The history and evolution of knitting

The history of knitted garments has deep roots in human history and has evolved over time into the modern techniques we know today. Knitting, as a technique for working with yarn or other textile materials, has been developed and refined over many centuries under the influence of technological innovations, social needs and cultural changes.

The art of knitting is one of the oldest and most beloved forms of textile creativity. Throughout history, knitted items have played an important role in people's lives, from keeping warm in winter to expressing individuality through unique patterns and colours. In this article, we explore their fascinating history and learn how they have evolved over time.

Origins

Knitting, like many other types of handicrafts, has a rich history. The oldest knitted artefacts are a series of socks found in Egypt, dating back 1,700 years. They are very finely knitted, with complex patterns in different colours. The complexity of the items found suggests that knitting is even older than archaeological records can confirm.

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Most stories related to knitting place its origins somewhere in the Middle East, from where it spread to Europe via Mediterranean trade routes, and then to America as a result of European colonisation. The word ‘knitted’ was only included in the Oxford Unabridged English dictionary in the 15th century.

The evolution of knitting

Over time, the knitting process has undergone continuous development. There are several significant moments in history that have pushed knitting to increasingly efficient and innovative levels:

• The first examples of reversible stitches, which differ from those used in ancient Egypt, appeared in the mid-16th century. The oldest known knitted items in Europe were created by Muslims employed by the royal families of Spain. A high level of knitting can be seen on several items found in the monastery of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas, a royal monastery located near the city of Burgos, Spain.
  
  In Europe, Christian countries, united culturally, actively spread knitting across the continent. The development of knitting techniques was accelerated by liturgical requirements. Bishops and priests needed gloves when presenting the bread and wine during communion.
  
  During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Queen of England and Ireland, the demand for stockings increased significantly. The queen herself was a great fan of knitted silk stockings because of their softness.
  
  In response to the needs of the time, William Lee invented the prototype of a mechanical knitting machine in 1589. After William presented Queen Elizabeth I with a pair of black stockings, she ultimately refused to grant him a patent for his invention, citing that his machine could cause social unrest and replace hand knitting.
  
  As a result, William Lee moved to France, where his invention was well received. He established a knitting machine factory there and trained French apprentices in the technology. This invention paved the way for knitting with cotton, wool, and silk, allowing socks to be made from a variety of materials. With the improvement of the machine, the speed of knitting increased significantly.
  
  
• In 1703, Gottfried Leibniz developed mathematical logic in his works on the binary number system. In his system, the values one and zero represent true and false values or on/off. However, it took more than a century before George Boole published Boolean algebra (algebra of logic) in 1854, presenting a complete system that allowed mathematical modelling of computational processes. During this period, the first mechanical devices based on the binary model were invented.
  
  
• Joseph-Marie Jacquard was a French inventor, the son of a textile worker, who taught himself mechanics. Developing on an earlier idea by Jacques de Vossinson, Jacquard equipped his loom with an ingenious mechanism that selected the warp threads according to a ‘program’ recorded on perforated plates (the inventor of the punch card was Basile Bouchon). A perforated card is a stiff sheet of paper containing digital information represented by the presence or absence of holes in predetermined positions.
  
  Thus, in 1801, he succeeded in creating a semi-automatic loom, which was named after him. Thanks to this invention, the loom became much easier to operate, and the number of workers was reduced to one, unlike previous conditions, when the joint efforts of several operators were required. It is important to note that although Jacquard's machine is far from a computer, it was the first to demonstrate that machines can function on the basis of binary systems.