knitting in history

Wow, what a crackup this is! Back in the good ole days knitting wasn't just a craft, a vice, or a hobby but rather a necessity. I ran across Erica Lee's knitting website that had some really neat historical knitting photos and knitting artwork.

What happened over the past sixty years that changed the need for hand knitting into a want? Industrialization, mass production, cheap, foreign labor have all combined to produce usable goods that obliterated the need to hand create a lot of products including hand knitted socks. Our desire to knit has been transformed into a hobby that we yearn to spend time on rather than a requirement that we must fit into our day. This transformation is sort of mind boggling if you sit and think about it because this change has come about in really only one generation. Technology preserves our observations and recordings of these social changes, allowing us, no doubt, the ability to look back another sixty years from now and see what other changes have occurred. I sure hope those changes are for the better.

knitting in history

How about those groovy hairstyles? Or that Father Knows Best sweater? Or if you look beyond that you've gotta dig the outrageous flower drapes coupled with that boldly striped couch!



Part of the University of Arizona's Photography Special Collection, this knitting photo takes us back a couple of decades to a simpler time.

knitted doll

I've gotta say this is the cutest little knitted doll! I'm usually not into these types of things but she is adorable! Best I can tell her pattern isn't for sale but the doll itself is. Of course I've been meaning to knit those groovy Ramone dolls from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation.

Believe it or not I really have been knitting. I need to line things up to take photos. Janice asked if I was still planning to enter the fair. Well, I am, but not with the original entry. Haven't quite settled on exactly what I want to enter yet though.

Lisa asked how I find all these groovy knitting pictures. Well, a lot of it is image searching in google. I also run across a lot of photograph archives in the course of my day job. These photo archives are truly amazing! Tons of cultural images have been digitized in an effort to preserve history. The trick is to find 'em! These databases are examples of that term you've probably heard, the deep web.

art of knitting

Knitting
Oil on Canvas
Nancy Bea Miller

I promise I haven't forgotten you guys. I've just been busy as sin!