HAND-KNITTING AND CREATIVE ITEMS IN THE DEVELOPMENT JOURNEY OF KNITTING IN HE MIDDLE AGE

With its simplest form of application, hand-knitting is the method of creating a textile surface based on forming a yarn coming from a ball into a loop, casting the loops in sequence onto a needle according to the width sizes of the item planned to be made and inserting the other needle through each loop and tying. The fact that it is difficult and time-consuming to create an item by nalbinding, a knitting method with single needle, led people to new quests and ensured development of the hand-knitting. This study was designed as a review research aiming to determine the roadmap in spread of the knitting, in turn the hand-knitting, to the world, to introduce the materials needed for hand-knitting and the basic loop structures, and to reveal on the basis of the items produced the effectiveness of hand-knitting that was widely applied in the Middle Age. The information obtained showed that hand-knitting was first applied in Egypt, conveyed from Egypt to Spain, and spread to Continental Europe through Spain. In regard to making of the needles, it revealed that wood, bones, steel, feather shaft and ivory were utilized initially, and casein fiber, plastic and bamboo were used later on. It was found out that the terms ‘straight loop’ and ‘reverse loop’ are expressed by different words in foreign sources. In the Middle Age, it was determined that four or more needles were started to be used instead of two needles in the Early Middle Age, that guilds were established and knitted gloves were started to be used in the High Middle Age, and that gloves, socks and hats were produced intensively and the iconographic paintings demonstrated the effectiveness of the process in the Late Middle Age.

Keywords

Knitting, Hand-knitting, Middle Age, Creative items