Knitting: Beyond the Scarf

Catalog description

Knitting, a relatively modern (only eleven to twelve hundred years old) technique for making stretchy fabrics, got its beginnings in the Middle East, and spread via trade routes into Europe, and then on into the rest of the world. Knitted items were initially a rare luxury, and then sailors and peasants learned to knit and make things for themselves, and the art took a turn into the realm of a common handicraft. Later, in the 1500s, machines were created that could knit, but it was still cheaper for people to make their own clothes. With the introduction of synthetic fibers, along widespread colonizations and the globalization of the garment industries, manufactured knitted clothing became so inexpensive as to be disposable. Today, hand-knit (and even hand-drawn knitting machine made) items straddle the line between handicrafts and luxury items (and the process sometimes becomes a performative art). With the use of new/non-traditional materials, knitted objects are also being used in healthcare and industry.