Hose in the Maciejowski Bible

[sbuchler]

I have a new-old obsession: At Pennsic eestep picked up a copy of the Maciejowski Bible. I borrowed it to start doing an analysis of the colors of hose and what color tunics they were paired with (since my copy was at home). I finally finished up the count on Tuesday (there are a lot of human figures in that manuscript!!). I spent hours yesterday

Comments

[virginiadear]

This

[sbuchler]

I thought naalbinding _was_ single needle knitting *confused* :-S

I had fun surfing some of the egyption finds a few days ago :-) but as you said, I have no idea if any of those techniques made it to 13th century Paris.

Late 14th century is England is closer in time and place then anything I'd seen previously! (not that it's _very_ close, but still...) Thanks! :-)

[virginiadear]

As I understand it, *somehow* the yarn and the *knitting* needle make a fabric, probably shaped 'in the round' when it's finished, the way a sock is rounded at the toes and bends and curves at the heel, by manipulating one or the other or both. You have orderly rows of loops passing through orderly rows of loops

[sbuchler]

You obviously know much more about it than me - thank you again! :-)

[virginiadear]

No,no,no!!!! I don't KNOW. I'm surmising, based on the nalbindning descriptions/instructions I've read, and what at the time sounded like an amazingly garbled description of the single-needle knitting. That, though, I believe the knitter understands but simply doesn't know how to explain verbally: bet she's a kinesthetic or visual learner and a kinesthetic or visual teacher, too.
I've fiddled about a bit with knit stitch and purl stitch, so I know how the two needles work and can imagine manipulating the yarn or thread with just one needle.
I've read instructions on the nalbindning and got even more confused over that than I did with trying to learn to cast on for two-needle knitting.
And in this little post I've got three needleworking techniques going, none of which I actually understand so I think I'll stop now.

[sbuchler]

lol! you're still showing more understanding than I have :-)

[virginiadear]

Heh.
Further thought.
My thinking has been to establish, if at all possible, that knitting, either single- or double-needle or in-the-round can be established in Europe in the 13thC, you have a better chance that evidence for it in Paris can be found.
Obviously, if you can't find *any* 13thC knitting anywhere in Europe, odds are it didn't exist in some secret pocket in Paris. Not impossible that it did, just a much longer, long shot.

[sbuchler]

Yes, evidence of any kind of knitting in 13th century western europe would _greatly_ improve the knit-socks hypothisis :-)