Several years ago, I saw a little sock in the British Museum in London from Roman times. I found it to be one of the most meaningful exhibits in the whole museum. It just connected me, a knitter, to all the knitters over the centuries knitting for their families. And it was a single sock :)
Nice! I hate knitting I just realised it yesterday...I was crocheting and though no I should knit it instead it will be a nicer drape five rows later I realised I hate knitting. 😂
Elizabeth Wayland Barber has written a wonderful book, "Women's Work - the First 20,000 years" if you are looking for a good read about fiber arts through the ages.
I added it to my order. Thank you. I learned to knit from my mom. She knitted colored patterns and I knitted textured patterns. I remember wearing her ski sweaters to school in Alaska. Definitely an art form.
I'm working on a large-scale, long-form DND world for multiple campaigns and little videos like this have been so wonderfully helpful in building out cultures and settings. Thank you for putting this together.
There's a fascinating video you might enjoy - it's on UA-cam, so easy to access - "Shetland knitters really did knit 200 stitches a minute!" Thecwoman who put it together has actual film footage from the very early 1900s showing just how fast women in some cultures could knit, and she does an excellent analysis of knitting techniques used back when it was a major part of the economy in the Shetland Islands.
This is a lovely video. I learned to knit (and crochet, tat, etc) literally at my grandmother's knee, back in the 1960s and 70s. I've long been fascinated with the connections between fiber arts, human development, and women's rights. The meaning of the word "spinster", for me, has gradually changed from "older woman who never married, probably grouchy" to "a woman who was able to support herself (through spinning or other fiber arts?) and never submitted to marriage". This was the first I've seen of your videos. I'm now subscribed and looking forward to watching more. Nice work! P.S. I'd love to see a video on the repercussions that the development of the spinning wheel had on societies - somewhat suddenly, people (primarily women) could produce thread at several times the rate they could before. What were the societal changes that this enabled? Perhaps you have already made something similar, and so now I'm off to watch more of your videos.
Thanks so much for your kind note. From my research, there are a lot of interesting studies and examples of how the fiber arts have been entangled with human development and women's rights from societies around the world. My PhD adviser was a huge fan of weaving and she's considered one of the founders of feminist archaeology so I learned a lot about that history through her. Also, thanks for sharing the history behind the term, "spinster". I already went down a rabbit hole looking further into it :) Your suggestion about spinning wheels has been noted and it's appreciated! Thanks for checking out our other videos :)
@@smitinathanI recently got into crochet, and became interested in vintage/ antique patterns. The earliest printed patterns are pretty late (1840's) when compared to the advent of printing, and I feel it's entirely down to fibrecrafting having been 'women's work' and not as high class as woven fabrics. Patterns for and methods of crochet/ knitting would have been learned in person from older women, and commited to memory. It seems to have taken the arrival of a true middle-class to have become a relevant topic to provide to women who were wealthy and literate enough to consume printed media targeted at them.
Actually, it was WW l that had the biggest campaign for knitted socks. Posters saying “Our boys need Sox!” were everywhere. Trench warfare and the dreaded trench foot necessitated a constant supply of dry, warm socks. The American Red Cross bought thousands of circular sock knitting machines - hand cranked knitting machines that even non-knitters could be taught to use and crank out several pairs of socks in a single day. Socks were knitted in schools by both boys and girls. Wounded soldiers were taught to knit, and joined in the effort. WW ll saw the Red Cross collecting knitted items, too, but the height of sock knitting for soldiers was WW l. These days, the circular sock machines (CSMs) are still being made - I have owned five different ones, but now have only three. There is a national organization for people with these machines, and many gatherings across the US and Canada that we refer to as crank-ins. There are many Facebook groups and UA-cam channels devoted to this hobby.
Also, those machines were vital because so many knit objects had to be foxed or ripped out and started again due to size issues. People could knit and wanted to help but didnt know how to gauge to a pattern.
I still can't figure out how they figured it out. What gave them the idea to spin wool in enough quantity to make a garment, and how did they find how to make stitches that turn into fabric? How many frustrated attempts and for how long did they mess around with it? I remember as a kid, learning to knit. I was already being taught how, and had examples all around me of what could be accomplished as I learned. And how long it took me to be able to untangle yarn and get it neatly into balls. How many time I messed it up, got frustrated and quit. Seriously, making fibers into yarn, and yarn into knit or woven fabric is a BIG leap.
I hear you! How people figured things out is something that I often ponder in my archaeological work. That 'how" is honestly is a major undercurrent in a lot of archaeological work too. Your note exudes a lot of empathy when it comes to the work that innovation and learning require and it's really exciting when we have archaeological evidence that gives us hints as to what that could have looked like in the past.
@argusflebeit1165 -- I *hear* you too! I have long wondered how ancient craft workers figured out the many, non-intuitive steps that one must make in order to plant, harvest, treat and spin linen from the flax plant. The Chinese people simply credited a Goddess for inventing silk production -- so they knew enough to thank a deity for sericulture! Thank you, Doctor S., for an enthralling video!
Maybe it was derived from rope-making or net making, and just people fiddling around with twine to see what sort of knots they could come up with.@@smitinathan
I often think the same about the food we eat. I mean, who was the first person who looked at an artichoke and decided only the heart or the inside of the leaves was edible? Did they learn by trial and error? 🤢 Or oysters (which I love)? I guess if you get hungry enough, anything starts to look like food! 😆
The spinning of enough wool isn't a puzzle - they were already spinning large amounts of wool and other fibres for weaving (which is a lot older than knitting), and as mentioned in replies, knotting string and cord for fishing nets and traps have a very long history (palaeolithic?). Cords or reeds were also plaited together in long lengths and then sewn into a tight spiral to make mats and baskets (a technique still used today), which might have been the inspiration for both nalbinding and crochet. The jump to knitting is probably via netting, I would think, since that too involves multiple loops of cord suspended from a stick. As for how they managed to come up with the ideas...with no internet to distract them, our ancestors made a lot better use of their free time than we do!
I have been knitting since I was six years old, when my mother taught me, and crocheting since I was ten, when I was taught by a neighbour. I'm now 67, and I have lost count of the number of garments and blankets I've knitted and crocheted over the years. They are both wonderful skills to have. I had no idea knitting was so old! Thank you for this wonderful video.
For those who don’t knit or nalbind, knitting has an advantage in that you can knit off one continuous strand of yarn, while in nalbinding, you can only work with a strand that isn’t too cumbersome to pull through the entire work. This means that you have fewer joins in your work that need to be secured. I also suspect that knitting might have been faster since you’re only throwing or picking one tiny bit of yarn over the needle. Any nalbinders out there who agree or disagree? Would be interested to hear!
Knitting has more give/stretch than nalbinding. This makes it easier to make more than hats, socks, and mittens. Nalbinding was often felted to add to the warmth.
In pre-history the earliest form of nalbinding was made with plant fibers. The 'yarn' was made (twined) while it was in the needle. So there was no need for a long strand of yarn and there were no joins. But you're right: knitting is faster. I know because I do both techniques.
I am not very familiar with nalbinding, but the description of it on the video reminds me of crochet. Is it similar to crochet, or is it the same thing?
When at school only wars and kings (and men of course) were discussed in history I felt that this was boring and repetitive, but the history of everyday life and related inventions I find fascinating. Thank you for this very interesting topic.
Thank you for your kind note! Our team loves analyzing the archaeological record in the context of everyday life so we're thrilled you enjoy such topics too :)
I agree. When I knit, I feel connected to the generations of knitters back through the thousands of years that it has been an activity. Interestingly, I’m an avid quilter, and although there’s a gigantic international quilt community, quilting doesn’t seem to give me that connection to the past. Quilting also has been going on for centuries; but there’s something so organic about looping a piece of yarn into itself that just feels ancient and connected through time and peoples.
Loved this video… all girls were taught to knit in uk schools when I was child, I was given knitting lessons by an elderly lady in our Road at the age of 5 I’m still knitting, making his and hers socks for my son and his girlfriend at the moment . I love that so many people have taken it up recently.
I was taught in the UK as a child by a neighbor too. It became unpopular when feminism hit town. I'm the only one in my US neighborhood to knit as crocheting is more popular. I miss the magazines being full of knitting patterns and being able to share patterns with others. I saw a historical photo of Scottish women waiting for the men to come in with their catch of fish. They were all stood on the docks knitting.
Not as commonly practiced in my country being tropical and all (the grannies crochet instead) but the concept of turning one long strand into an object is indeed quite fascinating.
Nalbinding may even predate spinning and weaving because it uses short pieces of yarn that can be made by hand. All you need is a dead sheep and you can make a bone needle and short lengths of yarn.
Living sheep can give you wool but a dead one gives you everything you need. It would be very difficult to make a bone needle from a living one and chances are early humans started crafting with leftover parts after eating the meat.@@lakrids-pibe
For me, unfortunately COVID-19 brought an end to knitting (among many other things), as I got small fiber neuropathy caused by the virus. Almost four years later, I've still only made just a very, very minor recovery. Wear a respirator, it's a small price to pay for being able to keep your health, hobbies and (full) working capability.
