Tricot (knitting)
In knitting, the loops of thread are
usually formed by means of a pair of rods called needles. Thread of contrasting colors may
be introduced to form patterns. In weft knitting, the regular hand-knitting process that
can also be done by machine, the work progresses back and forth; in each course, or new
row of stitches, one loop is added to each wale, or chain of loops hanging vertically from
the needles. In warp knitting, which is done by machine, the work progresses along the
wales. Knitted tubing can be made on spools or circular frames without needles. The yarn
or thread is held on a row of pegs that project from and surround the center opening of
the spool or frame. Such knitting is also possible when the yarn is held on four of the
knitter's fingers instead of on a spool, and it can be made on a large circular needle.
The oldest form of knitting is crossed
knitting, in which the stitches, instead of aligning vertically, are rotated a half turn.
This method, also called single-needle knitting and pseudo knitting, was highly developed
in the fringes of woven cloths produced in pre-Columbian Peru by the Nazca culture (100
BC-AD 700). In the Nazca work, intricate human and animal figures were created by frequent
color changes. Other early examples of knitting include pieces from about AD 200, found at
the Dura-Europas site near the Euphrates River; sandal socks, apparently from Saudi Arabia
from the mid-4th century; and some socks and other items made with the crossed-knitting
technique and found in Egyptian burials, the earliest possibly dating from the 4th or 5th
century BC. Knitting apparently was introduced into Europe by the Arabs, probably in the
5th century. During the Middle Ages guilds controlled the manufacture of knitted goods
such as woolen caps, and the craft flourished in England and Scotland in the 14th and 15th
centuries. By 1589 a machine to knit stockings had been perfected in Nottingham by the
English clergyman William Lee, whose knitting frame was so excellent that few improvements
were needed for 250 years. Later English developments a ribbing device (1758), a
warp-knitting machine (1775), and a circular knitting machine (19th century) made possible
the shaping of hosiery and other garments, and by the 19th century machine-knitted
underclothes were common. Commercial knitting centers developed in English cities such as
Nottingham and Leicester, and in the U.S. in Germantown, Pennsylvania, and other cities.
As a handcraft, knitting developed both
as a folk craft with traditional regional designs and as a popular craft with designs
circulating in printed handbooks. In Scandinavia, regional patterns in yarns of
contrasting color became characteristic. Other regional styles, such as those of Ireland
and the Shetland Islands, were distinguished by different patterns. Another distinctive
style to develop was ribbon knitting, in which the use of flat ribbons rather than soft
yarns results in a markedly distinctive fabric. In addition to these hand techniques,
small knitting machines, which require a high degree of artisanship in their use, also
became available to home knitters.
Embroidery was being done long before its
name was derived, by way of medieval French from the Anglo-Saxon word for
"edge." The term was first applied to decoratively stitched borders on medieval
church vestments. In time, the word also encompassed stitched decoration on any textile
fabric, as well as on leather, paper, and other materials (See also Quilting). Although
the invention of the first embroidery machine in 1828 by the Alsatian Joseph Heilman made
possible the mass production of embroideries, embroidery continues to be practiced as a
handcraft, as it was in ancient times. Its historical uses have also persisted, as
ornament for clothing, vestments, wall hangings, and domestic linens, as well as for
upholstery, domestic furnishings, and rugs.Techniques
Embroidery stitches may be functional (as are the
stitches in nondecorative sewing) or purely decorative. In appliqué work, contrasting
pieces of cloth may be fastened to the foundation material with decorative stitches. In
smocking, decorative stitches secure gathers or folds, which have been previously formed
in the foundation material. Decorative stitches are known by such names as chain stitch,
blanket stitch, featherstitch, French knot, satin stitch, cross-stitch or gros point, and
tent stitch or petit point. The thread is typically silk, wool, cotton, or linen. Fine
metallic wire and, in some 20th-century work, synthetic filaments are also used. Heavy or
precious threads are sometimes couched, that is, laid across the ground fabric and tied to
it by stitching with a separate thread. Some embroidery techniques produce a basically
flat surface; others produce designs in relief. In cutwork, small shapes are cut out of
the ground material, the cut edges are embroidered, and the vacant space is often filled
in with decorative stitches. In drawnwork, certain threads of the warp, weft, or both, are
removed from the ground, and the remaining threads are embroidered. Some types of
embroidery are referred to by the kind of thread used (such as crewel work, stitched in
brightly colored worsted wool yarns on a natural beige or bleached white linen or,
alternatively, wool ground). Other kinds of embroidery are referred to by the type of
ground material used, such as gauze embroidery. These include filet embroidery (done on a
netlike fabric) and canvas work (stitched onto coarse- or tight-textured canvas and also
referred to as needlepoint, a term borrowed from lace making).
