After months of preparation, the third edition of PieceWork's special publication, Knitting Traditions, is off to the printer! While it's wending its way through the presses, I want to give you a sneak peek.
It's a global view of knitting's glorious past and present. And our journey begins in the United Kingdom and travels through continental Europe, Asia, Oceania, South America, and North America. Here are just a few of the amazing people you'll meet along the way:
- The "terrible [formidable] knitters e' [of] Dent"—these were women, children, and men who produced prodigious quantities of intricate knitting in mid-nineteenth-century England
- The unknown and unsung knitters of sixteenth-century Western Europe who adapted cloth stockings to knitting
- Lydia Gladstone—Lydia grew up in Bukovina, Ukraine; her young life was fraught with tragedy, but she learned to knit beautiful stockings while in the care of Catholic nuns in Germany during World War II
Lydia Gladstone’s stockings, using the cabled designs she learned as a child. Photograph by Joe Coca
- In the Gobi desert, camels rule, so it's no surprise that there is a long tradition of knitting socks with camel hair
- Twenty-two-year-old Ann Bryant started her knitted counterpane while aboard a ship taking Ann, her family, and other immigrants from England to New Zealand in 1850; her counterpane survives
- Andean male knitters who are noted for their superior workmanship and complex designs
Wearing their knitted caps (ch’ullus), these men near Cusco, Peru, have begun knitting the fine-gauge caps. Photograph by Cynthia LeCount Samaké.
- Annis Holmes preserved the nineteenth-century Adirondack tradition of knitting "buff" mittens—warm, windproof, and waterproof
Each of their stories is rich. Their work is exquisite and inspiring.
“Toasty,” Beth Brown-Reinsel’s twined-knitted gloves. Photograph by Joe Coca.
There's also lots of information on the history and application of several techniques. One example is the "Toasty" gloves that take you through the basics of Sweden's twined knitting called tvåäandsstickning. And there are projects galore, including socks and stockings, scarves and shawls, a boa and muff, sweaters, gloves and mittens, a snowsuit for baby, and even a flock of sheep!
Detail of Evelyn A. Clark’s
Icelandic triangular shawl
with its Arched Trellis Lace
edging. Photograph by Joe Coca.
A host of today's preeminent knitting historians and designers, some from far-flung corners of the globe, contributed to this edition. Each of them is a champion of knitting's vibrant traditions.
I feel certain that this edition of Knitting Traditions will feed your own wanderlust and provide you with all the tools you'll need for your own knitting journey!
Best,
