Knitting – The New Big Thing

There are many different ways to make clothes and other pieces of fashionable items, and one of those is knitting, which is also among the oldest methods. In fact, there are Egyptian knitted artifacts that date back to the 5th century. Hand-knitting can be done just by using needles and yarn and does not require the use of any heavy equipment such as looms. With this, it was and still is an accessible and functional craft. There are also many knitting machines available today which can make knitted fabrics faster and automatically.

Knitting has been around for many years now, but it seems like younger generations today are becoming interested in it. It was once considered the province of grannies and expectant mothers stitching layettes, but now, it is enjoying a 21st-century resurgence, particularly among young people. As it turns out, knitting is trendy and mostly an eco-friendly pastime with a wide range of appeals.

At the present time, there are many different types of yarn for knitting that you can buy, including Mohair yarn, which comes from the long, silky hair of Angora goats, offering a finer and smoother texture. Also, since we now have a more advanced Internet world, knitters can share their knowledge and ideas through virtual knitting circles that are found in different parts of the world.

If you want to explore this trendy activity, we are here to help you. In this post, we are giving you more information about knitting, including its advantages and popularity today.

Brief History of Knitting

Historians believe that knitting originated in the 5th century in the Middle East and was brought to Europe by wool traders. What’s interesting is that the examples of early knitting from Egypt are actually made from cotton fibers and not wool. A lot of them have Arabic blessings knitted into them or symbols that are believed to ward off bad luck. Knitted textile form, in the 14th century, was used by fishermen to create warm, woolen, weatherproof jumpers that were used for trips to the sea. Knitting machines were introduced and used in the 16th century to knot hosiery for elite classes.

Soon, knitting became a local industry in Scotland and the Highlands. The industry employed men in factories to knot stockings, which were exported to the rest of Europe. Later on, shawls, hats, jumpers, bags, and other forms of knitwear were made available in the market. In 1816, the first knitting loom was created, and woolen mills were developed to make expensive garments. In 1853, Eugene Rodier set up the very first woolen textile factory.

When the 20th century came, knitwear was included in mainstream fashion. Since the introduction of jerseys, dresses, jumpers, and cardigans by fashion labels like Chanel, knitwear has become practical, fashionable, and a modern choice for both men and women.

Popularity of Knitting

Since the start of the 21st century, knitting has enjoyed an unprecedented revival, particularly among the younger people. In fact, in 2011, a study done by the Craft Yarn Council of America found that one-third of all American women aged 25 to 35 are into knitting, and after 3 years, their ranks increased by 150%. Also, the number of youngsters and teenagers taking up needles doubled.

With this, knitting began to show up among art and craft classes offered at some schools. The craft industry also began to offer a wide range of specialty yarns and designs for items that are loved by the young, including fashionable bags, crop tops, and mobile phone covers. Also, something that added to the appeal of knitting is its growing popularity among celebrities. In fact, shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Criminal Minds have been shown wielding knitting needles.

One of the advantages of knitting for all ages is that it is a totally portable hobby. It means that you can knit while you’re on the bus going to work, while you hang out in coffee shops while waiting for someone, or when you feel bored at home.

Modern Knitting Trends

Knitting is not just done by people who are looking for something to do when they are bored. It’s because there are some knitters who like to go public in a big way. Across the United States, there are knitting groups that organize Knit-Outs in parks, shopping malls, and recreation centers. They do this to demonstrate their craft and teach it to many onlookers. In addition to that, there are other modern knitting trends that you should know about. Here are some of them:

Yarn Bombing

This is also known as graffiti knitting, wherein the colorful knitted fabric is wrapped around lamp posts, trees, and sometimes even on city buses to brighten the atmosphere of the city. This reportedly began in Texas among young knitters looking for a creative way to use their leftover yarn and unfinished projects.

Eco-Friendly Knitting

Americans are encouraged to reuse and recycle at all times. Therefore, it is not surprising to find out that knitters are also going green. Increasingly, hobbyists are looking for more environmentally friendly products such as organic wool yarn that are made without using chemical dyes and cleaning agents. They are also interested in yarns that are fabricated from plants, such as corn fibers, bamboo, banana leaves, and soy protein.

Online Knitters

Many young knitters enjoy gathering together in groups where they can chat and discuss their craft. Today, thanks to the Internet, knitting groups have gone global. There are lots of websites today that offer instructional videos, chat forums, and even free patterns for all people interested in knitting. There are also avid knitters who maintain blogs by sharing helpful tips and tricks about knitting.