Early Embroidery
Ancient paintings, sculptures, and
literary sources indicate that embroidery was applied to clothing and other fabrics from
extremely early times. The earliest surviving embroidered cloth is Egyptian, preserved by
the dry desert climate. The Egyptians were skilled embroiderers who also used appliqué
decoration with leather and beads, and embroidery was also practiced by ancient
Mediterranean peoples. Centers of fine embroidery developed in ancient Persia, Babylon,
Israel, Phoenicia, and Syria. Few examples of ancient embroidery survive, however, and the
history of the craft is difficult to trace until about the 6th century AD.
Bayeux tapestries
European Embroidery
In medieval Byzantium, court garments,
ecclesiastical vestments, and altar cloths were embroidered in rich colors and ornate
designs often copied from Persian models and enhanced with pearls and gold and silver
threads. In late medieval Greece, linen panels were embroidered in silk in colorful
geometric and floral patterns influenced by Persian and Italian decorative motifs. The
influence of Byzantine art is found throughout Europe, particularly in Italy and southern
Europe. The Byzantine figural style was commonly used on church vestments made in Italian
workshops and also in German ecclesiastical embroideries of the 10th and 11th centuries.
The earliest embroidery to survive in
England (from 906) is a stole and maniple (church vestments) from the tomb of St. Cuthbert
at Durham. The most famous British embroidery, and the largest hanging to survive the
medieval period, is the 11th-century Bayeux tapestry, the dimensions of which are 70 m
(231 ft) long by 49.5 cm (19.5 in) wide. Technically an embroidery rather than a true
tapestry, it portrays in colored wool on a linen ground the events leading to the Norman
conquest of England. English liturgical embroidery of the 13th through the 15th centuries;
called opus anglicum ("English work"); was famous throughout Europe;
ecclesiastical vestments and textiles were embroidered in silks and metal thread with
images of saints and designs similar to those found in paintings and manuscript
decorations.
Gold became more frequently used in
embroidery after about 1300. With a movement to produce embroidered pictures ("needle
painting") that would achieve the luminous quality of paintings by contemporary
artists such as the Flemish painter Jan van Eyck, the use of gold led to the Burgundian
technique called or nué (shaded gold) embroidery. This technique dominated 14th- and
15th-century pictorial embroidery. Cloth panels were covered with gold thread, which was
couched in patterns in some areas and covered by silk threads in others, creating
pictorial representations.
15th and 16th Centuries
During the 15th and 16th centuries in
Italy, needle painting (or nué embroidery) reached a peak. Famous painters such as
Antonio del Pollaiuolo designed scenes to be executed by embroiderers. By the mid-16th
century, embroidery on vestments included secular decorative motifs such as grotesques and
scrollwork. This work was done in monasteries and convents and also made by members of
professional embroiderers' guilds.
In addition to needle painting, purely
decorative embroidery also persisted. For example, white-on-white embroidery was worked
with various stitches on linen altar cloths and peasant costumes. In the 15th century
white-on-white cutwork gave rise to reticello (Italian, "little net"), which was
an early stage in the development of lace making.
In Spain, long under Moorish rule,
Islamic influence was strong. Of the various styles of Spanish embroidery, the most
striking was stitched on white linen with wool from black sheep. Taken to England in the
16th century (according to tradition, by Catherine of Aragón, the first wife of King
Henry VIII), the black-on-white color scheme developed into the popular Elizabethan
blackwork. In Germany after the Protestant Reformation, embroidery was used for secular
and domestic objects, and crewel embroidery became popular. In eastern and central Europe,
embroidery flourished as a folk art and was used to adorn pillows, towels, sheets,
valances, and other household items. Geometric and floral motifs are common, and the
palette is generally bright and colorful.
17th and 18th Centuries
In the 17th and 18th centuries the
previously established techniques continued in use. Although printed books of embroidery
patterns existed in the early 17th century, they were not common. During this period,
samplers came into use as a means of recording stitches and patterns. In the 18th century
samplers also became pictorial.
Two techniques became important in the
17th century. In stump work, designs (often biblical scenes with figures in 17th-century
dress) were raised into relief against a ground fabric of silk or cotton wool. Such
embroideries were often used to decorate objects such as boxes or mirror frames. In
Jacobean woolwork; a variety of crewel work; large wool and linen fabrics were embroidered
in varied stitches and colors with exotic leaves, birds, and scenes. Jacobean woolwork was
used for hangings, curtains, bedspreads, and other domestic furnishings. Another trend was
the use of repeating patterns, such as the zigzag "flame" pattern (also called
bargello) used, for example, for upholstery. Embroidery of men's and women's clothing
reached a height in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the late 18th century white embroidery
from Saxony became famous as a decoration for cuffs, scarves, and similar items.
