HNW - Master Knitters was Re: Sprang

[Lisa Leong]

On Tue, 7 Oct 1997, Donna Hrynkiw wrote:

> Yeah, but I thought those were done on a knitting frame. (I may be wrong,
> I've only glanced at a couple of articles. Hmm. I wonder if I can find them
> again.)
> 
> Anybody have Rutt handy? I'm sure he must refer to them.

Yes, I do and he does.  One reference to carpets and frames is on p.
22-23:

"The only clear evidence for the early existence of the peg frame is in
Gustav Schmoller Die Strassburger Tucher - und Weberzunft (1879), an
account of textile guilds in Strasburg.  He mentiones evidence for the
stuhl or gestell, a knitting frame, in 1535 and regulations drafted in
1618 about the number of stuhl to be allowed in a master-knitter's
workshop.  Thus it is at least possible that the Silesian and Alsatian
carpets of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (see p. 90) were made
on peg frames."

And on p. 90:
"It is not impossible that they were made on a series of double-ended
pins, but more likely that they were looped on a frame fitted with pegs.
Surprisingly, the method of knitting has been neither remembered nor
recorded."

...so maybe the did and maybe they didn't... :\    -annora

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