Nålbindning, or "needle binding" as it is in English, is far more akin to netting, sewing and even crochet over knitting. It's surprisingly fast too, as long as you are working with pure animal fibre (and can thus spit-splice join on new length) as one row in most nålbindning techniques is equivilant of 3 - 7 rows of knitting/crochet, and also has the big plus of being very difficult to unravel due to each stitch being literally knotted onto the surrounding fabric. Animal fibre such as wool also has the enormous plus of being able to felt, which means you can create thick and firm fabric where even if you get holes or wear thru (which is much rarer anyway by virtue of the sort of method it is) it simply will not unravel and is very easy to fix if it does or if a hole is made. I am personally very experienced in nålbindning, netmaking, macramè, tatting, knitting, sewing-especially in the arena of historical recreations and methods-and although it is my most recently acquired skill my crochet is coming along too (I'm only just recently learning anything more complicated than a chain stitch in the last 6 months or so, but I have been doing everything else for over a decade, having been self taught initially, and now I work as a designer and teacher myself!), so it's reall easy to see how they all link together! Indeed, the easiest coptic stitch of nålebindning is really just like the sewn "blanket stitch", and whilst the learning curve is a bit higher in nålebindning due to tension being a critical aspect you need to master (especially so in coptic stitch or stitches with minimal interlaced loops such as U/O), as well as the dearth of written instructions and no agreed upon pattern system (similar to tatting, actually!), but it's still very accessible as you really only need woolen yarn and a blunt darning needle (or a flat old-fashioned bodkin needle, which is what I started with). Nålbindning is luckily becoming more and more popular in recent years too, and as such books, videos and materials are far more accessible now than ever before! As an addendum it always surprises me how the first knitting we have clear evidence of was all in the round but it makes sense if you think about it as tubes are more "human shaped" than smallish, flat pieces. Lastly, if anyone is interested in all this stuff and hands-on experimental archeology/history/reinactments and similar, a brilliant creator on youtube is Sally Pointer! Her videos are clear and accessible and I really enjoy her content, and it's helped me understand so much about early fibre arts and creation.
You know, stuff like this just makes me so happy. The fact that people in the past were knitting the same things I am now, in the present, it just makes me happy. Like, we’re all connected through textiles, huh?
England wasn't the only country involved in World War 2. So was Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. When you said England, I think you meant to say the UK (the United Kingdom). The UK is a Union of 3 countries (Scotland, Wales, and England) plus one province, Northern Ireland. Scotland, Wales, and England make up the island land mass of Great Britain. When you said "the English Government" you should have said "the British Government". There was no English Govrenment during World War 2, nor is there an English Government now. You'll have pissed off your Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish viewers with these mistakes and ignorance.
I recommend a book, "No Idle Hands," by Anne L. Macdonald. Subtitled "The Social History of American Knitting," it brings to light more about the role of knitting. It goes beyond the picture many have of maidens knitting together in their parlors as leisure crafts. Knitting was a vital part of keeping families clothed and assisting the domestic war efforts. A great read for history afficionados and knitting buffs.
Thank you for this. There is a paucity of knitting history out there, in spite of the craft's significant influence on culture, trade, and economics. As a knitter who savors my connection to the past with every stitch, I am always on the hunt for new sources. Other than Richard Rutt's A History of Hand Knitting, they are few and far between in English (though there are some wonderful recent sources from Scandinavia and the Baltic States that have been translated to English). I would love to see more from you about the history of textiles - they are too often overlooked. Grateful to have found your channel, and I look forward to seeing what other topics you explore. P.S., I appreciate that you made your sources available, but it would be nice to see the links posted directly in the description box.
“may have directly influenced the vikings’ ability to expand their influence across the North Atlantic…” wasn’t it the women who spun and wove the cloth for the sails of the ships?
We use "may" because the research on many facets of influence is still ongoing. Women were definitely important and influential in Viking society. Here's the secondary source we mentioned (which includes to links to the primary sources we looked at): www.scientificamerican.com/article/viking-textiles-show-women-had-tremendous-power/
I learned to crochet a while back because I was fascinated while watching my grandmother make her doilies, often working with very fine materials and small needles. While learning to do that, I learned knitting as well just to understand the process. The realization that knitted and crocheted materials are essentially just one great big knot was kind of enlightening. I have to say, though, I took to crochet more than knitting. My fingers just like it more and it's easier for me to figure out how to go back and undo a mistake than it is with knitted materials.
My mother taught me to knit when I was very young; I made my first sweater when I was ten years old. I never realized knitting was actually 5,000 years old! And I never heard of nalbinding. Now I want to learn that! And now, whenever it starts to get cold, I still want to knit something -- that's been 65 years 🙂
Thanks so much for your kind comment and sharing your relationship with knitting! We're not sure how old knitting is, but it's pretty cool to see that we do have such old archaeological evidence of it.
I had a huge reaction to seeing the little sock from Egypt! I love making socks, and seeing artifacts from somewhere long ago and far away that are so recognizable is very moving! Also seems miraculous that fibers can last long enough for us to have these objects now!
Nalbinding and crochet is what my people have done for as long as our ancestral memory. I have my great great great grandmothers 4 ivory crochet hooks and one made of bone as well as an ivory crochet hook that also is a needle minder and a necklace with the gypsy fist and covered in the evil eye 🧿. It has been passed down from eldest daughter for generations and I have used it to weave garments with love like my ancestors before me ❤😌
What a wonderful video! Thank you so much for creating it! I look forward to exploring the rest of your channel. Textile history and art is one of my favourite topics, it is SO diverse and I am constantly falling in love with more and more of it. My latest hiperfixation has been crochet xD
Thanks so much for your kind note! It's very much appreciated. We've been going down wonderful rabbit holes researching the textile arts. Hope you're enjoying your crocheting endeavors!
Your flyers are WW1 flyers. Knitting esp socks was a big part of the WW1 war effort. By the 1940’s, knitting socks was not so necessary as the industries were more developed.
What a very informative video, loved it. Can I make just one suggestion? You are reading very fast like you are making a school presentation - I missed a lot of what you said, because it was being read out quickly. You have a lovely voice, varying your pace, emphasising different words, giving pauses and expression will really raise your game. I am greatly looking forward to more of your work. Thank you
Hi there! Thanks for your feedback. As I work on my oration, feel free to lower the playback speed in the video controls. Some viewers speed it up as I speak to slow for them, while others might benefit from slowing down the speed so they can take in the content better. Hope this helps in the meantime!
The Tudor cap was a compulsory garment designed to help the wool industry. They looked so insecure and must have easily blown off - why so many survive!!!
It ancient, our beginning, employment or labor job, women always knew to cloth their selves , before knowing how to garden. It definitely, questionable , if he had taught her the law if food, but for certain , the law of clothing , was always women knowledge or known aka own. It part of artifact # she is a designer of life. ❤
Depends on what we mean by knitting. Knitted fabrics do appear to date back to at least the bronze age, but there are many ways to create a knitted fabric. The textiles we have found appear to be achieved using a needle and a technique more similar to nalbinding. True knitting, with two needles and never threading the working yarn end through a knot, dates from early-medieval Christian Egypt.
Nålbinding, pronounced ‘NOHL-bin-ding. The å is a different letter in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, found in the alphabet after the letter z. Accuracy is important!
Fiber arts are also behind modern computers! The punch cards early computers used were based off of the cards used in tablet weaving! Even nowadays knit stitches can be compared to the 1s and 0s of the computer binary language, meaning someone could knit the entirety of the game DOOM in binary. Another fun fact, in some parts of the world even now knitting is considered men's work, and there were medieval knitting guilds for knights! Thank you for this video, I had no idea that ancient Egypt was such a font of knitting!
Thanks for your note, especially about the entangled history of computers and fiber arts. That's super fascinating and I'm excited to explore further. You're absolutely right that the gender roles varied in the fiber arts through geographies and time.
Except punch cards have no connection to tablet weaving. Tablets only have holes in their corners, however many they have. Rather, punch cards are more closely related to the cards used in Jacquard machines for controlling looms.
Well, that quickly dissolved my misconception that knitting was a modern invention less than 400 years old, before which there was only weaving. I also learned a new word "nalbinding" which seems to be a kind of proto-knitting that has been around for thousands of years. Was there an overlap with basketry and thatching, which involve stiff fibres? Boat-making and house-building used to depend a lot on basket-making techniques. Were those women's work too?
Thanks so much for your kind comment and curiosity! We're not sure of relationship between nalbinding and knitting. We say their "friends" as we sometimes find archaeological examples of both practices in the same area and there are theories that they could be linked more closely. I would need to look into the other crafts you mentioned, as well as possible gender roles, but I love your curiosity and now I'm curious too :)
Interesting high-level speedrun through the history of knitting, but can we please stop conflating nalbinding and knitting? The two are separate, distinct crafts, and while knitting may have eventually come out of nalbinding, there's no way for us to know for sure. Treating the two as interchangeable does real disservice to the hard work of textile archaeologists trying to piece together the history of both activities, as well as misleading people.