19th-Century Trends
After the French Revolution, a trend
toward simpler styles set in. Tulle embroidery became popular, as did appliqué work
(which was sometimes supplemented by paint). The most widespread popular technique of the
19th century was Berlin work, a variety of needlepoint or canvas work executed in silk and
sometimes beads on brightly colored wool. The needlework pictures thus produced were of
biblical or historical scenes, flowers, literary subjects, or exotic Oriental images.
Needleworkers followed designs painted or printed in Berlin that were sold throughout
Germany and exported to Great Britain, the United States, and elsewhere (hence the name
Berlin work). In the late 19th century the Arts and Crafts movement led by the British
designer William Morris included embroidery. Morris's daughter, May, was a leading
practitioner of the craft. The Royal School of Needlework, founded in England in 1872,
gave further impetus to all types of embroidery, not only in England but also in
America.
United States
Early settlers in the American colonies
brought their crafts from Europe. For embroidery, vegetable-dyed, handspun linen thread
was probably used first, although wool and silk have also been found in early sampler
embroideries. In the late 18th century linen was replaced by commercially spun cotton
thread. Of the vegetable dyes, various shades of blue obtained from home-cultivated indigo
were the most common.
Although American embroidery designs
generally were derived from English designs, they tended to be simpler. Among English
styles that became popular in the colonies was Turkey work; so called because of its
knotted pile imitating that of Oriental carpets, it was a type of canvas work much used
for upholstery. Quilting was also practiced in America from early colonial times. As the
colonies prospered and resources such as cloth became less scarce, the appliqué quilt
became a favorite type, with decorative embroidery stitches used to apply the pieces of
colored cloth that formed the designs. Samplers also were widely executed, serving both as
ornamental objects and as instructional tools whereby girls learned the alphabet and
numbers as well as their embroidery stitches. An older type of embroidery traditional in
the U.S. Southwest was wool-on-wool and cotton-on-wool colcha (Spanish,
"bedcovering") embroidery. In early examples, wool stitching was used in a kind
of self-couching stitch called colcha stitch.
Throughout the 19th century, needlework
pictures were popular, the most characteristic type being Berlin work. In the early 20th
century a taste for naturalistic design gave rise to shaded silk embroidery, worked in
flat satin stitch on linen in delicately shaded colors. From the mid-1960s to the early
1980s there was a renewal of interest among needlework enthusiasts in working their own
designs as well as prestamped designs of varying complexity; and by 1985 there were signs
that crewel work had been taken up again by those seriously interested in embroidery
crafts. Quilting had recently grown in popularity.
Asia
Especially notable among the many Asian
styles of embroidery were those of Iran, India, China, and Japan.
Iran and India
Although no examples of Persian
embroidery survive from before the 16th century, the 13th-century Italian traveler Marco
Polo described designs that were still used centuries later on carpets, robes, hangings,
curtains, and table covers. Floral and medallion motifs similar to those found on Persian
rugs were most common. A number of techniques; particularly darning, couching, and
drawnwork; were employed to achieve variety of texture, an important element of Persian
embroidery.
Embroidery was known in India probably
from prehistoric times, but in the 16th century it was greatly encouraged by the Mughal
emperors, under whose patronage many Persian artisans settled in India. Regional peasant
embroidery continues to flourish. Among the best-known styles are those of Kutch and
Kathiawar, in which satins are stitched with floral patterns inset with pieces of
reflective material. In the Punjab, phulkari embroideries display geometric patterns made
by counted stitchwork.
China and Japan
The earliest surviving examples of
Chinese embroidery are Tang dynasty (618-906) garments from eastern Turkestan. Profoundly
influenced by the silk culture, which made exquisite threads and fabrics available to
artisans, Chinese embroidery was principally used to decorate garments. Especially well
known are Chinese emperors' robes, profusely adorned with traditional motifs and worked on
a rich, dark ground; often black silk. One characteristic technique was void satin stitch,
in which the rows of satin stitch are separated by a narrow strip of background material.
Also characteristic were couched rows of silk threads covered with gold and silver.
In Japan, colored silks continued to be
embroidered with long soft stitches in untwisted silk threads. Flowers, birds, bold
flowing lines, and abstract motifs are common, and the designs achieve a feeling of calm
restraint through their spacious distribution. Japanese embroidery on women's kimonos
especially flourished in the 17th and 18th centuries.