Advantages of Knitting

Here are some of the advantages of knitting that make it the new big thing in today’s generation:

Stress Relieving

Knitting has been verified to have therapeutic elements that can reduce stress effectively. If you have a stressful job or life, you need to accustom yourself to one or many stress-relieving activities, and you can include knitting as one of those.

Memory and Concentration Improvement

Knitting can also stimulate the mind in a way that a person is forced to retain memory and exercise the next knit carefully. It involves keeping check of what color comes next and the number of rows the pattern needs during the time of knitting. This pushes the mind to depend on its memory centers for processing.

Anxiety Reduction

Knitting involves some rhythmic and repetitive motions which can help people achieve a meditation-like state. It sends a person into a tranquil state where you are simply existing and not thinking about the past or the future. Therefore, knitting is a great activity for those suffering from anxiety and other mental illnesses like depression.

In addition to these advantages, there are many more great things you can get from knitting, such as building relationships and simply having something to do. Plus, knitting is an inexpensive hobby that you can try if you are looking for something new to do.

Difference between knitting and crocheting

It might be difficult for many novices to recognize the difference between knitting and crocheting. Both use the same techniques for sewing yarn together, although their approaches differ somewhat. In crochet, the stitches are twisted together, but in knitting, the stitches create a shape like a “V.” Every cloth has its own unique techniques and specialties. To create the loops from one set of loops to another through the needles when knitting, you need a pair of long needles. To hook the loops together and onto the clothing when crocheting, just one hook is required. Compared to knitting, crocheting is frequently simpler to use when starting out. They may produce the same item using the same fibers and yarns although employing various techniques.

Properties of Fabrics

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A knitted cloth has a topology that is quite complicated. Knitted yarn takes a looped course through each row, unlike woven materials, where strands often run straight horizontally and vertically. An example of this is the red strand in the picture above, where all of the loops from one row have been drawn through the loops from the row below it.

A knitted cloth may stretch in all directions since there is never a single straight line of yarn used in the pattern. For the most part, woven textiles lack this elasticity since they can only stretch perpendicular to the grain. Even though they rely on elastic synthetic materials for part of their stretch, much modern stretchy clothing also gets at least some of their stretch from knitted patterns.

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There is a distinct “right side” and “wrong side” to the basic knitted fabric (seen in the diagram and typically referred to as a stocking or stockinette pattern). The verticals linking two rows that are organized in a grid of V shapes on the right side of the image make up the sections of the loops that are visible. The reverse stockinette texture is created when the tops and bottoms of the loops are exposed on the wrong side, giving the fabric a bumpier appearance. (Despite being the “wrong side”, reverse stockinette is frequently used as a pattern in its own right.) Stockinette fabric has a significant propensity to curl toward the front on the top and bottom and toward the rear on the left and right side because the yarn connecting rows together is all on the front and the yarn holding side-by-side stitches together is all on the back.

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The “wrong side” stitches, also known as purl stitches, can be used to produce a variety of designs. These patterns can be constructed in columns (ribbing), rows (garter, welting), or more sophisticated patterns by combining standard knit stitches with purl threads. Ribbing stretches significantly more horizontally than it does vertically, while garter stitch has far greater vertical stretch. These two fabrics have little curl due to their front-to-back symmetry, which makes them suitable for edging even when stretch is not required.

Different knit and purl stitch combinations, combined with more complex processes, produce textiles with a wide range of consistency, ranging from gauzy to very thick, highly flexible to reasonably stiff, flat to tightly coiled, and so forth.

Texture

The flat stockinette stitch, which is worked flat as alternating rows of knit and purl stitches and worked in the round as just knit stitches, produces the most common texture for a knitted item. This texture may be observed, albeit in very small amounts, in machine-made socks and T-shirts. Garter stitch, ribbing, moss, and seed stitches, as well as other basic textures, may be created with only knit and purl stitches. There are many different textures that may be created by adding a “slip stitch,” including heel and linen stitches as well as a number of more intricate designs.

A surprising number of intricate textures may be produced using some more sophisticated knitting techniques. Knitted lace is a very open fabric that resembles needle or bobbin lace. Knitted lace is created by combining specific increases, which might result in tiny eyelet holes in the resultant fabric, with various declines. Drop-stitch knitting may be used to produce open vertical stripes. The secret to cable knitting is changing the stitch sequence from one row to the next, typically with the use of a cable needle or stitch holder, which results in an infinite variety of cables, honeycombs, ropes, and Aran sweater patterns. By knitting tiny squares, picking up their side edges, then knitting more squares to complete the piece, entrelac creates a beautiful checkerboard effect.

