A thousand years of loops
How two sticks, one hook and a ball of yarn travelled from Egypt and Spain to Shetland, Anatolia and a kitchen table in Izmir.
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Spin the yarn
The story of knitting and crochet
Every piece in our shop is made with the same moves people have used for centuries: pull a loop through a loop. Here is how that simple idea travelled the world, checked against museum and textile history sources.
It starts near Izmir
Archaeologists at Beycesultan, a few hours from Izmir, found a blue-dyed hemp fragment made by nålbinding, single-needle looping. It is the oldest looped textile known in the Near East. Not knitting yet, but the same idea: a loop through a loop.
Source: EurekAlert, Antiquity study
Socks that look knitted, but are not
Roman-era socks from Egypt and a famous fragment from Dura-Europos were long called the first knitting. Museums now know they are nålbinding, made with one needle, closer to sewing than knitting.
The first true knitting
The oldest two-needle knitting found so far is fine cotton socks from Islamic Egypt, worked in blue and white patterns, some with Arabic writing. Some may have been made in India and traded to Egypt.
Source: V&A: the history of hand knitting Textile Museum, sock 73.698
A blessing knitted in silk
A prince buried at Las Huelgas near Burgos had a silk cushion cover knitted at about 20 stitches per inch, with the Arabic word baraka, blessing, worked into it. It is credited to Muslim knitters at the Christian court.
Source: History of knitting
The knitting Madonna
Painters showed Mary knitting in the round on four needles, a sign that knitting had become everyday work in European homes.
Guilds, caps and silk stockings
Knitted caps, gloves and stockings filled the towns, and knitters formed guilds. In Strasbourg a journeyman had to knit a flowered wall hanging to join; the V&A has one from 1781. England's Cappers Act of 1571 even required a knitted wool cap on Sundays.
Source: V&A: the history of hand knitting V&A: guild carpet, 1781
The first knitting machine
William Lee built the stocking frame. Elizabeth I refused him a patent, partly to protect hand knitters' jobs, and he took his machine to France. Knitting was on its way to the factory.
Smyrna, the mohair port
Mohair yarn from the Angora goats of Ankara came down by caravan to Smyrna, today's Izmir, where English and French merchants bought it for Europe. The word mohair comes from the Arabic for 'choice'.
Source: AramcoWorld: mohair, the diamond fibre Jews of Smyrna and the Levant Company
Islands and fishermen
A man found in a Shetland bog wore a knitted cap, gloves and stockings from the late 1600s. Later came Shetland lace, and dark blue ganseys knitted in one piece for fishermen, with patterns carried from port to port by the herring girls.
Source: V&A: British knitting traditions Living heritage Scotland: ganseys
Crochet arrives
Crochet instructions appear in ladies' magazines in the 1820s. In Ireland, crochet lace that copied Venetian lace became a lifeline for families during the Great Famine of the late 1840s.
Source: Lacis Museum: Irish crochet
The granny square
The first known pattern was printed in 1885 as the 'Crazy Afghan'. The name 'granny square' only shows up in 1953, and granny square clothes had their big moment in the 1970s.
Source: PieceWork: the first granny square PieceWork: why 'granny'?
Knit your bit
In about 18 months of the First World War, American Red Cross volunteers knitted some 22 million pieces for soldiers. Sheep even grazed on the White House lawn. Home knitting peaked again in the Second World War.
Fair Isle and Aran go fashionable
The Prince of Wales wore a Fair Isle sweater for golf and made it a style. The cabled Aran sweater is younger than it looks: first sold in Dublin in 1935, published in Vogue Knitting in 1956.
Source: V&A: British knitting traditions
The crochet comeback
In lockdown, thousands remade Harry Styles's patchwork cardigan and shared it on TikTok, and the V&A collected the original. Crochet and knitting are back with a new generation, and granny squares are everywhere again.
From Anatolia to Izmir
Turkey has its own long thread in this story: patterned socks, lace edgings and the mohair goats of Ankara.
Socks that speak
Anatolian knitted socks (çorap) and slippers (patik) carry named motifs, mostly geometric and floral, so a pair can tell you where it was made. They are usually knitted in wool on five needles.
Oya, the lace edge
Oya is the small lace that edges headscarves and linens, made with a needle, a shuttle, a hairpin or a crochet hook (tığ oyası). Flowers, peppers, leaves and birds are favourite motifs; colours are said to carry feelings.
Angora goats and mohair
Angora goats are named after Ankara. For centuries the Ottomans kept the live goats at home, and raw mohair went to England's mills from about 1820. Our mohair pieces carry that story on.
Yarn around the neck
Some Turkish knitters tension the yarn around their neck or a pin, a style also used in Greece, Portugal and Peru. Nobody can prove where it began, but you will still see it in Turkish homes.
And today: Selda in Izmir
Selda and a small group of women makers crochet and knit every Smyrna piece by hand, one at a time, after you order it. Want one made for you? Message Selda on WhatsApp or see the shop.
Which yarn is right for you?
Tell us your weather, your skin and how you like to wash, and we rank the fibres for you.
Yarn thickness, from lace to jumbo
The Craft Yarn Council numbers yarn from 0 (finest) to 7 (thickest).
Good to know
Myths, gently untangled
Sources
- V&A: the history of hand knitting
- V&A: British knitting traditions
- History of knitting
- EurekAlert: oldest Near East nålbinding
- AramcoWorld: mohair
- Smyrna exports, Tournefort 1700
- Lacis Museum: Irish crochet
- PieceWork: the first granny square
- National WWI Museum: Knitting nation
- TRC Leiden: oya
- Turkish Ministry of Culture: oya
- Woolmark: wool fibre
- Woolmark: machine-washable wool
- Alpaca Owners Association: fibre
- US FTC: bamboo textiles
- Craft Yarn Council: yarn weights