There's a fascinating video you might enjoy - it's on UA-cam, so easy to access - "Shetland knitters really did knit 200 stitches a minute!" Thecwoman who put it together has actual film footage from the very early 1900s showing just how fast women in some cultures could knit, and she does an excellent analysis of knitting techniques used back when it was a major part of the economy in the Shetland Islands.
There's so much more to it! Variation of color work yokes use 2-3 strands making super warm and identifiable garment. How yarn is spun and any other fibers added changes strength durability. Personally have gone down alpaca rabbit hole.
@@smitinathan OOoo it is!! Getting local raw fleeces of show quality and seeing the variation in same animal year to year, blending the natural colors or plying colors together to get really interesting tweedy colors, needle felting the second quality bits... still haven't wet felted the good fleece on wool bat to make jacket as cats attack fleece. Since can't afford the cool yarns, am making it myself, since can't deal with chemicals to dye am enjoying the multitude of natural alpaca colors.
Love it! There are more and more archaeological studies coming out of reconstructing ancient colors and sources used to dye things. Wishing your well in your work!
VERY interesting! Perhaps I misunderstood, but I felt the remark about the US and England was a bit overstated. Many pre-1940s US/English people HAD to knit in order to have socks, stockings, etc. Even those who could afford to buy them from professional knitters (yes, there were incredibly fast production-knitters) or once the sock-making machines had been invented were encouraged to make them for the sake of thrift. The American Frugal Housewife (1838) encourages knitting to avoid the sin of idleness, and the English novel Ministering Children (1854) discusses children making new socks and darning old ones to give to the poor who suffered from chillblains in the winter months. The American Civil War refugee Kate Stone (Brokenburn: The Journal of Kate Stone) discusses her mother being able to knit a sock a day, and knitting books and directions were published in the early 19th century. There are Civil War-era directions for socks-for-soldiers, and of course women in WWI produced lots of knitted items. Knitting certainly wasn't a post-WWII phenomenon.
Thanks so much for your kind comment and fair critique. You're right, knitting was popular pre-WWII and I appreciated the sources you mentioned. We interpreted one our of sources (www.vam.ac.uk/articles/1940s-knitting-patterns) as suggesting that the popularity of knitting increased even more during the WWII era. This might come down to a difference in interpretation so I really appreciate your perspective and the sources you mentioned :)
It's so weird how many people think of these ancient crafts. They are so used to cheap manufactured goods, they often don't consider how key these crafts have been to women specifically and culture.
Textile production was a long history and it's really amazing when we can find preserved archaeological examples shedding like on the antiquity of some of these practices.
My daughter learned to knit in sixth grade, but I can't. It is literally the only needle art that I haven't succeeded at. The last time I tried it, I picked up my daughter's work and started "knitting." After my second stitch, she asked me, "what are you doing?" "Knitting!" "No, you aren't." I did succeed in making a pair of mittens with cabled cuffs when I was around 12, and they looked fine because whatever I'm doing wrong, I'm consistent...but I don't get it. My mother was a prodigious knitter, my sisters had no problem. I quit trying. I can crochet, tat, embroider, smock, quilt, upholster, sew literally anything including stage props and Mardi Gras costumes, tailor suits... My daughter thinks it's hilarious.
I feel this so much on different levels. There are some things that my family can do so well that completely evade me, no matter how hard I try. I have a toddler so I'm seeing my future through your post :)
What a great video! I just came across your channel (probably it popped up because i've been obsessively watching all things crochet recently), and it's really great to see how knitting has progressed through the centuries. Is crochet as old? I prefer crochet myself just because I have arthritis and find it easier to move my hands a bit less, but I might try knitting too. I'm quite obsessed with historic clothing, mainly because I also see in them our future, beyond horrible polluting throwaway clothing of modern day capitalism, and a way to connect back to and reimagine our cultural heritage. Thanks :)
I'm surprised you didn't mention the wool dogs that were bred for their fur for making textiles by the Pacific Northwest indigenous peoples. Unfortunately the breed went extinct after settlers arrived with sheep. I believe there's at least one surviving wool blanket at the UBC Museum of Anthropology that was made from wool dog fibres.
This video is very interesting, however, I am finding the high frequency of your vocal fry quite distracting. Because you typically end each sentence in vocal fry, I find myself actually listening for it, rather than listening to what you are saying. Just a thought if you want to continue to make videos, and I think you should, because your subject matter and presentation are otherwise excellent.
Omg sounds like a you problem because her vocal fry was great to me…just cuz your brain is not smart enough to handle a higher (better) frequency of talking doesn’t mean we have to stoop to your level to talk to you like a baby.
Sure! C.E. stands for "Common Era", which mirrors the time period A.D. (Anno Domini), and include year 1 onwards. Another archaeologist made an excellent video on these terms and how they are used: ua-cam.com/video/s6Lv3KpphVg/v-deo.htmlsi=HU30V9-xUn-ar3_2
I actually wrote and recited an oral report on the history of crochet to my mom for homeschool. This video has many of the key points that I found in my research.
One of the socks found in Egypt, said to be 3,500 years old, has recently been determined to be two needle knitting. Textile arts have been sophisticated since the beginning. Especially with textiles, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, because textiles don't survive well.
Very cool! If you could link any source mentioning that recent discovery, we would appreciate it. Yes, it's hard that we don't know more about textiles given that they usually don't preserve well.
Your picture of nålbinding looks more like hakking, which is done whith one long stick whith a a hook, like a crothets needle. Theese are two very different techniques. Personally I would use nålbinding to repair a hole in something, but I can see that it is possible to make whole pieces by nålbinding
I have to say, as a native English speaker who's only spoken to other natives about it, I've primarily heard it called nalbinding. It makes as much sense as calling crochet a french word rather than just calling it hook in English.
Pashmina and cashmere are not the same. Pashmina is of higher quality, made from the winter undercoat of the pashm goat. That’s why real pashmina is so expensive. They are not interchangeable terms. You can call pashmina a kind of cashmere, but not all cashmere is pashmina.
New to this channel, i very much liked the few vids i've seen till now. Will watch more! Got a question too. I always thought Pashmina and Kashmir are technically not the same wool/fabric? This is what i've been told about it. While all pashmina is kashmir, not al kashmir is pashmina. Kashmir is a fabric made from the underwool of different species of himalayan mountain goats that live above 4000 meters above sea level. Pashmina exclusively uses the undercoat of one specific species of himalayan mountain goat, Capra hircus. Kashmir has a fibre thickness of 15-19 micron, while pashmina has a fibre thickness of 10-15 micron. Pashmina can only be hand spun, because the fibres are so delicate. Pashmina cloth is lighter, warmer and softer compared to kashmir. While both are expensive, true pashmina is even more expensive because the wool used is more rare and it must be hand spun, which is time consuming. It's also kinda rare, and very often regular kashmir is labeled pashmina and sold for a premium. Anyway, love your channel! Keep up the good work.❤
Thanks for the kind note and kindly posed question! You're right, "While all pashmina is cashmere, not all cashmere is pashmina". I made a mistake in that explaining that part and I'm noting it in the description and blog post. Would you mind if I linked to your comment as I feel that you explained the difference quite well?
@@smitinathan thanks for the kind reply. I was a bit worried i worded things too blunt. More so because i wasn't even 100% sure if my comment made any sense. It's something i've heard a long time ago, and sometimes definitions change over time. Thanks for confirming the info i learned then is still valid today. And yes, of course you can link my comment.
Of course! I appreciate comments, questions, and criticism, as long as they are respectfully posed, as you did@@dasja9966. I made a note in the description and tagged you! Thanks again!
Very well done! In addition, it is thought that knitting came into being thanks to nomads as it was far too difficult to carry a weaving loom with them on the backs of camels. Nomads discovered that two sticks and some string could efficiently produce fabric AND a garment at the same time! ;)
I was curious, when you showed the image of the old hat, if the original dye was madder, because of the colour, and it was very cool to see that it was! It's my favourite natural dye (and the R. tinctorum variety is my favourite plant!). I've knit with madder dyed wool yarn a few times, although I haven't done the dyeing process myself yet (that's something I'll probably do at some point, though). It makes so many really lovely colours, from bright reds, to soft pinks, to sunset oranges. I do find, though, that the bright red madder-dyed yarn would transfer a bit of dye onto my hands while I knit with it, which would look a bit suspicious in my university classes once I put the knitting away.
Wow! Thanks so much for sharing your experience with using madder-dyed-yarns. That's fascinating to know about how some of the dye might transfer. I do understand being cautious about going out with dye on your hands ;)
This is super interesting! Right now I’m researching sprang, a similar kind of woven textile to knitting, as was used in ancient Greece for an experimental archaeological project. The history of knitting is super interesting! It makes me want to recreate some of the knitted items in this video!
