Knitting is typically the sport of grandmothers, lovingly knitting scarves and jumpers for grandchildren and the like, but knitting has a much wider scope than just that. Knitting dates all the way back to the 3rd century when Romans would weave together stands of wool to make socks and tunics, and evidence has even been found of complex and colourful socks and stockings made by the Egyptians in the 11th century.

Knitting artistic patterns into cushions and quilts has been popular since the 1200’s in many countries of the world, and due to the skill of the intricate designs it rapidly became a symbol of wealth and importance to have knitted pieces. Ironically it was men who were the first to knit as an occupation in the Elizabethan era, and it was only later that it became the typical trait of women- there is even a painting by Bertram of Minden from the 1400’s showing the bless’d virgin knitting!

The industrial revolution really brought knitting into a bigger light. Thanks to the superior machinery wool could be spun accurately and made into uniform lengths, widths and weights to make selecting the right wool for the job a lot easier. This also meant that it became a far popular past time and during the second world war whilst a lot of young girls were digging for victory, others were knitting for victory- crafting socks and jumpers for the boys on the front. Free knitting patterns were issued so women could knit Army and Navy standard issue items such as gloves and balaclavas and the sense that they were doing their bit for the war made knitting an important skill.

In the 1960’s an increase in dying wools lead to a fashion for bright coloured knit wear and the twin set, a short sleeved top and matching cardigan, became very fashionable. However, in the 1980’s knit wear took a drop in the fashion industry and it was seen as un-cool. Girls stopped being taught to knit in schools and the arrival of machine knitted items made it so it was often cheaper to buy a ready knitted jumper than to make one yourself.

However, once the millennium arrived, knitting became popular again! And, thanks to the rise of equality of the sexes, men started to pick it up too. Celebrities such as Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz helped popularise the trend by taking up knitting themselves and slowly but surely knitting became popular again. In fact, in 2006 a woman called Stephanie Pearl-McPhee challenged people to the knitting Olympics- taking on a complex knitting challenge by casting on during the opening ceremony of the real Olympics and then pledging to finish 16 days later for the closing ceremony. Over 4000 knitters joined in!

So, as you can see, knitting has a very versatile history- from the socks Queen Elizabeth I wore, to the gloves knitted for world war two soldiers and this season’s animal print knitted jumpers in Primark.