Some seem to feel that what I do is either an arrogant lie or an accident.
No it a matter of taking some clue out of history and working on it until I come up with something useful.
Perhaps the Holy Grail was "swaving". (After," How did the old fishermen on the banks stay warm?) My grandmother told stories of very fine, hand knit, camel, ladies gloves. And. we had limited information on the Terrible Knitters of the Dales swaving fine gloves. The hints were tantalizing, but, "What was the truth?" What was the technique?
Clearly the needle rotated in the knitting sheath. This makes swaving dramatically different from any other modern hand knitting technique. Lever knitting was based on needle pitch / yaw motions. In contrast, swaving was based on needle rotation.
So I bent some DPNs and tried it. The fabric was wonderful, but the process was so high effort that a 2" by 2" swatch knit in an evening would leave my hands stiff and sore for days. For several years, I could not find a needle configuration that reduced the effort. I could produce wonderful fabric, but the effort was impossible. I came to believe that swaving was inherently, a high effort activity, and that the high effort required was why it disappeared. I was wrong.
Then, I saw a glover's needle in a museum collection that was obviously used for swaving and I made a set of replicas. They worked - for glove fingers. All of a sudden, swaving (glove fingers) was an easy and low effort way to knit. Scaling that needle/sheath geometry to longer needles suitable for socks and glove cuffs and palms was matter of many generations of needles over a period of 3 years. So, when I say that I can "swave" it is not the result of one trial or a few trials, it is the result of many trials, and taking many little baggies of swatches to many guild show and tells.
Everyone is so accustomed to knitting being a pitch/yaw motion, that their eyes are fooled, and nobody sees the rotation of the needle in swaving. No wonder Rutt did not see it. It is an optical illusion, and I must apologize to Rutt.
Here is a pictorial history of the tools I have tried and abandoned, to the tools that I currently use:
Today, swaving is my preferred way to knit. It produces a very nice fabric (with ridges when knitting back and forth). It is very fast. It is very easy on the hands It is very low effort. The needles are compact and blunt (read as "safe in a knitting bag"). The bent needles (pricks) tend not to leave ladders, even in sock fingers. And, it is very easy to knit firm (weatherproof) fabrics from even very fine yarns. Thus, the technique is ideal for gloves and socks. Today, I have, and use swaving needles down to 1.2 mm.
In contrast, gansey knitting with long straight needles and a knitting sheath is a fast and easy way to knit large objects such as sweaters. Gansey knitting is for objects involving cabling, bobbles, and lace. Gansey needles are long, and sharp enough to slide right through most knitting bags and poke holes in anything that might be precious or valuable. On the other hand, when you must knit a very warm sweater, very fast, gansey needles with a knitting sheath are tool of choice. And one can knit back and forth without ridges. : )
No it a matter of taking some clue out of history and working on it until I come up with something useful.
Perhaps the Holy Grail was "swaving". (After," How did the old fishermen on the banks stay warm?) My grandmother told stories of very fine, hand knit, camel, ladies gloves. And. we had limited information on the Terrible Knitters of the Dales swaving fine gloves. The hints were tantalizing, but, "What was the truth?" What was the technique?
Clearly the needle rotated in the knitting sheath. This makes swaving dramatically different from any other modern hand knitting technique. Lever knitting was based on needle pitch / yaw motions. In contrast, swaving was based on needle rotation.
So I bent some DPNs and tried it. The fabric was wonderful, but the process was so high effort that a 2" by 2" swatch knit in an evening would leave my hands stiff and sore for days. For several years, I could not find a needle configuration that reduced the effort. I could produce wonderful fabric, but the effort was impossible. I came to believe that swaving was inherently, a high effort activity, and that the high effort required was why it disappeared. I was wrong.
Then, I saw a glover's needle in a museum collection that was obviously used for swaving and I made a set of replicas. They worked - for glove fingers. All of a sudden, swaving (glove fingers) was an easy and low effort way to knit. Scaling that needle/sheath geometry to longer needles suitable for socks and glove cuffs and palms was matter of many generations of needles over a period of 3 years. So, when I say that I can "swave" it is not the result of one trial or a few trials, it is the result of many trials, and taking many little baggies of swatches to many guild show and tells.
Everyone is so accustomed to knitting being a pitch/yaw motion, that their eyes are fooled, and nobody sees the rotation of the needle in swaving. No wonder Rutt did not see it. It is an optical illusion, and I must apologize to Rutt.
Here is a pictorial history of the tools I have tried and abandoned, to the tools that I currently use:
Note that the needles that work well have their bend about 2" from the end of the needle.
The needles that I currently use are about as blunt as possible. This goes against current thinking that one needs sharp needles to knit fast. Needles that work very well have just enough bend to fit snugly in 3/4" pipe, regardless of the length of the needle. Needles that work best are less then 8" long. My glove needles are 4" long with the bend in the middle. Thus, the glover's needles have a sharper bend.
Today, swaving is my preferred way to knit. It produces a very nice fabric (with ridges when knitting back and forth). It is very fast. It is very easy on the hands It is very low effort. The needles are compact and blunt (read as "safe in a knitting bag"). The bent needles (pricks) tend not to leave ladders, even in sock fingers. And, it is very easy to knit firm (weatherproof) fabrics from even very fine yarns. Thus, the technique is ideal for gloves and socks. Today, I have, and use swaving needles down to 1.2 mm.
In contrast, gansey knitting with long straight needles and a knitting sheath is a fast and easy way to knit large objects such as sweaters. Gansey knitting is for objects involving cabling, bobbles, and lace. Gansey needles are long, and sharp enough to slide right through most knitting bags and poke holes in anything that might be precious or valuable. On the other hand, when you must knit a very warm sweater, very fast, gansey needles with a knitting sheath are tool of choice. And one can knit back and forth without ridges. : )
A sock and glove kit that is going to a friend next week.
(I am moving from storing needles in irrigation pipe to storing needles in acrylic tubing.)
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