5:30 My nan used to knit woolly caps for Royal Marine commandos during the Second World War: the British government, via the local Women's Institutes, would supply green and black yarn for the purpose. When wool for general purchase was short there was more home production, much as there had been in the pre-industrial era. My mum, then a young girl, along with her friends, used to scavenge scraps of sheep's wool off the hedges and the wire fences of the fields around where they lived, putting it all into a communal pile. One of the older ladies in their village knew how to wash and card it before spinning it into yarn, which everyone in the village could then use to darn socks and generally keep worn clothing usable.
@@smitinathanThank you for introducing the subject here. I have an ongoing interest in history and archaeology yet somehow the antiquity of the technology of knitting had passed me by. My mum was an avid knitter and even managed to teach me the basics when I was six years old, but I gave it up the very same year once I'd clumsily knitted a green and white Celtic scarf for my Action Man!
I really enjoyed this video as I've always been most interested in how people lived their day to day lives in the stone, bronze, and iron ages. The food they ate, the houses they lived in and the clothes/textiles they used and made for everyday life. I'd like to see you do more on these. Thanks for the information. New sub.
Thanks so much about your kind note! My favorite part of my research is learning about the everyday lives of people in the past so I really appreciate your comment :)
I respect your background and training as an archaeologist, however, I come from a long line of knitters that goes back to the 1800s and prior to that the only thing we did was lace making. And one of my sisters did an extensive check on knitting prior to that time and anywhere we’ve been in great Britain especially nobody could confirm that it was ever done prior to the 1800s. And I don’t think chain mail accounts. It would be really cool if there was evidence of actual knitting, but I tend to doubt it.
The oldest known knitter's guild was established in Paris in the mid 1200s, which means there was enough economic activity around the craft in that country at that time to justify having a formal apprenticeship system and a guild to regulate the work being produced. And Queen Elizabeth I famously passed sumptuary laws requiring her subjects to wear caps knitted in England and made of English wool, among other items knitted in the country. England was also a major exporter of knitted items, mostly stockings and hats, in the 1500s.
Knitting is indeed only "ancient" if you count Nalbinding as a kind of knitting (it is sometimes called "single needle knitting"), but knitting on 2 or more needles is also much older than 1800s. Evidence for knitting (both representations in art and extant objects) goes into the Medieval period, at least 11th century, and we have stocking frame knitting machines invented in 1589. Crochet is the "young" fiber art that is more like 1800s.
This was so interesting to learn about the history of knitting and nalbinding in less than 7 minutes. It got me inspired. Also I noted in one part of your video of soldiers knitting that one of them was using a knitting loom. And I thought knitting looms were a current thing.
Thanks so much! While we didn't get to cover everything on both topics, we hope it inspired folx to looking into it more. I have to check about the knitting loom, but I think it's a few hundred years old.
This video makes me so happy. Thank you for all your research and insight! Manufacturing and craftsmanship history is so important but I feel like it's been largely neglected. At least or especially when it comes to what is taught in classes and in mainstream media. But it's SO important for truly understanding our past and building our future. Thank you thank you thank you for this! You seriously just hands down rock 👏👏👏
Thank you so much for this kind comment. I really appreciate it. My PhD adviser loves the fiber arts, especially weaving, and is a big proponent of communities of practice (which relates to craft history quite well). While I graduated years ago, her enthusiasm clearly left an impression on me. Also, my team was super excited about this topic too and we had a ton of fun creating this video :)
As a knitter I love knowing more about the activity I enjoy so much. Thanks for all your hard work. My only comment is slow down talking. What's the rush
Thanks for the note! I'm glad you enjoyed the video. We're currently gauging the pacing of our videos, and your feedback has been noted. In the meantime, UA-cam has a playback control where you can slow the video down, thus, the speaking speed. Hope this helps!
Thank you❤❤ Over the past year and a half, my community service group has been spreading the love and skills of needles, hooks & yarn to raise awareness of mental health issues. Specifically, we have focused on being social and learning a new skill to combat the isolation of these last few years. Since I am a bit of an 'Armchair Anthropologist'...I just loved this video!🤓
WHATTT I never knew nalbinding is a thing!! also I have a theory of where all our missing socks go, higher lifeforms are taking them from us to study humankind much like what you talk about here LOL your videos are FIRE!!
Several years ago, I saw a little sock in the British Museum in London from Roman times. I found it to be one of the most meaningful exhibits in the whole museum. It just connected me, a knitter, to all the knitters over the centuries knitting for their families. And it was a single sock :)
Thank you for sharing this story. It warmed my heart :)
It was naalbound, not knitted.
Naalbinding is the precursor to both knitting and crochet.
I understand !!! Isn't that amazing !
Nice! I hate knitting I just realised it yesterday...I was crocheting and though no I should knit it instead it will be a nicer drape five rows later I realised I hate knitting. 😂
@@Padraigp...same here.. I preferred knitting when young... but then, in my 30's I began crocheting, is so easy and fast, that is my favorite now..
Elizabeth Wayland Barber has written a wonderful book, "Women's Work - the First 20,000 years" if you are looking for a good read about fiber arts through the ages.
Thanks so much for that kind suggestion. I'm adding it to my TBR!
I love that book!
@@smitinathan She's an archaeologist. She also wrote the Mummies of Urumchi and with her husband wrote When they severed the earth from the sky.
I read this book and I agree!
I added it to my order. Thank you.
I learned to knit from my mom. She knitted colored patterns and I knitted textured patterns. I remember wearing her ski sweaters to school in Alaska. Definitely an art form.
I'm working on a large-scale, long-form DND world for multiple campaigns and little videos like this have been so wonderfully helpful in building out cultures and settings. Thank you for putting this together.
Wow! This is a huge compliment and such a cool application of some of our content. Thank you for sharing!
@smitinathan thank YOU, Doctor - and your team - for putting in the work to create such wonderful and accessible content.
There's a fascinating video you might enjoy - it's on UA-cam, so easy to access - "Shetland knitters really did knit 200 stitches a minute!" Thecwoman who put it together has actual film footage from the very early 1900s showing just how fast women in some cultures could knit, and she does an excellent analysis of knitting techniques used back when it was a major part of the economy in the Shetland Islands.
@catic15 I am going to track it down, thank you for the recommendation! I really appreciate it.
Fantasy worldbuilding is exactly what got me so interested in history and religion so it's nice to see someone else with a similar experience
This is a lovely video. I learned to knit (and crochet, tat, etc) literally at my grandmother's knee, back in the 1960s and 70s. I've long been fascinated with the connections between fiber arts, human development, and women's rights. The meaning of the word "spinster", for me, has gradually changed from "older woman who never married, probably grouchy" to "a woman who was able to support herself (through spinning or other fiber arts?) and never submitted to marriage".
This was the first I've seen of your videos. I'm now subscribed and looking forward to watching more. Nice work!
P.S. I'd love to see a video on the repercussions that the development of the spinning wheel had on societies - somewhat suddenly, people (primarily women) could produce thread at several times the rate they could before. What were the societal changes that this enabled? Perhaps you have already made something similar, and so now I'm off to watch more of your videos.
Thanks so much for your kind note. From my research, there are a lot of interesting studies and examples of how the fiber arts have been entangled with human development and women's rights from societies around the world. My PhD adviser was a huge fan of weaving and she's considered one of the founders of feminist archaeology so I learned a lot about that history through her.
Also, thanks for sharing the history behind the term, "spinster". I already went down a rabbit hole looking further into it :)
Your suggestion about spinning wheels has been noted and it's appreciated! Thanks for checking out our other videos :)
@@smitinathan Rabbit holes are sometimes very interesting!
Absolutely@@anniejuan1817!
@@smitinathanI recently got into crochet, and became interested in vintage/ antique patterns. The earliest printed patterns are pretty late (1840's) when compared to the advent of printing, and I feel it's entirely down to fibrecrafting having been 'women's work' and not as high class as woven fabrics. Patterns for and methods of crochet/ knitting would have been learned in person from older women, and commited to memory. It seems to have taken the arrival of a true middle-class to have become a relevant topic to provide to women who were wealthy and literate enough to consume printed media targeted at them.
Actually, it was WW l that had the biggest campaign for knitted socks. Posters saying “Our boys need Sox!” were everywhere. Trench warfare and the dreaded trench foot necessitated a constant supply of dry, warm socks. The American Red Cross bought thousands of circular sock knitting machines - hand cranked knitting machines that even non-knitters could be taught to use and crank out several pairs of socks in a single day. Socks were knitted in schools by both boys and girls. Wounded soldiers were taught to knit, and joined in the effort. WW ll saw the Red Cross collecting knitted items, too, but the height of sock knitting for soldiers was WW l. These days, the circular sock machines (CSMs) are still being made - I have owned five different ones, but now have only three. There is a national organization for people with these machines, and many gatherings across the US and Canada that we refer to as crank-ins. There are many Facebook groups and UA-cam channels devoted to this hobby.
Thanks for sharing! While we highlighted WWII, I appreciate your sharing more about the knitting campaigns for WWI.
Also, those machines were vital because so many knit objects had to be foxed or ripped out and started again due to size issues. People could knit and wanted to help but didnt know how to gauge to a pattern.
