"A must-have for the knitter who wants to create knitted items for specific time periods . . . a very valuable resource."—Knit Together (Canadian Guild of Knitters) |
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 missionary
priest in 1954. In 1966 he was consecrated bishop. After returning
to England in 1974, he resumed his boyhood interest in knitting
and has since become a considerable authority on the subject. Finding
that there was no history of hand knitting, the Bishop has written
one himself. He lives in Cornwall, England
Hardbound, 7 1/4 x 9 3/4, 256 pages, 95 black-and-white
photographs, and 70 diagrams and charted designs, ISBN 10: 1-931499-37-3 ISBN 13: 978-1-931499-37-8
|
