Polished wool

 A textile professional that frequently makes reproductions of old textiles for museums was asked to make reproductions of knit hats from the Tudor period.

The hats had a "polished surface, and that she was unable to reproduce.

The surface of the hats in question, looks just like the bottoms of some of the socks that I knit (from yarn that I made) and have worn several times. There are patches of such polished surfaces on some parts of my old ganseys that I have worn many times. It does not occur on objects that I have knit (even with knitting sheaths) from  commercial yarn that I have purchased in the last 15 years. 

That polished wool surface is produced with firmly worsted spun wool is tightly knit - knit using a knitting sheath that allows knitting more tightly than can be achieved with hand-held knitting needles, and that is then worn.

Think of a knitting sheath as a lever for moving loops of yarn. A knitting sheath provides more leverage so the loops can be moved more forcefully without damaging the hands and wrists. Yes, you can knit that tight with circular needles, but if you knit that tightly for more than a few minutes per day, you will ruin your wrists. And a knitting sheath allows knitting faster. If I are knitting fine fabrics, I need to knit faster to actually finish an object.  If I make slow progress, I give it up, and it becomes a WIP. 

These days, I knit and finish socks using 1,700 ypp worsted spun yarn on 1.5 mm needles at 12 spi &14 rpi. When I was young and foolish, I tried such knitting, and that resulted in a bin of WIP. From small swatches, it was clear that I did not like the fabric from the Nancy Bush solution (7 spi). 

Yes, it took me several years to work out how to use knitting sheaths. Now, much of what I know is in the videos in this blog. 

I often go back and review the basics as I know them on to use knitting sheaths, and I often find new things. 

For a long time, I thought it was much faster and easier on the hands to knit sock ribbing with dome tipped needles - So I would sit down to knit socks with 2 sets of needles. In the last few weeks, I have figured out how to do purl stitches in fine yarns quickly and easily with flat tipped needles. Yesterday, I took the dome tipped needles out of my sock knitting bag. Now, the knitting needles (pricks) in my sock knitting bag are 6- flat tipped, spring steel, 12" by 1.5 mm. 

Also in the bag are a thin slab of wood (the exact length of the foot that I am knitting for!), a leather apron, knitting sheath, yarn, magnifying glasses, yarn needle, a fine crochet hook,  and a couple of short-fine-pointy needles for aid in picking up or recovering dropped stitches.  (A knitter's dreams should exceed their grasp, and if you are knitting your dreams, some days you will drop stiches.) 

Knit to fit.