I'm curious about the sock machines... do they just make tube socks or can you create the heels for the socks?
This was interesting, thanks!🙂
@kendalbrenneman A circular sock machine can be used to turn a heel! There are multiple techniques for this and lots of tutorials here on UA-cam. 😊
It's amazing how yarn (spinning a yarn - telling stories) is the central glue for all of humanity
Long cold winters where you need something to do can focus the mind.
I still can't figure out how they figured it out. What gave them the idea to spin wool in enough quantity to make a garment, and how did they find how to make stitches that turn into fabric? How many frustrated attempts and for how long did they mess around with it? I remember as a kid, learning to knit. I was already being taught how, and had examples all around me of what could be accomplished as I learned. And how long it took me to be able to untangle yarn and get it neatly into balls. How many time I messed it up, got frustrated and quit. Seriously, making fibers into yarn, and yarn into knit or woven fabric is a BIG leap.
I hear you! How people figured things out is something that I often ponder in my archaeological work. That 'how" is honestly is a major undercurrent in a lot of archaeological work too. Your note exudes a lot of empathy when it comes to the work that innovation and learning require and it's really exciting when we have archaeological evidence that gives us hints as to what that could have looked like in the past.
@argusflebeit1165 -- I *hear* you too! I have long wondered how ancient craft workers figured out the many, non-intuitive steps that one must make in order to plant, harvest, treat and spin linen from the flax plant. The Chinese people simply credited a Goddess for inventing silk production -- so they knew enough to thank a deity for sericulture! Thank you, Doctor S., for an enthralling video!
Maybe it was derived from rope-making or net making, and just people fiddling around with twine to see what sort of knots they could come up with.@@smitinathan
I often think the same about the food we eat. I mean, who was the first person who looked at an artichoke and decided only the heart or the inside of the leaves was edible? Did they learn by trial and error? 🤢 Or oysters (which I love)? I guess if you get hungry enough, anything starts to look like food! 😆
The spinning of enough wool isn't a puzzle - they were already spinning large amounts of wool and other fibres for weaving (which is a lot older than knitting), and as mentioned in replies, knotting string and cord for fishing nets and traps have a very long history (palaeolithic?). Cords or reeds were also plaited together in long lengths and then sewn into a tight spiral to make mats and baskets (a technique still used today), which might have been the inspiration for both nalbinding and crochet. The jump to knitting is probably via netting, I would think, since that too involves multiple loops of cord suspended from a stick. As for how they managed to come up with the ideas...with no internet to distract them, our ancestors made a lot better use of their free time than we do!
I have been knitting since I was six years old, when my mother taught me, and crocheting since I was ten, when I was taught by a neighbour. I'm now 67, and I have lost count of the number of garments and blankets I've knitted and crocheted over the years. They are both wonderful skills to have. I had no idea knitting was so old! Thank you for this wonderful video.
Wow! That's amazing! Thanks for sharing!
For those who don’t knit or nalbind, knitting has an advantage in that you can knit off one continuous strand of yarn, while in nalbinding, you can only work with a strand that isn’t too cumbersome to pull through the entire work. This means that you have fewer joins in your work that need to be secured. I also suspect that knitting might have been faster since you’re only throwing or picking one tiny bit of yarn over the needle. Any nalbinders out there who agree or disagree? Would be interested to hear!
Knitting has more give/stretch than nalbinding. This makes it easier to make more than hats, socks, and mittens. Nalbinding was often felted to add to the warmth.
Thanks for this comment! I'm so happy to see nalbinders chime in! :)
In pre-history the earliest form of nalbinding was made with plant fibers. The 'yarn' was made (twined) while it was in the needle. So there was no need for a long strand of yarn and there were no joins.
But you're right: knitting is faster. I know because I do both techniques.
I am not very familiar with nalbinding, but the description of it on the video reminds me of crochet. Is it similar to crochet, or is it the same thing?
@@samhg3658 it’s sort of like crochet in that you are working into previously made stitches that don’t unravel, but it’s more like sewing than crochet
When at school only wars and kings (and men of course) were discussed in history I felt that this was boring and repetitive, but the history of everyday life and related inventions I find fascinating. Thank you for this very interesting topic.
Thank you for your kind note! Our team loves analyzing the archaeological record in the context of everyday life so we're thrilled you enjoy such topics too :)
As a knitter, I'm so happy to have found this video! I have always felt the history when i knit and i love that i know more now!! Thank you!
Thanks so much for your kind comment! We really appreciated it!
I agree. When I knit, I feel connected to the generations of knitters back through the thousands of years that it has been an activity. Interestingly, I’m an avid quilter, and although there’s a gigantic international quilt community, quilting doesn’t seem to give me that connection to the past. Quilting also has been going on for centuries; but there’s something so organic about looping a piece of yarn into itself that just feels ancient and connected through time and peoples.
I am literally watching this while knitting a sweater.
Love that! I hope your sweater is coming along nicely.
So cool! I am knitting a sock :) 😅
I am knitting a baby sweater, my third this winter. Baby sweaters are quick and I am learning new techniques as I go. ❤😊
Love this @@CasualKnitter!
So cool@@ccpperrett7522!
What beautiful patterns, my little copycat heart is beating really fast now! ❤
Please let me know if you get inspired and happen to recreate anything ☺ We would love to see!!
Loved this video… all girls were taught to knit in uk schools when I was child, I was given knitting lessons by an elderly lady in our Road at the age of 5 I’m still knitting, making his and hers socks for my son and his girlfriend at the moment . I love that so many people have taken it up recently.
Thanks so much for your kind note and comment! This is so fascinating and I appreciate you sharing!
I was taught in the UK as a child by a neighbor too. It became unpopular when feminism hit town. I'm the only one in my US neighborhood to knit as crocheting is more popular. I miss the magazines being full of knitting patterns and being able to share patterns with others. I saw a historical photo of Scottish women waiting for the men to come in with their catch of fish. They were all stood on the docks knitting.
@violette4841 thanks for sharing these memories :)
Not as commonly practiced in my country being tropical and all (the grannies crochet instead) but the concept of turning one long strand into an object is indeed quite fascinating.
Absolutely! Love your mention of, " the concept of turning one long strand into an object is indeed quite fascinating."
Your content and delivery is awesome! You have reminded me why I love anthropology and archeology. Thank you
Thanks so much for this kind comment. I really appreciate it ☺️
Nalbinding may even predate spinning and weaving because it uses short pieces of yarn that can be made by hand. All you need is a dead sheep and you can make a bone needle and short lengths of yarn.
It doesn't even have to be dead.
Wild sheep shed their winter fur in the spring. All you have to do is collect it.
Living sheep can give you wool but a dead one gives you everything you need. It would be very difficult to make a bone needle from a living one and chances are early humans started crafting with leftover parts after eating the meat.@@lakrids-pibe
Or even just some nettles
For me, unfortunately COVID-19 brought an end to knitting (among many other things), as I got small fiber neuropathy caused by the virus. Almost four years later, I've still only made just a very, very minor recovery. Wear a respirator, it's a small price to pay for being able to keep your health, hobbies and (full) working capability.
I'm so sorry to hear that. Wishing you well on your recovery journey.
Nålbindning, or "needle binding" as it is in English, is far more akin to netting, sewing and even crochet over knitting. It's surprisingly fast too, as long as you are working with pure animal fibre (and can thus spit-splice join on new length) as one row in most nålbindning techniques is equivilant of 3 - 7 rows of knitting/crochet, and also has the big plus of being very difficult to unravel due to each stitch being literally knotted onto the surrounding fabric. Animal fibre such as wool also has the enormous plus of being able to felt, which means you can create thick and firm fabric where even if you get holes or wear thru (which is much rarer anyway by virtue of the sort of method it is) it simply will not unravel and is very easy to fix if it does or if a hole is made. I am personally very experienced in nålbindning, netmaking, macramè, tatting, knitting, sewing-especially in the arena of historical recreations and methods-and although it is my most recently acquired skill my crochet is coming along too (I'm only just recently learning anything more complicated than a chain stitch in the last 6 months or so, but I have been doing everything else for over a decade, having been self taught initially, and now I work as a designer and teacher myself!), so it's reall easy to see how they all link together!
Indeed, the easiest coptic stitch of nålebindning is really just like the sewn "blanket stitch", and whilst the learning curve is a bit higher in nålebindning due to tension being a critical aspect you need to master (especially so in coptic stitch or stitches with minimal interlaced loops such as U/O), as well as the dearth of written instructions and no agreed upon pattern system (similar to tatting, actually!), but it's still very accessible as you really only need woolen yarn and a blunt darning needle (or a flat old-fashioned bodkin needle, which is what I started with). Nålbindning is luckily becoming more and more popular in recent years too, and as such books, videos and materials are far more accessible now than ever before!
As an addendum it always surprises me how the first knitting we have clear evidence of was all in the round but it makes sense if you think about it as tubes are more "human shaped" than smallish, flat pieces.
