Hand knitting is the most domestic of crafts, and knitted garments have always been designed for practical purposes, tending to be worn until they disintegrated. For this reason, knitting has received little attention from textile historians. Richard Rutt has now written the first full history of hand knitting, in a book which makes absorbing reading for knitters and non-knitters alike.

In tracing the development and refinement of the craft, the author draws upon literary evidence and pays special attention to the social aspects of knitting. He re-evaluates well-known legends, examines the changes in tools and techniques, and ranges widely through both history and geography. Separate chapters relate the history of European knitting before 1500, knitting in Britain from Henry VIII to the Commonwealth, from the Restoration to 1835, during the nineteenth century, and during the First World War and after. Further explorations consider local traditions in the British Isles, knitting as practiced east of the Adriatic, and developments in the Americas. The book also includes a definition of knitting in relation to other yarn crafts (such as crochet and nålbinding), a historical glossary, clear technical diagrams, and a large number of designs charted from historical items, including a transcription of the earliest English knitting pattern.

¿Richard Rutt provides us with the information we need to obtain an appreciation for the origins of hand knitting and the dazzling achievements of our knitting-predecessors....How pleased I am that, after an absence of several years, this book has been restored to us.¿ ¿From the Foreword by Meg Swansen, Schoolhouse Press

About the author: Richard Rutt is the former Bishop of Leicester, a town which played an important role in the British knitting industry. He served as a Japanese translator in the Navy during the Second World War, and after studying medieval and modern languages at Cambridge, went to Korea as a miss