Knitting, an art of producing two dimensional fabrics from a one dimensional yarn, is well known today. Most of us can find it in every part of the world. We can find our female elders means to say mom or grandma sitting on the chair and knitting by the help of long needles to create beautiful sweaters or socks or similar apparel for us. But most of us have never tried to know the history of knitting. Even most of our elders donÆt know about history of knitting because they adopted the art of knitting from their elders as a hobby. Some of them learned it to show their creativity or special quality before their husbands or to the society but never wanted to know the real thing behind it û the history of knitting.

As knitting is totally based on the yarns and needles and yarns are biodegradable so it is very difficult to know the exact history of knitting. This art has been practiced since thousands of years. There are different believes regarding to the origin of knitting. When, where and how this art was adopted is still a mystery. Who the first knitters were is still a mystery too. However, some believe that the Persia was the origin of knitting but some others claim Israel, Jordan and Syria belt as its origin. Still others believe that it started in the mountains of North Africa, or even Japan or China.

The earliest archeologist evidence of knitted garments is a duet of knitted socks identified in Egyptian graves by the third to sixth centuries A.D. The earliest needle is made of brass and its study brings backward to the Iron Age. The spinning wool came into practice near the Mediterranean Sea close to 4000 B.C. Just about A.D.50, they were Romans who built the wool factory for the first time in England. In the medieval Europe hand knitting was an important industry and by now it has developed very much and has taken the form of advanced craft.

The oldest style of knitwork is the crossed knitting in which stitches are rotated half a turn instead of aligning it perpendicularly. The other names of this method are single-needle knitting and pseudo knitting. Nazca culture from Peru (200B.C. to A.D.600) highly developed this method in the fringes of woven clothes. In the Nazca work, complex human and animal figures were created by frequently changing the color in the fringes.

There are some more early findings of knitting. Some knitted pieces were found at the Dura-Europas site situated near the Euphrates River around A.D.200. Other one is the sandal socks apparently from Saudi Arabia found around A.D.350. Some socks and other apparels created with the crossed knitting technique were found in the Egyptian burials. It is likely however that these earliest socks were worked in nalebinding; which is an ancient craft which often looks very similar to true knitting. Socks and stockings may be considered as the oldest knitted fabrics according to the findings.

It is stated in the Complete Encyclopedia of Stitchery (written by Mildred Graves) that nearly all historians accepts that probably the Arabians and the merchants used to travel throughout the Mediterranean spread the knitting. Many people have faith that Arabian nomads invented knitting and carried the craft to Egypt around 5th century A.D. Then it was spread through North Africa and into Spain. From Spain, it was then speedily spread throughout Europe by Catholics.

First knitting machine was invented in 16th century in England. William Lee who was a clergyman lived in Nottingham invented the first knitting machine. A few improvements in his machine for 250 years prove the excellency of work. After the invention of LeeÆs machine, the art of knitting flourished and developed. It then gradually taken over by guild organized cottage industries in the 17th and 18th centuries. It is interesting to know that technology of todayÆs modern knitting machines is also based on William LeeÆs machine.