Friday, September 18, 2015

Gauge

Many knitters do not believe the gauges that I knit. That is because they are lazy.  they did not do their homework.


For example, look at The Sweater Workshop by Jacqueline Fee. She shows gauge swatches done on 11 different sizes on needles including US#0 and US#1.  Anyone andeveryone that has knit such gauge swatches, has knit at the gauges that I knit.  Every serious knitting book from Mary Thomas's Knitting Book on has similar passages.


I took those passages to heart and knit gauge swatches.  It was my homework.  I did my homework.  Any knitter that did not do this, was not doing their homework.


I liked the tighter fabrics, in fact, I wore out 2 sets of Addi  size US#1 turbo circs knitting such fabrics. However, knitting such fabrics on circs was hard on my wrists.


So I looked for a better way to knit such fabrics. There it was, right there in Mary Thomas's Knitting Book.  Knitting sheaths!  Such tools in the form of Shetland knitting belts show up again in Wendy Keele's , Poems of Color. So, knitting sheaths and knitting belts are real tools used by professional knitters to knit decorative objects.  Mary Wright's, Cornish Guernseys & Knit-Frocks makes it clear that knitting sheaths and knitting belts were the standard tool of the serious traditional knitter.


Now, many modern knitters want to discard these traditional technique, and knowledge of  textile production for loosey-goosey knitting that is suited only for "art" knitting.  They want to kill and bury traditional techniques, and the associated knowledge of  textile production.  They denigrate and depreciate people who use such tools.


In doing this, modern knitters are no better than some terrorist group that wrecks museums, destroys historical sites, and plunders archeological sites.  In either case, it is the deliberate destruction of  knowledge and history as a result if ignorance and ideology. 

2 comments:

Sheri said...

Aaron, I've enjoyed what you've shared about the history of knitting and spinning. Have you every thought about compiling all of this in a book? It could be very valuable to have what you've learned preserved in one, concise place.

Aaron said...

Oh yes, but it needs a bunch of video clips, and they need to be much better than what I have been making.