Fair Isle knitting produces a thicker and less flexible fabric by patterning two or more different colored yarns.

The weight of the yarn, which refers to the thickness of the spun fiber, has an impact on a garment’s aesthetic as well. The more prominent and obvious the stitches are, the thicker the yarn, the finer the texture, and the thinner the yarn.

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Color

Numerous completed knitting projects only utilize one color of yarn, but there are numerous methods to knit with various colors. Some yarns are dyed to be self-striping or variegated, which involves randomly changing color every few stitches (changing every few rows). Large fields of color (like intarsia, for example), busy small-scale patterns of color (like Fair Isle), or both are possible with more complex methods (double knitting and slip-stitch color, for example).

An ombre yarn is one that has different shades of the same color, while a particular colorway refers to a collection of colors. For instance, a manufacturer may label their green, red, and yellow yarn the “Parrot Colorway.” Small quantities of fiber from contain in Heathered yarns.

Essential Tools for Knitters

No matter if you are just starting out with knitting or want to improve your skill by learning new methods, having high-quality equipment on hand is crucial and should be picked carefully.

Every craftsperson would concur that the tools you use may either improve your abilities or degrade them. Just ponder how many hours each week you will spend knitting in the future. You cannot use the same knitting equipment to create a bulky blanket and a finger glove, just as a carpenter would not use them to make an ornate adornment for a cabinet.

Yarn

Isn’t that obvious? You should begin your knitting experience in a yarn store. Since knitting is a very energetic activity, it may be helpful to grip and feel the yarn before you begin. In this way, you will gradually get an understanding of the various compositions, textures, and, most importantly, the weight of the yarn. As a beginner, using really chunky yarn may cause your hands to fatigue more readily and cause you to feel the weight of your needles more quickly.

For beginners, a medium-worsted-weight thread is suggested. Utilizing a bright color can let you see how your stitches came out, make faults easier to identify, and correct them before it is too late. Wool is more elastic than cotton or linen yarn, therefore it will eventually work better on your knitting needles. Conversely, if you use knitting needles that are too pointed on loosely spun, brushed wool, the stitches might not come out as cleanly as you had hoped.

Knitting needles

Your knitting’s speed and evenness will be greatly influenced by the size, kind, and form of your knitting needles.

Darning or Yarn Needles

To sew the knitted pieces together and weave in loose ends, wool needles are a need. Your darning needle should have a rounded tip in addition to having an eye that is broad enough to accommodate the thread without difficulty. You really stitch in between the stitches while sewing knitted items, making every effort to avoid breaking the yarn. While broken threads can fray more rapidly with use and might result in unsightly holes in your knitwear, the rounded tip slips effortlessly.

Measuring Tape

One of the major benefits of being a knitter is that you can truly create the clothes you want. Despite the fact that most contemporary knitting designs come in a variety of sizes, it is far more satisfying to really tailor the garment of your choosing to fit your body (and not the other way around).

Scissors and Yarn Cutter

Because it has no sharp edges, to begin with, a yarn cutter is perfect to bring around whether you knit while traveling or in various locations at home. You will also gain a lot of time from it. It cuts similarly to scissors; all you have to do is compress the spring while holding it in your hand to cut the thread!

Stitch Marker and Holders

When it comes to marking stitches in a row, increases or reductions, as well as the start and end stitches in a certain design, these tiny, closed rings are useful, little aides.  

If you are capable of knitting items like gloves or the sleeves of a yoke sweater, a stitch holder is a useful tool. Some stitches need to be secured while you continue working on others, therefore you must stop working on a few stitches. Stitch holders, which resemble giant safety pins, will retain your stitches securely so that none are lost.

Blocking Tools

When it comes to marking stitches in a row, increases or reductions, as well as the start and end stitches in a certain design, these tiny, closed rings are useful, little aides.  

If you are capable of knitting items like gloves or the sleeves of a yoke sweater, a stitch holder is a useful tool. Some stitches need to be secured while you continue working on others, therefore you must stop working on a few stitches. Stitch holders, which resemble giant safety pins, will retain your stitches securely so that none are lost.

Conclusion

Learning how to knit may not be something that most people want to do, but learning it is also worth it. Today, knitting is no longer for grandparents as lots of youngsters are making it a hobby, too. Aside from providing you with something to do, it also enables you to create something that is comfortable to wear or an accessory that can be useful for you or your family and friends. We hope this post helped you learn more about knitting.

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