Lastly, if anyone is interested in all this stuff and hands-on experimental archeology/history/reinactments and similar, a brilliant creator on youtube is Sally Pointer! Her videos are clear and accessible and I really enjoy her content, and it's helped me understand so much about early fibre arts and creation.
Thanks so much for your detailed comment and fellow UA-camr suggestion! I will check out Sally!
My grandpa, a child at the time of WWII, learned how to knit. He's 6'3 and was a heavy duty Mechanic in his day, but he could knit his own socks.
Thank you so much for sharing this bit about your grandpa ☺️
You know, stuff like this just makes me so happy. The fact that people in the past were knitting the same things I am now, in the present, it just makes me happy. Like, we’re all connected through textiles, huh?
Love this comment! I totally hear you :)
I loved that Diana Gabaldon wrote Jamie to be a knitter. he was aghast when Claire couldn't knit, and I loved that!
Thanks for sharing that!! That’s such a fascinating connection between knitting and Outlander :)
Wasn’t that funny? And then Ian chimes in….😂🤣
England wasn't the only country involved in World War 2. So was Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. When you said England, I think you meant to say the UK (the United Kingdom). The UK is a Union of 3 countries (Scotland, Wales, and England) plus one province, Northern Ireland. Scotland, Wales, and England make up the island land mass of Great Britain. When you said "the English Government" you should have said "the British Government". There was no English Govrenment during World War 2, nor is there an English Government now. You'll have pissed off your Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish viewers with these mistakes and ignorance.
I recommend a book, "No Idle Hands," by Anne L. Macdonald. Subtitled "The Social History of American Knitting," it brings to light more about the role of knitting. It goes beyond the picture many have of maidens knitting together in their parlors as leisure crafts. Knitting was a vital part of keeping families clothed and assisting the domestic war efforts. A great read for history afficionados and knitting buffs.
Thank you for the recommendation! Adding to my TBR now :)
Thank you for this. There is a paucity of knitting history out there, in spite of the craft's significant influence on culture, trade, and economics. As a knitter who savors my connection to the past with every stitch, I am always on the hunt for new sources. Other than Richard Rutt's A History of Hand Knitting, they are few and far between in English (though there are some wonderful recent sources from Scandinavia and the Baltic States that have been translated to English). I would love to see more from you about the history of textiles - they are too often overlooked. Grateful to have found your channel, and I look forward to seeing what other topics you explore. P.S., I appreciate that you made your sources available, but it would be nice to see the links posted directly in the description box.
Thank you for your kind note and suggestion! It's definitely noted.
“may have directly influenced the vikings’ ability to expand their influence across the North Atlantic…” wasn’t it the women who spun and wove the cloth for the sails of the ships?
We use "may" because the research on many facets of influence is still ongoing. Women were definitely important and influential in Viking society. Here's the secondary source we mentioned (which includes to links to the primary sources we looked at): www.scientificamerican.com/article/viking-textiles-show-women-had-tremendous-power/
@@smitinathan thanks!
No problem!
I learned to crochet a while back because I was fascinated while watching my grandmother make her doilies, often working with very fine materials and small needles. While learning to do that, I learned knitting as well just to understand the process. The realization that knitted and crocheted materials are essentially just one great big knot was kind of enlightening. I have to say, though, I took to crochet more than knitting. My fingers just like it more and it's easier for me to figure out how to go back and undo a mistake than it is with knitted materials.
Thanks so much for sharing. I know many folx who also prefer crocheting.
Nalbinding almost feels like a predecessor to crochet
Nalbinding appears to be older than crocheting; however, I am still looking into the archaeological record surrounding crocheting.
A bite-sized deep dive into the history of knitting? Yes, please! This was a treat, and you have a new subscriber. :)
Thanks so much for your kind note! It means a lot!
What an amazing video, Smiti!👏 I really enjoyed it and learned a few new things.
Thanks so much Yulia! I really appreciate it 😊
My mother taught me to knit when I was very young; I made my first sweater when I was ten years old. I never realized knitting was actually 5,000 years old! And I never heard of nalbinding. Now I want to learn that! And now, whenever it starts to get cold, I still want to knit something -- that's been 65 years 🙂
Thanks so much for your kind comment and sharing your relationship with knitting! We're not sure how old knitting is, but it's pretty cool to see that we do have such old archaeological evidence of it.
I'm a crochetter but I'm trying to learn knitting now.
Good luck! You got this!
I've been knitting for years but tonight I learnt to single crochet from you tube good luck with your knitting
Me too and I hate knitting why do the needles not have hooks at the ends its impossible!!!😂 hate it so much!
You can do it!
new archaeology youtuber to binge!! really impressive work on this, perfect to listen to while knitting:)
Thanks so much! I hope your knitting project is coming along nicely :)
I had a huge reaction to seeing the little sock from Egypt! I love making socks, and seeing artifacts from somewhere long ago and far away that are so recognizable is very moving! Also seems miraculous that fibers can last long enough for us to have these objects now!
That sock was so amazing to see. It was an incredible find as fibers tend to decompose quite easily making such findings a bit rare.
@@smitinathan totally! I frankly didn't even know it was possible for fibers to last so long
Nalbinding and crochet is what my people have done for as long as our ancestral memory. I have my great great great grandmothers 4 ivory crochet hooks and one made of bone as well as an ivory crochet hook that also is a needle minder and a necklace with the gypsy fist and covered in the evil eye 🧿. It has been passed down from eldest daughter for generations and I have used it to weave garments with love like my ancestors before me ❤😌
Thank you so much for sharing! I would love to do a future video on fiber arts tools found in the archaeological record. This is inspiring to read :)
What a wonderful video! Thank you so much for creating it! I look forward to exploring the rest of your channel. Textile history and art is one of my favourite topics, it is SO diverse and I am constantly falling in love with more and more of it. My latest hiperfixation has been crochet xD
Thanks so much for your kind note! It's very much appreciated. We've been going down wonderful rabbit holes researching the textile arts. Hope you're enjoying your crocheting endeavors!
Wonderful, fascinating, surprisingly moving video (that lil sock) @smitinathan 🥰 🧦ty
Awww! Thank you!
Your flyers are WW1 flyers. Knitting esp socks was a big part of the WW1 war effort.
By the 1940’s, knitting socks was not so necessary as the industries were more developed.
What a very informative video, loved it. Can I make just one suggestion? You are reading very fast like you are making a school presentation - I missed a lot of what you said, because it was being read out quickly. You have a lovely voice, varying your pace, emphasising different words, giving pauses and expression will really raise your game. I am greatly looking forward to more of your work. Thank you
Hi there! Thanks for your feedback. As I work on my oration, feel free to lower the playback speed in the video controls. Some viewers speed it up as I speak to slow for them, while others might benefit from slowing down the speed so they can take in the content better. Hope this helps in the meantime!
Yes please i agree. Def subscribing though. I want my 8yr g.daugter to look and listen to the video too but it is very fast.thank you.
The Tudor cap was a compulsory garment designed to help the wool industry. They looked so insecure and must have easily blown off - why so many survive!!!
It ancient, our beginning, employment or labor job, women always knew to cloth their selves , before knowing how to garden. It definitely, questionable , if he had taught her the law if food, but for certain , the law of clothing , was always women knowledge or known aka own. It part of artifact # she is a designer of life. ❤
Depends on what we mean by knitting. Knitted fabrics do appear to date back to at least the bronze age, but there are many ways to create a knitted fabric. The textiles we have found appear to be achieved using a needle and a technique more similar to nalbinding. True knitting, with two needles and never threading the working yarn end through a knot, dates from early-medieval Christian Egypt.
Mi pasión el tejido a crochet ganchillo 😍🌞😁
¡Excelente!
Nålbinding, pronounced ‘NOHL-bin-ding. The å is a different letter in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, found in the alphabet after the letter z. Accuracy is important!
Thanks for sharing!
Fiber arts are also behind modern computers! The punch cards early computers used were based off of the cards used in tablet weaving! Even nowadays knit stitches can be compared to the 1s and 0s of the computer binary language, meaning someone could knit the entirety of the game DOOM in binary. Another fun fact, in some parts of the world even now knitting is considered men's work, and there were medieval knitting guilds for knights! Thank you for this video, I had no idea that ancient Egypt was such a font of knitting!
Thanks for your note, especially about the entangled history of computers and fiber arts. That's super fascinating and I'm excited to explore further. You're absolutely right that the gender roles varied in the fiber arts through geographies and time.
Except punch cards have no connection to tablet weaving. Tablets only have holes in their corners, however many they have. Rather, punch cards are more closely related to the cards used in Jacquard machines for controlling looms.
@@hollyingraham3980 Oh, how do I keep forgetting that? Thank you for the correction!
Well, that quickly dissolved my misconception that knitting was a modern invention less than 400 years old, before which there was only weaving. I also learned a new word "nalbinding" which seems to be a kind of proto-knitting that has been around for thousands of years. Was there an overlap with basketry and thatching, which involve stiff fibres? Boat-making and house-building used to depend a lot on basket-making techniques. Were those women's work too?
