernando de la Cerda, who died in 1275, are among these early pieces.

Which artist painted the knitting Virgin Mary in Visit of the Angel on the Buxtehude Altar?

In the panel Mary knits a seamless garment in the round on four needles, one of the earliest depictions of the technique.

Who reputedly gave Queen Elizabeth I her first pair of knitted silk stockings in 1561?

Silk stockings were finer, softer and far pricier than wool, and the queen is said to have refused to wear cloth hose again.

The first known European purl stitches appear in mid-16th-century red silk stockings of which duchess?

The stockings were found in her Medici tomb in Florence, and their purled patterning shows the stitch was already understood by then.

In which year did William Lee invent the stocking frame, the first knitting machine?

The frame's basic principle of bearded needles survived in hosiery machines for more than two centuries.

Refused an English patent, William Lee took his stocking frames and workmen to which country?

The famous story that Elizabeth I told him the machine would make her subjects beggars appears nowhere before the 19th century, so historians doubt it.

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

It received a fresh royal charter from Charles II in 1663 and today ranks 64th in the livery companies' order of precedence.

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

Purists reserve the term for the island's own patterns and call the general technique 'stranded colourwork'.

Fair Isle jumpers became fashionable after which royal wore them in public in 1921?

The prince, later Edward VIII, was painted in a Fair Isle jumper by Sir John Lavery and set off a craze for golf-course knitwear.

Traditional Fair Isle patterns use how many colours in any single row?

Limiting each row to two strands and keeping colour runs short is what keeps the floats on the back tidy and the fabric elastic.

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

In Irish the garment is a geansaí Árann, and the islands sit at the mouth of Galway Bay.

The myth of family patterns on Aran jumpers identifying drowned fishermen stems from a 1904 play by whom?

In Riders to the Sea a body is identified not by a jumper but by a sock, from the number of stitches its knitter cast on and dropped.

Most historians now agree that Aran knitting, far from being ancient, was invented roughly when?

The Congested Districts Board brought guernsey-style knitting to the islands to bolster the fishing economy, and islanders elaborated on it.

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

Kiewe spotted a chance resemblance between the stitches and Celtic knotwork and decided the knitting must be just as old.

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

The group also gave a special televised performance for President John F. Kennedy in their trademark cream sweaters.

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

Pronounced 'bawneen', the yarn's natural lanolin gave the sweaters a degree of water resistance.

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

Ganseys were traditionally seamless, worked in the round, with patterns passed from mother to daughter.

The guernsey sweater was first widely used in the 19th-century rating uniform of which service?

Fishermen's wives knitted the same tight, dense fabric for their husbands, which is why the garment survived on both sides of the North Sea.

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

The shawls were knitted from single-ply Shetland wool spun so fine that a full-size piece could weigh only a few ounces.

Queen Victoria, a fan of the northern isles' knitted lace, gave a lace shawl to which American abolitionist?

Victoria's taste for the lace helped turn a remote island craft into a fashion staple of the era.

A c.1918 American Red Cross poster urged the home front to 'Knit Your Bit' because 'Our boys need' what?

Historians note the drives had as much to do with stirring patriotism as with supply, since factories already made most uniforms.

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

When the Hudson's Bay Company sold a look-alike sweater for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, the Cowichan Tribes threatened legal action.

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

Shakespeare's Fluellen boasts in Henry V of Welshmen 'wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps'.

In knitting, what is a stitch worked by passing the needle through the loop from above called?

Almost every knitted texture, from ribbing to seed stitch, is just an arrangement of these two basic moves.

Knitting every single row in knit stitches produces which fabric?

The result lies flat and looks identical on both sides, which is why it is the first fabric most beginners make.

Alternating rows of all knit stitches and all purl stitches produces which smooth-fronted fabric?

British knitters call it stocking stitch; its edges curl, which is why sweater hems are usually finished in ribbing.

What are vertical stripes of alternating knit and purl columns, common on cuffs, called?

The alternating columns pull inward, giving the fabric the stretch that makes it ideal for cuffs, collars and sock tops.

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

There are dozens of methods, from the long-tail to the provisional, and the choice affects how stretchy the edge will be.

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

The joke is that you 'rip it, rip it' like a croaking frog; undoing one stitch at a time is 'tinking', or knitting backwards.

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?

Because the colours are not stranded, the wrong side stays single-layered, and each block gets its own bobbin of yarn.

Double-pointed knitting needles are typically sold in sets of how many?

The stitches are spread over three or four needles while the spare one does the knitting.

Antique knitting needles were sometimes made from which material, since banned to protect endangered species?

Tortoiseshell and ivory needles were also made, and all three are off-limits to modern makers.

