Knitting history

Knitting is an ancient craft. This is not in dispute. Exactly how old remains a mystery. There is some speculation that knitting dates back to the Stone Age. Granted the technology of knitting needles was no doubt with in their grasp: two straight bones. Yet in order to knit you need fibre. How did they create this fibre? The drop spindle can be broken down to a long stick with a ball-shaped bone on the end. Could they have developed such a device - possibly? It is hard for me to give them credit for developing something that is beyond the technical ability of this modern gal.

Some speculate that nalbinding is older than knitting. This reasoning seems flawed. Which is easier wrapping fibre around a stick as in knitting or drilling a hole into a bone to fashion a needle as required in nalbinding? Clearly wrapping is easier. Many school-age children have mastered the skill of finger knitting: using their fingers as knitting needles.

Some speculate that crocheting was the forerunner of knitting. They maintain that the first knitting needles were basically two crochet hooks. Yet is it easier to find two straight bones or to create a hook on the end? Clearly finding the bones is easier.

Exactly who was the first knitter? Was she a homemaker? Or was he a fisherman? The knitting terms "cast on" and "cast off" seem to point to the later. Yet, do you need to record your actions in order to make them. Of course not.

Conjecture, supposition, speculation...create your own theory. Who can prove you wrong?