Thanks so much for your kind comment and curiosity! We're not sure of relationship between nalbinding and knitting. We say their "friends" as we sometimes find archaeological examples of both practices in the same area and there are theories that they could be linked more closely. I would need to look into the other crafts you mentioned, as well as possible gender roles, but I love your curiosity and now I'm curious too :)
Interesting high-level speedrun through the history of knitting, but can we please stop conflating nalbinding and knitting? The two are separate, distinct crafts, and while knitting may have eventually come out of nalbinding, there's no way for us to know for sure. Treating the two as interchangeable does real disservice to the hard work of textile archaeologists trying to piece together the history of both activities, as well as misleading people.
Um crazy how this video didn’t even conflate them
New Zealand is missing from your thumb nail map.
There's a fascinating video you might enjoy - it's on UA-cam, so easy to access - "Shetland knitters really did knit 200 stitches a minute!" Thecwoman who put it together has actual film footage from the very early 1900s showing just how fast women in some cultures could knit, and she does an excellent analysis of knitting techniques used back when it was a major part of the economy in the Shetland Islands.
Thanks for that suggestion! I will definitely check it out ☺️
Fascinating! I had no idea textile art was so broad and expansive!
Thanks so much! We definitely went into rabbit holes researching different topics.
There's so much more to it! Variation of color work yokes use 2-3 strands making super warm and identifiable garment. How yarn is spun and any other fibers added changes strength durability. Personally have gone down alpaca rabbit hole.
We only touched on a few things in our few and, you're right, there is so much more to it. Also, an alpaca rabbit hole sounds fun!
@@smitinathan OOoo it is!! Getting local raw fleeces of show quality and seeing the variation in same animal year to year, blending the natural colors or plying colors together to get really interesting tweedy colors, needle felting the second quality bits... still haven't wet felted the good fleece on wool bat to make jacket as cats attack fleece. Since can't afford the cool yarns, am making it myself, since can't deal with chemicals to dye am enjoying the multitude of natural alpaca colors.
Love it! There are more and more archaeological studies coming out of reconstructing ancient colors and sources used to dye things. Wishing your well in your work!
VERY interesting! Perhaps I misunderstood, but I felt the remark about the US and England was a bit overstated. Many pre-1940s US/English people HAD to knit in order to have socks, stockings, etc. Even those who could afford to buy them from professional knitters (yes, there were incredibly fast production-knitters) or once the sock-making machines had been invented were encouraged to make them for the sake of thrift. The American Frugal Housewife (1838) encourages knitting to avoid the sin of idleness, and the English novel Ministering Children (1854) discusses children making new socks and darning old ones to give to the poor who suffered from chillblains in the winter months. The American Civil War refugee Kate Stone (Brokenburn: The Journal of Kate Stone) discusses her mother being able to knit a sock a day, and knitting books and directions were published in the early 19th century. There are Civil War-era directions for socks-for-soldiers, and of course women in WWI produced lots of knitted items. Knitting certainly wasn't a post-WWII phenomenon.
Thanks so much for your kind comment and fair critique. You're right, knitting was popular pre-WWII and I appreciated the sources you mentioned. We interpreted one our of sources (www.vam.ac.uk/articles/1940s-knitting-patterns) as suggesting that the popularity of knitting increased even more during the WWII era. This might come down to a difference in interpretation so I really appreciate your perspective and the sources you mentioned :)
It's so weird how many people think of these ancient crafts. They are so used to cheap manufactured goods, they often don't consider how key these crafts have been to women specifically and culture.
Textile production was a long history and it's really amazing when we can find preserved archaeological examples shedding like on the antiquity of some of these practices.
This is super fun! Have you ever read The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History by Kassia St. Clair? It’s really interesting.
Thanks so much for the kind note and book rec! I hadn't heard of it and added to my TBR :)
My daughter learned to knit in sixth grade, but I can't. It is literally the only needle art that I haven't succeeded at. The last time I tried it, I picked up my daughter's work and started "knitting." After my second stitch, she asked me, "what are you doing?" "Knitting!" "No, you aren't." I did succeed in making a pair of mittens with cabled cuffs when I was around 12, and they looked fine because whatever I'm doing wrong, I'm consistent...but I don't get it. My mother was a prodigious knitter, my sisters had no problem. I quit trying. I can crochet, tat, embroider, smock, quilt, upholster, sew literally anything including stage props and Mardi Gras costumes, tailor suits... My daughter thinks it's hilarious.
I feel this so much on different levels. There are some things that my family can do so well that completely evade me, no matter how hard I try. I have a toddler so I'm seeing my future through your post :)
What a great video! I just came across your channel (probably it popped up because i've been obsessively watching all things crochet recently), and it's really great to see how knitting has progressed through the centuries. Is crochet as old? I prefer crochet myself just because I have arthritis and find it easier to move my hands a bit less, but I might try knitting too. I'm quite obsessed with historic clothing, mainly because I also see in them our future, beyond horrible polluting throwaway clothing of modern day capitalism, and a way to connect back to and reimagine our cultural heritage. Thanks :)
We're still looking into the antiquity of crocheting so stay tuned! Thank you so much for asking and sharing a bit about yourself :)
I'm surprised you didn't mention the wool dogs that were bred for their fur for making textiles by the Pacific Northwest indigenous peoples. Unfortunately the breed went extinct after settlers arrived with sheep. I believe there's at least one surviving wool blanket at the UBC Museum of Anthropology that was made from wool dog fibres.
That's something we will look into for future videos. Thanks for the note!
I love this! How funny people have been losing socks forever and ever
It's certainly very human :)
Please consider to not have background music! It makes it harder to listen, especially when not having English as first language.
Hi there. Thanks for the note.
This video is very interesting, however, I am finding the high frequency of your vocal fry quite distracting. Because you typically end each sentence in vocal fry, I find myself actually listening for it, rather than listening to what you are saying. Just a thought if you want to continue to make videos, and I think you should, because your subject matter and presentation are otherwise excellent.
Omg sounds like a you problem because her vocal fry was great to me…just cuz your brain is not smart enough to handle a higher (better) frequency of talking doesn’t mean we have to stoop to your level to talk to you like a baby.
this is great, thank you. Could you give us your definition of C.E. please? I was expecting you to say B.C.E.
Sure! C.E. stands for "Common Era", which mirrors the time period A.D. (Anno Domini), and include year 1 onwards. Another archaeologist made an excellent video on these terms and how they are used: ua-cam.com/video/s6Lv3KpphVg/v-deo.htmlsi=HU30V9-xUn-ar3_2
I actually wrote and recited an oral report on the history of crochet to my mom for homeschool. This video has many of the key points that I found in my research.
That's wonderful to hear! Feel free to check out the blog post in the description for additional resources.
One of the socks found in Egypt, said to be 3,500 years old, has recently been determined to be two needle knitting. Textile arts have been sophisticated since the beginning. Especially with textiles, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, because textiles don't survive well.
Very cool! If you could link any source mentioning that recent discovery, we would appreciate it.
Yes, it's hard that we don't know more about textiles given that they usually don't preserve well.
Your picture of nålbinding looks more like hakking, which is done whith one long stick whith a a hook, like a crothets needle. Theese are two very different techniques. Personally I would use nålbinding to repair a hole in something, but I can see that it is possible to make whole pieces by nålbinding
Thanks for sharing!
My Swedish friends call nalbinding needle binding when speaking English. I'm going to use that term.
I have to say, as a native English speaker who's only spoken to other natives about it, I've primarily heard it called nalbinding.
It makes as much sense as calling crochet a french word rather than just calling it hook in English.
Pashmina and cashmere are not the same. Pashmina is of higher quality, made from the winter undercoat of the pashm goat. That’s why real pashmina is so expensive. They are not interchangeable terms. You can call pashmina a kind of cashmere, but not all cashmere is pashmina.
We made a mistake there and we're working on correcting it.
New to this channel, i very much liked the few vids i've seen till now. Will watch more!
Got a question too. I always thought Pashmina and Kashmir are technically not the same wool/fabric?
This is what i've been told about it. While all pashmina is kashmir, not al kashmir is pashmina.
Kashmir is a fabric made from the underwool of different species of himalayan mountain goats that live above 4000 meters above sea level. Pashmina exclusively uses the undercoat of one specific species of himalayan mountain goat, Capra hircus.
Kashmir has a fibre thickness of 15-19 micron, while pashmina has a fibre thickness of 10-15 micron. Pashmina can only be hand spun, because the fibres are so delicate. Pashmina cloth is lighter, warmer and softer compared to kashmir.
While both are expensive, true pashmina is even more expensive because the wool used is more rare and it must be hand spun, which is time consuming. It's also kinda rare, and very often regular kashmir is labeled pashmina and sold for a premium.
Anyway, love your channel! Keep up the good work.❤
Thanks for the kind note and kindly posed question! You're right, "While all pashmina is cashmere, not all cashmere is pashmina". I made a mistake in that explaining that part and I'm noting it in the description and blog post. Would you mind if I linked to your comment as I feel that you explained the difference quite well?