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

The technique was practised long before he lent it his name; the seamless toe was prized because it did not rub inside a boot.

Yarn weights run from lace at the thin end up to what name for the thickest category?

The scale runs lace, superfine, fine, light, medium, bulky, superbulky and jumbo; the top end is often knitted on the arms rather than needles.

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

Counter-twisting balances the yarn so a finished fabric does not bias or skew to one side.

Cashmere, combed from the soft undercoat of goats, is an anglicisation of the name of which region?

The name stuck when Kashmir shawls reached Europe in the 19th century; China is now by far the largest producer.

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

The fibre is hollow, which makes it both warm and light, and it is regularly confused with mohair from the Angora goat.

Which country produced about 56 percent of the world's mohair in 2024?

Turkey held a monopoly on the fibre until the mid-1800s; today most of it is clipped in the Eastern Cape.

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

Once the flocks got out, Australia's Merino population went from a handful in 1788 to nearly two million by 1830.

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

Two breeds supply it: crimpy, sheep-like Huacaya and the rarer Suri, whose fleece hangs in silky pencil-like locks.

In which year did Ravelry, the online knitting and crochet community, beta-launch?

By March 2020 it had almost 9 million registered users, and it made headlines in 2019 for banning expressions of support for Donald Trump.

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

The craft is also called guerrilla knitting or 'kniffiti', and it remains technically illegal in some places, though rarely prosecuted.

In which year was International Yarnbombing Day, founded by Joann Matvichuk of Lethbridge, first observed?

Yarn installations are considered non-permanent street art, easily snipped away, unlike spray paint.

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'?

Her Schoolhouse Press, run from a converted Wisconsin schoolhouse, is still operated by her daughter Meg Swansen.

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

Knitters famously cannot see what they are making until the final fold, hence the 'surprise'.

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

Born in San Francisco, Fassett has lived in England since 1964 and is as well known for his riotous colour as for his knitting.

Ryan Gosling says he learned to knit from elderly women during an all-day scene on the set of which 2007 film?

He later called it one of the most relaxing days of his life, adding that at the end 'you get a nice present'.

Tom Daley was famously photographed knitting at the Tokyo Olympics during the final of which event?

He went on to finish a full Team GB cardigan and knitted a pouch, Union Jack on one side and Japanese flag on the other, for his gold medal.

Tom Daley won Tokyo 2020 gold in synchronised 10 m platform alongside which diving partner?

Since retiring, Daley has hosted Game of Wool: Britain's Best Knitter, a Channel 4 craft competition.

How many stitches in one minute earned Miriam Tegels the fastest-knitter Guinness record in 2006?

That works out at nearly two stitches every second, sustained for the full minute at Swalmen Town Hall.

Roughly how long are the record-setting knitting needles made by Elizabeth Bond in 2017?

Bond made the 9 cm-thick needles for her final-year art and design project at Wiltshire College, Chippenham.

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

She knits calmly beside the guillotine as leader of the tricoteuses, and her wine shop in Saint Antoine is a revolutionary hub.

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.

In A Close Shave, Wallace falls for Wendolene Ramsbottom, who runs a shop selling what?

Her sinister dog Preston keeps the shop supplied by rustling sheep, and turns out to be a malfunctioning robot.

The first 'ugly Christmas sweater party' was held in 2002 in Coquitlam, in which Canadian province?

The gathering later expanded to a downtown ballroom, where annual editions drew around 1,000 people.

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

In a 2005 poll of knitters, 15 percent said they had experienced the curse and 41 percent thought it a genuine risk.

The English word 'knit' descends from the Old English cnyttan, which meant what?

Related roots include the Old Norse knytja and the German knutten, all about tying and binding.

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?

Its warmth and ability to felt help too, and blends such as 85% alpaca with 15% silk are common.

In entrelac knitting, the wales run perpendicular to one another in what kind of pattern?

The technique relies on picking up stitches from the edges of already-knitted blocks.

The Australian charity Wrap with Love sends volunteers' hand-knitted items to people affected by war. What items?

Knitting for soldiers goes back to the Crimean War and continued through both World Wars and Korea.

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

The slipped stitches pull on their neighbours, so mosaic fabrics come out stiffer than Fair Isle.

The Guild of Saint Fiacre, a knitters' guild founded in 1527, was based in which city?

Archives there mention an organisation of knitters as far back as 1268.

Richard Rutt, author of A History of Hand Knitting (1987), had earlier served as what?

He later became a Roman Catholic priest, and his knitting library now sits at the Winchester School of Art.

Which city had Western Europe's earliest known commercial knitting guild, in 1429?

Barcelona followed in 1496, in the same century that knitting spread from Muslim Spain across the continent.