Interesting Knitting Facts 1-5

Week 32 = Knitting Facts
Day 1 = August 6, 2014

The Knitting Woman

By William Adolphe Bouguereau

     While scouring the internet for what I thought was going to be this week's topic, I stumbled upon this fun list of "46 Interesting Facts About... Knitting" and thought it would be a great thing to share with you. I will be posting 5 or 6 facts a day, so here are the first five:

1. No one knows how old knitting really is, though it is generally thought to be older than handcrafts (rug hooking), but not as old as weaving.d           2. Many ancient textile fragments thought to be knitting have turned out to be nålebinding (Danish for literally “binding with a needle), an ancient form of needlecraft that is sometimes referred to as “single-needle knitting.”j           3. The history of knitting is not well known because fabrics used for knitting are made of wool, silk, and other fibers that decay rapidly. Additionally, knitting needles are hard to distinguish beyond a doubt from hair picks, skewers, spindles, or the other many uses of a sharpened stick.h           4. Historians posit that knitting is a relatively recent invention because there are no ancient legends of knitting like there are legends of spinning and weaving, such as Arachne, Ixazaluoh, Nephthys, Amaterasu. There are no ancient gods or goddesses who knit.j           5. Knitting is considered to have originated in the Arab world, and from there, spread with the Crusades into Spain. The term “to knit” wasn’t added to English until the 1400s.h      Now you can visit the website link above and read ahead or just keep coming back here until we are done with all 46 facts. References d Gardner, Sue, ed. 2007. A to Z of Knitting: The Ultimate Guide for the Beginner to Advanced Knitter. Woodinville, WA: Martingale & Company. h Nargi, Lela. 2011. Knitting around the World: A Multistranded History of a Time-Honored Tradition. Minneapolis, MN: Voyageur Press. j Rutt, Richard. 1987. A History of Hand Knitting. London, UK: B.T. Batsford. ~~~ For today's Knitting Question of the Day, go to Savery Knitting on Facebook.    Knitting with Interest, Victoria