@@smitinathan thanks for the kind reply. I was a bit worried i worded things too blunt. More so because i wasn't even 100% sure if my comment made any sense. It's something i've heard a long time ago, and sometimes definitions change over time. Thanks for confirming the info i learned then is still valid today.
And yes, of course you can link my comment.
Of course! I appreciate comments, questions, and criticism, as long as they are respectfully posed, as you did@@dasja9966. I made a note in the description and tagged you! Thanks again!
as a knitter, this video warmed my heart, thank you!
Thank you for your kind note :)
Very well done! In addition, it is thought that knitting came into being thanks to nomads as it was far too difficult to carry a weaving loom with them on the backs of camels. Nomads discovered that two sticks and some string could efficiently produce fabric AND a garment at the same time! ;)
Thanks for sharing that! Nomadic textile practices certainly seems like a fascinating topic to explore :)
I learned so much from this and the video is only 6 minutes long haha. Great video!
Glad we can help :) We try to be as short and sweet as possibly, with some deviations here and there ;)
I agree - she really did an excellent job of condensing all of that information into a short video!
Thanks so much :)
One of my favourite World War II posters says “remember Pearl Harbour Purl Harder”
I immediately looked this up. Thanks for sharing :)
americanhistory.si.edu/collections/nmah_882760
First time hearing of nalbinding. I found some videos on UA-cam. 😊
Wonderful to hear :)
I crochet, a much younger skill, really enjoyed this video.
Glad you enjoyed it!
thank you for this! ❤
Thank you for your kind comment :)
Interesting. That sock looks like it was knit for RA. The bird looking king. Ha!
We’re just happy it’s preserved!
I was curious, when you showed the image of the old hat, if the original dye was madder, because of the colour, and it was very cool to see that it was! It's my favourite natural dye (and the R. tinctorum variety is my favourite plant!). I've knit with madder dyed wool yarn a few times, although I haven't done the dyeing process myself yet (that's something I'll probably do at some point, though). It makes so many really lovely colours, from bright reds, to soft pinks, to sunset oranges. I do find, though, that the bright red madder-dyed yarn would transfer a bit of dye onto my hands while I knit with it, which would look a bit suspicious in my university classes once I put the knitting away.
Wow! Thanks so much for sharing your experience with using madder-dyed-yarns. That's fascinating to know about how some of the dye might transfer. I do understand being cautious about going out with dye on your hands ;)
Great video. It's nice to hear about the history of knitting. :D
Thanks for the kind note!
Thank you for doing this video. Please make a video on the history of crochet.
It's on our list!
Hi Smiti. Your channel is exploding! Congrats and I've gained some insides of the knitting world!
@Dr. Smiti Nathan • This is a very informative video with well chosen photographs and illustrations. I hope you get more subscribers soon. ,👍
Thanks so much for your kind note! I really appreciate it :)
This is super interesting! Right now I’m researching sprang, a similar kind of woven textile to knitting, as was used in ancient Greece for an experimental archaeological project. The history of knitting is super interesting! It makes me want to recreate some of the knitted items in this video!
Amazing! Another commenter was inquiring about sprang. If you do recreate anything, let us know!
Wow super interesting video ❤ I'm glad I found it! Thank you
Thanks so much!
this was an amazing video!! ive been waiting for a video on this topic and it covers everything i was curious about. i subscribed!
Thanks so much and that's so wonderful to hear!
5:30 My nan used to knit woolly caps for Royal Marine commandos during the Second World War: the British government, via the local Women's Institutes, would supply green and black yarn for the purpose. When wool for general purchase was short there was more home production, much as there had been in the pre-industrial era. My mum, then a young girl, along with her friends, used to scavenge scraps of sheep's wool off the hedges and the wire fences of the fields around where they lived, putting it all into a communal pile. One of the older ladies in their village knew how to wash and card it before spinning it into yarn, which everyone in the village could then use to darn socks and generally keep worn clothing usable.
Wow! Thanks so much for sharing this part of your family's history.
@@smitinathanThank you for introducing the subject here. I have an ongoing interest in history and archaeology yet somehow the antiquity of the technology of knitting had passed me by.
My mum was an avid knitter and even managed to teach me the basics when I was six years old, but I gave it up the very same year once I'd clumsily knitted a green and white Celtic scarf for my Action Man!
I really enjoyed this video as I've always been most interested in how people lived their day to day lives in the stone, bronze, and iron ages. The food they ate, the houses they lived in and the clothes/textiles they used and made for everyday life. I'd like to see you do more on these. Thanks for the information. New sub.
Thanks so much about your kind note! My favorite part of my research is learning about the everyday lives of people in the past so I really appreciate your comment :)
Very interesting channel! All you posted in the video is my favorite subject😊
Thank you for the kind note :)
3:30 sooo... you could say it's a madder hat instead of a mad hatter
LOL! You could say that ;)
Knitting also inspired computer programming
We had another comment mention that too!
I respect your background and training as an archaeologist, however, I come from a long line of knitters that goes back to the 1800s and prior to that the only thing we did was lace making. And one of my sisters did an extensive check on knitting prior to that time and anywhere we’ve been in great Britain especially nobody could confirm that it was ever done prior to the 1800s. And I don’t think chain mail accounts. It would be really cool if there was evidence of actual knitting, but I tend to doubt it.
The oldest known knitter's guild was established in Paris in the mid 1200s, which means there was enough economic activity around the craft in that country at that time to justify having a formal apprenticeship system and a guild to regulate the work being produced. And Queen Elizabeth I famously passed sumptuary laws requiring her subjects to wear caps knitted in England and made of English wool, among other items knitted in the country. England was also a major exporter of knitted items, mostly stockings and hats, in the 1500s.
Knitting is indeed only "ancient" if you count Nalbinding as a kind of knitting (it is sometimes called "single needle knitting"), but knitting on 2 or more needles is also much older than 1800s. Evidence for knitting (both representations in art and extant objects) goes into the Medieval period, at least 11th century, and we have stocking frame knitting machines invented in 1589. Crochet is the "young" fiber art that is more like 1800s.
This was so interesting to learn about the history of knitting and nalbinding in less than 7 minutes. It got me inspired. Also I noted in one part of your video of soldiers knitting that one of them was using a knitting loom. And I thought knitting looms were a current thing.
Thanks so much! While we didn't get to cover everything on both topics, we hope it inspired folx to looking into it more. I have to check about the knitting loom, but I think it's a few hundred years old.
Mega fascinating, thank you! I love to knit but never knew it had such a long history.
Thanks so much for leaving this kind comment!
Vidéo très intéressante pour la fan de tricot que je suis. Merci pour les sous titres car vous parlez tellement vite 😅
Merci! Les sous-titres à la rescousse! (It's been a while since I spoke French so apologies if this sounds strange)
@@smitinathan perfect french !
Merci :)
This video makes me so happy. Thank you for all your research and insight! Manufacturing and craftsmanship history is so important but I feel like it's been largely neglected. At least or especially when it comes to what is taught in classes and in mainstream media. But it's SO important for truly understanding our past and building our future. Thank you thank you thank you for this! You seriously just hands down rock 👏👏👏
Thank you so much for this kind comment. I really appreciate it. My PhD adviser loves the fiber arts, especially weaving, and is a big proponent of communities of practice (which relates to craft history quite well). While I graduated years ago, her enthusiasm clearly left an impression on me. Also, my team was super excited about this topic too and we had a ton of fun creating this video :)
I'm more a crocheter but this was interesting. I do know that WWI the Red Cross also encouraged people to knit for soldiers.
Thanks for your note! Yes, while we highlighted WWII, we see this happening in WWI too.
As a knitter I love knowing more about the activity I enjoy so much. Thanks for all your hard work. My only comment is slow down talking. What's the rush
Thanks for the note! I'm glad you enjoyed the video. We're currently gauging the pacing of our videos, and your feedback has been noted. In the meantime, UA-cam has a playback control where you can slow the video down, thus, the speaking speed. Hope this helps!
very interesting :) thanks for sharing
Thanks for your kind note!
Maybe I didn't make my show clear.I'm talking about crochet, which is knitting one needle?
Thank you
1:15 that is neither knitting nor nalbinding, it's weaving. Completely different technique and resulting fabric.
Thank you❤❤ Over the past year and a half, my community service group has been spreading the love and skills of needles, hooks & yarn to raise awareness of mental health issues. Specifically, we have focused on being social and learning a new skill to combat the isolation of these last few years.
Since I am a bit of an 'Armchair Anthropologist'...I just loved this video!🤓
Love hearing this! The fiber arts have done so much for many of my friends' mental health. I love the aim of your group. Wishing you all well!
WHATTT I never knew nalbinding is a thing!! also I have a theory of where all our missing socks go, higher lifeforms are taking them from us to study humankind much like what you talk about here LOL your videos are FIRE!!
Thanks so much Gabby! I've heard that theory about missing socks ;)
Excellent information. Thank you.
Thank you so much :)