Wangs

Back in days when every law office had a Wang word processor, I was working for a large engineering firm with a large group doing environmental work.  They did not put me in the environmental group, but in the legal group drawing up the work contracts for the environmental group.  That was reasonable, RCRA and CERCLA were important to the contracts, but outside of the contract lawyers areas of expertise.  So I sat in the law group between the Wangs and the files.

Every lawyer in the SF Complex with an emergency project would first run to either the Wangs or the files.  They would see me, and if I did not look like my hair was on fire, I would get pulled into whatever emergency had been dumped in their lap.  Thus, at some point I have worked on most of the legal topics that might come up in a global engineering firm. A popular topic was intellectual property and copyright.

I have been accused of  copyright violations with respect to Brears.  If we look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_the_United_Kingdom#Works_eligible_for_protection, we see:

UK copyright law has a set of exceptions to copyright known as fair dealing. Database right has a similar set of exceptions. Fair dealing is much more restricted than the American concept of fair use. It only applies in tightly defined situations, and outside those situations it is no defence at all against a lawsuit for copyright (or database right) infringement.

s29.—(1) Fair dealing with a literary, dramatic, musical, etc, work, for the purpose of research for a non-commercial purpose, does not infringe any copyright in the work, provided it is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement of the source.

s30.—(1) Fair dealing with a work for the purpose of criticism or review, of that or another work, or of a performance of a work, does not infringe copyright in the work, provided it is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement, and provided the work has actually been made available to the public.

My use was strictly limited to non-commercial research on the actual function of knitting sheaths, and the source / author fully acknowledged. Thus, I am compliant with UK copyright law. Brears' material was never published in the US and there is no reservation of US copyright.  Thus, I am compliant with US copyright law.  See also http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html

Torque, Tension, and swaving

Long needles require longer knitting sheaths (mostly) to withstand the torque of the long lever arm provided by the length of the needle.  Knitting sheaths for swaving do not need to withstand that torque.  I may have been absolutely wrong about the short spindle form knitting sheaths in Brears. They may be to scale, but were used for swaving.

These are two Yorkshire knitting sheaths that I made along time ago. (Long before I worked out swaveing.)  They  mostly differ by the direction of the spiral design carved on them.  First, I made the one on the left, and it never worked (with the straight needles that I was using at the time). The one on the right worked acceptably when tucked into thin apron strings, but was never good enough to keep me from moving on to other designs.   However, for swaving, their performance is excellent and  substantially indistinguishable.  (Both always had brass inserts.)  Now, I have to go back and reconsider a lot of styles and designs that I had previously discarded.  The only thing wrong with some of those designs for swaving is the hole for the needle is too deep.    Relatively short swaving needles do not have to be inserted as deep into the knitting sheath because they do not have to withstand the torque. For swaving, needle holes less than 0.5" deep work well, while I had to make holes for long needles more than a inch deep to keep the long needles from popping out of the knitting sheath and into the furniture.

Two different spindle form knitting sheaths for the same size and length of needle, but since different knitting knitting techniques are used the knitting sheaths are different.  The long sheath is of the Dutch style and works very well with 6" straight needles (sock needles) and the short one is for 6" curved needles that rotate in the knitting sheath.

This raises the obvious question, "Can one swave with a leather/horse hair knitting pouch". Yes, but it is not as fast or easy as with a properly designed/ lubricated knitting sheath.  It is kinda like handheld knitting with wooden needles; there are many reasons to knit with wooden needles, but more speed is not one of those reasons.

It turns out that my trouble with doing decreases while swaving was in part because I was knitting very tightly.  And, swaving, allows knitting much tighter than in any other form of knitting that I know.

However, it is also possible to knit very loosely while swaving, giving swaving a larger range of fabric types for a given needle size than I am accustomed.  It is like  hand held continental where one can knit very loose fabrics with small needles.

However, with continental, one can just switch from tight knitting to loose knitting, or from loose to tight.  However with swaving it seems to take about 4 rows.  Anyway the bottom line is that one can knit loose fabrics while swaving, and that such looser knitting makes decrease stitches much easier.  However, knitting loosely while swaving does mean knitting slower because the fabric has less spring to it to pop the needle out of the stitch.

