On The Other Hand - The History of Knitting Gloves And Baby Clothes

By: Chaka Lucas Click author's name for more of his/her articles

The hand is irregular as the foot and even harder to cover, especially if you want the fingers to be separated. Bishops' gloves were part of their liturgical regalia, and did not see hard use. This explains the numerous preserved gloves from the early medieval period, throughout Europe and England. Liturgical regalia was luxury knitting, outranking even royal luxuries, and would demonstrate the best technical achievements of the times.

Knitters had contrived to produce gloves by the 13th century. The Cathedral of St. Sernin in Toulouse, France, houses a pair of plain white knitted gloves. Fragments of gloves from Bonn, Germany, interred with Bishop Siegfried von Westerburg in 1297, were made with stranded color knitting, similar to that found on the Spanish funerary cushion from 1275. The level of knitting was quite good for the high classes of society, but what about the lower classes?

Peasants and craftsmen were the basic classes that created the technology, including all the techniques to make gloves with fingers. But we haven't seen knitting in the context of the medieval European worker, probably because a knitted object was worn out by the owner, or passed along to heirs and worn out. Still, there is pictorial evidence of who used knitting.

Paintings of the Virgin Mary knitting, sometimes called "knitting Madonnas," attest to the knowledge of knitting in Italy by the first half of the 14th century. These painting show the Virgin knitting as she tends to the Christ Child, watched by angels, other saints, or St. Joseph, her husband. (Knitting still draws spectators.) The Virgin knits in the round, sometimes with multiple colors, showing that the technology used for Egyptian socks was already associated with women's work, at least in the painter's minds.

The earliest of these compositions, from the 14th century by Vitale of Bologna, has strongly Byzantine characteristics. Itinerant Byzantine artisans traveled between North Africa, Asia Minor, and Europe in the seven centuries between the rise of Islam and the fall of the Byzantine Empire, and were well placed to become acquainted with other craftsmen. Knitting is certainly more portable than weaving, an obvious advantage to itinerant artisans (and their families), who could have brought both knitting and Byzantine stylistic influences into Italy simultaneously.

A second knitting Madonna, by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, c. 1349, is interesting because Lorenzetti isnoted for having been quite radical in depicting the Virgin with the humanity of the commoners, rather than the honor due to queens, throughout his career. In the painting the Virgin is sitting on the floor, like a peasant, knitting while the Christ Child clings to her knee, and St. Joseph, sitting on a stool, watches. Knitting was one of the activities of peasant women at this time.

It is unlikely that referent altarpieces of the Madonna and Christ Child would introduce a revolutionary theme of the Madonna usurping a male-dominated trade, so we may assume the sight of a woman knitting for her child was unchallenging, even sweetly domestic. If knitting was unknown in the regions where the paintings were painted, observant local women would have been quick to learn the extremely practical needlework that the Virgin Mary did at home. So would their children.

Article Source: ABC Article Directory

About The Author: Chaka is a knitting enthusiast who loves to knit baby clothes. In fact, she has a great baby knitting pattern to recommend for anyone else who likes to knit baby clothes. She also has great recommendations for sweater knitting patterns for those who like a different sort of challenge.