Always More To Learn

Lately I've been enjoying some knitting history online!

The Knitting History Forum Conference is an annual conference. It is now online, but was previously in-person in the United Kingdom. Of course, the great thing about having it online is that people from all over the world can enjoy the presentations. I attended the 2024 conference on Saturday 3 February 2024. The topics were fascinating, including research on the famous silk shirt possibly worn by Charles I to his execution. Other topics included liturgical gloves, Frances Lambert (author of one of the earliest knitting books), Korsnäs sweaters in Finland, the effect of yarn twist and ply on knit fabric, and Fair Isle fishermans' keps (hats). The conference started at 11:15 Greenwich Mean Time, which meant 06:15 Eastern Standard Time. It was well worth the getting up early on a Saturday.

If you missed the conference, no worries! You can purchase access to the recording of the 2024 forum here. I plan to purchase access to the 2023 recording, since I missed that conference. Notice the price is in British pounds not US dollars. When I purchased my ticket, the £27 price for the 2024 conference was about $36. I'm already looking forward to the 2025 conference. If you are doing research, know you can submit a proposal.

The other online knitting history opportunity comes from Center for Knit and Crochet. They are having an Anniversary Lecture Series. It is free to members, or a modest fee to non-members. The first lecture was Angharad Thomas's presentation about her research into gloves, including the Holy Hands project. Knit gloves are a surprisingly deep area for study. There are gloves from the dales. There are Sanquhar gloves. And there are liturgical gloves. I find the liturgical gloves particularly fascinating, as some of them date back to the 16th century. They are knitted in very fine silk and metal threads with a colorwork pattern! There is a consistency to them in color and pattern, making me wonder if there was a particular workshop producing them? At any rate, after the lecture I ordered Angharad's book A Knitter's Guide to Gloves from Schoolhouse Press.

Even if glove knitting is not high on your personal priorities, I think you will enjoy Angharad's book. It is written in the voice of someone enthusiastic and fascinated by the topic, making it exciting even to someone who might be otherwise uninterested. There's information about history as well as techniques. Because they are small items, gloves have been highly embellished and personalized. The level of embellishment and detail on some historical examples is both inspiring and intimidating. How many hours did this take? What were these people thinking? As a gift or expression of devotion, some gloves speak volumes through the care that went into their creation. That they have survived many decades indicates how cherished these items were. Is this book worthy of space on the bookshelf? Yes it is.

Whether you are a novice knitter or a master, knitting history is inspiring!