Swaving is much faster than I could ever knit with long needles (gansey needles), and I do not seem to be near a peak speed.  It is nice to have objects that seem to just sort of fall off the needles.  I have to be more careful to always count rows or check the length frequently.  In the old days, an evening of TV was a 4" sock cuff.  I could cast on and knit all evening without checking the length. The next morning, in the light I could finish the cuff, and turn the heel.  In the evening, I could knit most of the foot, and finish the sock in the morning's light. Thus, most of my work socks have about 5" cuffs.  I was not paying attention, so the current pair on the needles has 6.5" cuffs.  I will save them for winter wear.  It will be OK.

I had been using brass inserts in the needle adapter for swaving needles/pricks, as this reduced the friction, and allowed the needle to rotate more easily.  However, installing a brass insert was extra effort. Now, I am moving to simply making the needle adapters for swaving out of rosewood, black walnut, or similar.  With a bit of bee's wax , these woods seem to make a perfectly good bearings, allowing free rotation of the needle.  How they wear will be another question. I have not decided if the extra bother of working with these woods is more or less than the bother of a brass insert.  However, everyone seems to think the rosewood turnings look nice.

Diversity of knitting sheaths

A knitting sheath is as simple or complex as a hammer. Their essence is the same, they are tools that provide leverage.  My tool dealer (Grizzly industrial)  offers 157 different kinds of hammers, and that does not include antique hammers such as a cobbler or wheel wright might have.  Thus, it is reasonable to think that there might be a large number of different kinds of knitting sheaths - each used for a different kind of knitting. And there are.

If we look at the various knitting sheaths drawn by Peter Brears in The Knitting Sheath, published in Folk
Life vol 20 1981-82.  We see the following kinds of knitting sheaths:

     Fig 2


         
Fig 3

Fig 4


   Fig 5

Fig 6


 
   Fig 7
                                                                       


     Fig 8


I am struck by several factors.  One is that he does not distinguish between knitting sheaths used for swaving and those for use with long needles. he does not indicate the size of the needle that fits the sheath.  And, he does not distinguish between, professional tools, 'love tokens' intended to be functional, and love tokens intended to be purely decorative or sentimental.With only one exception, Brear does not indicate wear marks (or lack of wear marks).

In Fig. 3 Nos. 1 and 8 are clearly utilitarian tools. Nos. 2, 3, 7, 10, and 11 are functional tools with decorative carving that enhances their functionality.  While Nos, 4, 5, and 9 have carving that diminish their functionality, and  Nos, 6, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16 were likely never intended for any use what so ever. No.6 is heavy. The woods that are soft enough to carve ball-in-cage are to soft to make good knitting sheaths.  The  ball-in-cage structures in nos. 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16 are not likely to be to survive the stress of knitting with long needles.  The  ball-in-cage in No. 4 is not required to transmit the full stress of the needles, but only survive handling.  It could survive handling in the context of careful knitting for the family, but is not likely to survive sustained professional / commercial use.  Thus, some knitting sheaths were made for use, and others were purely for sentimental and decorative purposes.  And some were made to show off whittling ability.

Brears

The Knitting Sheath
by
Peter C.D. Brears published in Folk Life  A Journal of Ethnological Studies Volume Twenty 1981-82
deserves some careful review.  Therefore over the next few posts, I am going to annotate several aspects of the work.

Several thing jump to mind.  The first is that this is a peer reviewed academic journal that can be found in research libraries and reprints were sold at a nominal cost at various museums in Yorkshire.  (My copy cost  95 p at the Castle Museum.)  The second is his acknowledgement of hand knitting as a profession and industry. The third is his noting that the knitting sheath was used in this industry almost without exception. And, the fourth is his reference to William Howitt's description of knitters in Dentdale.

Anybody that says they could not find Howitt's passage on knitting, just was not looking.  I may make mistakes, but I go look.