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Knitting and Knitwear in the Stuart Period
Author: Clarissa Thomas Orders of the day, Volume 32, Issue 5, Sept 2000
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Some years ago there was a debate in “Orders of the Daye” about the authenticity of certain types of knitted garments from the seventeenth century. Since then I have been making a study of knitting and knitted garments in the early modern period and would now like to make my own contribution to the subject. Handknitting - Method and MaterialsBriefly, the history of knitting up to the Stuart period is that it seems to have originated in the Middle East, possibly been introduced to Spain and Italy by Coptic Egyptians and thence, though rather slowly, into Northern Europe. There is little real evidence that knitting was done in England much before the late fifteenth century, so it was still a relatively new form of fabric by the seventeenth century whose properties of elasticity and shaping were beginning to be adopted for the making of stockings (hose), hats and caps during the late Tudor period. All the surviving Tudor knitting was done on the round using either 4 or 5 needles; most items have no seaming at all and stitches are grafted on for more complicated shapings. Knitting in the round means that only one stitch is needed to produce stocking stitch (stockinette) and purl stitches produce a raised stitch, a method much used for patterning. Ribbing was not discovered until much later. The fibre used was handspun wool; this could have been produced by the knitter or bought in. It was almost certainly of a long staple worsted type in most areas of the country, apart from in hilly areas where the fleeces are coarser and hairier. Worsted type wool is used extensively in weaving, being both strong, easy to spin and hard-wearing. The same qualities would apply to the wool used in knitting, although it would not produce the soft knitwear of today. By the end of the Tudor period Italian silk was beginning to be used, and eventually some time during the Stuart period apparently cotton as well, almost certainly imported ready-spun. Sources of Information About Knitted GarmentsThere are few illustrations of any item of clothing that could be possibly knitted, with the exception of men’s stockings, and by the mid seventeenth century the kind of hosiery worn by the gentry in portraits was probably of silk and may well have been produced on a stocking frame. Ordinary working people as depicted in English woodcuts, if not wearing cloth cut hose, would very probably be wearing hand-knitted stockings. However these illustrations provide little in the way of evidence as they are so lacking in detail. Literary sources are a little more informative about knitting: the Oxford English Dictionary has examples of the word being used in this sense from 1530, 1591 and 1660. There are other references from the period to specific knitted garments. There are also historical records for knitting: the Cappers Act of 1571, the Servants Act, and the establishment of town knitting schools for poor children and adults, as well as household accounts and inventories. The Garments ThemselvesAlthough the number of surviving items from the Stuart period are not numerous they represent several types of garments. As with other garments from the past, the elaborate and the treasured have survived. There are however enough surviving examples in museums of stockings and boothose to make it clear that hand-knitters were capable of dealing with the complicated shaping necessary to turn a heel and shape a toe. Other garments knitted in the round are the waistcoats knitted in silk, of which the most famous is the one allegedly worn by Charles I on the scaffold. There are several literary references that vouch for the popularity of these garments as an extra layer in cold weather, but I know of no illustrations of any being worn visibly. The only more humble survivor of this type of garment is a child’s vest from the late Tudor period recovered from excavations in London. Related to the waistcoats are the silk and cotton jackets which, judging by their small size, were probably worn by women. The silk patterned ones are knitted in flat pieces and seamed together. They are richly-coloured, using different coloured yarns and metal thread. The patterns are free-flowing naturalistic designs characteristic of the 1630s and resemble brocade. As they do not appear in contemporary portraits, these jackets must have been worn only in the home and were not considered 'best dress'. There are also several cotton babies’ jackets in museums, all knitted to the same pattern; these were knitted in the round and slit up the centre front. One is said to have belonged to the infant Charles II. Besides garments there are also knitted purses and remnants of garters from the period. The purses are an art form in themselves, whereas the garters are simple narrow strips of knitting designed to be practical and not seen. Bog BodiesIn addition to these superb museum items, there have been a couple of bodies excavated in Scotland which were clothed in woollen garments. That found at Gunnister in Shetland is the most well known and the items found on the body have been used as the basis of period knitting patterns. It dates from late in the century, not earlier than 1690. The Gunnister man's knitted clothing is of a very everyday type made of handspun wool and proficiently knitted - caps, stockings, purse, etc. However I believe that although useful, they should be regarded with some caution, as the Shetlands have a different knitting tradition passed on from Scandinavia. Although it is not to be recommended that some of the items mentioned be copied for re-enactment, as we don't know how widely available they were or exactly when they were worn, I hope this article has served to illustrate that hand-knitting was a more important craft and cottage industry in the seventeenth century than has been generally realised. Museums with collections of knitted garments (not always on display):
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