Welcome, and thank you for subscribing. This page is a guide to what has been published so far, grouped by subject, so that you can start with whatever interests you most. If you would like to know who I am first, that is on the About page.
Most posts are about knitting history, especially the lives of ordinary knitters, along with knitting technique and, where they are relevant, spinning, machine knitting, crochet and nålbinding. Free essays go out roughly twice a month.
If you only read three
What a 13th-Century Knitting Mistake Reveals About Medieval Technique. One wrong stitch in a Votic mitten from Estonia, and what can be learnt from it about how the mitten was made.
The Knitting Sheath: The Forgotten Tool Behind Hands-Free Knitting. A carved stick worn at the hip to hold one needle, used by working knitters for about 300 years, and the reasons it went out of use.
Why Knitting Survived the Industrial Revolution. Before the Industrial Revolution, almost every household spun and knitted. Domestic spinning had nearly disappeared within a generation, and the question here is why knitting did not.
Knitters in history
The Hidden History of Knitting: Poverty, Workhouses, and Survival in England. Most knitters in the historical record were knitting for money, often as a last resort.
Going A-Sitting: The 200-Year-Old Knitting Circles That Came With Their Own Songs. The rotating evening knitting gatherings of the Yorkshire Dales.
Knitting vs. Crochet at Work: Why One Was Fine and One Wasn’t. An 1867 workhouse inquiry in which a matron was investigated for crocheting, although knitting was allowed.
How ‘English’ Is English Knitting, and How ‘Continental’ Is Continental?. Where the names for the two main knitting styles came from.
Why Sweaters Need Myths. The origin stories attached to the Aran, Fair Isle and the gansey, and why they are told.
The circular yoke series
A three-part history of the round-yoked sweater. The third part, on how the yoke was taken up in the English-speaking world from the 1960s, is coming next.
Before the Circular Yoke: Round Yokes on Ordinary Sweaters in the 1930s. Crocheted, knitted and sewn-on round yokes in patterns from Australia, Britain and the United States.
Greenland, Norway, Iceland: How a Collar Became the Yoke Sweater. Annichen Sibbern’s 1930 design, most likely the first circular yoke, and the yokes that followed in Sweden and Shetland.
90 Years of Sweater Styles. A shorter, data-based look at how often each sleeve construction appears in patterns from each year, from the set-in sleeve onwards.
Technique
What Happened to Short Row Toes? How to work short-row toes for toe-up and cuff-down socks, with a modification for a rounder shape.
A Simpler Provisional Cast On. A waste-yarn method borrowed from machine knitting.
Is Purling Optional? Many knitters go to considerable lengths to avoid the purl stitch, and the habit has a longer history than might be expected.
Machine knitting and travel
A Second Craft. How I came to machine knitting as a hand knitter.
Earthbound: The Sweater I Made the Hard Way. A hand-knitting pattern adapted for a flat-bed machine, including converting the gauge and custom sizing.
The Perfect Souvenir. Belgian wool, an unexpected yarn shop and the Brussels lace museum.
Notes from the Needles (paid)
Paid subscribers also receive Notes from the Needles, roughly twice a month: what I am knitting and spinning, the historical patterns I am testing, and the research that has not yet become an essay. Recent issues have covered knitting Victorian stockings from an 1886 pattern, learning to spin on my first wheel, spinning linen and a nålbound bag. If you enjoy the free essays and would like to support the research behind them, a paid subscription is the most direct way to do so.