I just upgraded my knitting needles. I have been using KnitPro / Knitter's Pride / KnitPicks (they're all the same!) interchangeable needles since February 2012, when I purchased the KnitPro Nova Deluxe Set for 43.85€. I was a graduate student in Germany, and that was an insanely expensive purchase for me at the time. They've served me well - they are essentially hollow brass needles coated with nickel plating that screw on to flexible cords of different lengths. I slowly supplemented the initial set over the years with additional needle and cord sizes, but there have been a few issues. Quality control has sometimes been lacking - one pair of needle tips completely lacked the screw connection to attach to the cable, for example, and the actual needle sizes have not always matched up to the claimed size. Over the past couple of years all of them, whether I've actively used them or kept them secure in their case, have developed some sort of sticky film that makes knitting difficult. So, after consulting the internet and a dear friend, I decided to splurge on a set of ChiaoGoo stainless steel interchangeable needles, which arrived this last week. So far I'm enjoying them - no goo and the cables are much more flexible than my other set.
Knitting doesn't get much attention in early encyclopedia sets - if there is an entry on the subject, it tends to be short. Here's the entry from Johnson's Universal Cyclopædia (1887), found in volume 4 on page 613:
Knit'ting [Ang. Sax. cnyttan or knittan; Ger. knutten, knot; Hind. ganth; Sans. gnanthi, a "knot"], a manner of weaving or twisting a single thread into a kind of cloth by means of steel, ivory, or wooden implements called knitting-needles, which are made of various sizes, according to the fineness of thread used and the tightness of stitch required.
Knitting is a far more modern invention than its kindred art, netting. Many antiquaries affirm that knitting was invented in Scotland, and thence introduced into France; others say that it is of Spanish origin, and was first known in England in the reign of Henry VIII. But in a rare collection of the acts of Edward VI. is one specifying, among other woollen articles, "knitte hose, knitte peticotes, knitte gloves, knitte slieves." In 1527 the French knitters formed themselves into a corporation, styled "Communauté des Maîtres Bonnetiers au Tricot," choosing for their patron St. Fiacre.
The 11th edition (1911) of the Encyclopædia Britannica's entry appears in volume 15, p. 869:
KNITTING (from O.E. cnyttan, to knit; cf. Ger. Knütten; the root is seen in "knot"), the art of forming a single thread or strand of yarn into a texture or fabric of a loop structure, by employing needles or wires. "Crochet" work is an analogous art in its simplest form. It consists of forming a single thread into a single chain of loops. All warp knit fabrics are built on this structure. Knitting may be said to be divided into two principles, viz. (1) hand knitting and (2) frame-work knitting (see Hosiery). In hand knitting, the wires, pins or needles used are of different lengths or gauges, according to the class of work wanted to be produced. They are made of steel, bone, wood or ivory. Some are headed to prevent the loops from slipping over the ends. Flat or selvedged work can only be produced on them. Others are pointed at both ends, and by employing three or more a circular or circular-shaped fabric can be made. In hand knitting each loop is formed and thrown off individually and in rotation and is left hanging on the new loop formed. The cotton, wool and silk fibres are the principle materials from which knitting yarns are manufactured, wool being the most important and most largely used. "Lamb's-wool," "wheeling," "fingering" and worsted yarns are all produced from the wool fibre, but may differ in size or fineness and quality. Those yarns are largely used in the production of knitted underwear. Hand knitting is to-day principally practised as a domestic art, but in some of the remote parts of Scotland and Ireland it is prosecuted as an industry to some extent. In the Shetland Islands the wool of the native sheep is spun, and used in its natural colour, being manufactured into shawls, scarfs, ladies' jackets, &c. The principal trade of other districts is hose and half-hose, made from the wool of the sheep native to the district. The formation of the stitches in knitting may be varied in a great many ways, by "purling" (knitting or throwing loops to back and front in rib form), "slipping" loops, taking up and casting off and working in various coloured yarns to form stripes, patterns, &c. The articles may be shaped according to the manner in which the wires and yarns are manipulated.
Here is the Encyclopedia Americana (1924) on the subject (vol.16, pages 488):
KNITTING, an industrial and ornamental art akin to weaving, but of much later origin. It does not appear to be more than three or four centuries old, and seems to have been first used in the manufacture of stockings. It consists in forming a series of loops with a single thread, through which another row of loops is passed, and so on consecutively in spiraled circles, the garment being shaped by variations in the number of loops in a row. In hand-knitting, steel-wires or bone or composition needles are used, termed knitting needles, and on these the loops are formed. For manufacturing purposes hand-knitting has been entirely superseded by machinery (see Knitting-Machine), which is constantly receiving new improvements. Hand-knitting, however, still forms an agreeable domestic occupation and also furnishes many women in some parts of the world with means of subsistence. Promptly upon America's entrance into the World War, many patriotic societies, and women of the Red Cross in particular, started a work of knitting sweaters for soldiers and sailors. The movement was taken up by thousands of women, who devoted their otherwise idle time to knitting, and it became common to see women everywhere with knitting bags on their arms, that they might work whenever they had spare moments. On the street cars, at social gatherings, in intervals of business, there was industrious knitting, resulting in a great volume of very serviceable sweaters and some other knitted garments being provided for the "boys at the front."
By mid-century, knitting started getting more attention in the encyclopedia sets. Hand-knitting didn't appear at all in my 1919 World Book, for example, but my 1958 set features a diagram on how to "cast on" stitches and notes that "knitting is older than written history." The article (volume 10, pages 4188-4189) also comments on knitting education: Knitting is taught to girls in some European schools. Schools in the United States do not usually teach knitting. The reason is that there are only two main stitches used in knitting — the knit and the purl — and the rest depends upon practice alone. Department stores and small "knit shops" in the United States have made knitting a popular hobby. Hand knitting reached a peak in the United States in 1935, partly because stores selling yarn offered free lessons in knitting. I wonder what the mid-century World Book would think of "stitch-and-bitch" sessions.
The 14th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (my copy is from 1965) concentrates on machine knitting under "Knitting," but directs the reader interested in hand-knitting to the article on "Needlework" (vol. 16, p. 183), which describes with diagrams (see picture below) the basics of the craft. I, for one, would not want these illustrations to be my sole reference for learning the craft, but it shows the trend towards including illustration. In general, the newer the encyclopedia set, the more likely there will be both illustrative examples of what knitted work looks like and diagrams demonstrating the basic stitches. The 1992 World Book, for example, features two-color diagrams illustrating the stitches as well as full-color close-up photographs of finished stockinette and garter-stitch knitting.
