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The story of Scottish knitting: the first critical history and analysis of a local craft turned international icon. From Fair Isle patterning to Pringle jumpers, Scottish knitwear is internationally renowned and instantly recognisable. This open access study unpicks the distinctive place of knitting in the Scottish landscape, economy, and culture from the 19th century to today.Recent reappraisals of the industrial revolution and traditional craft economies, and the recent revival of hobby knitting during the Covid-19 pandemic, have raised new questions about the roles of social communities, sustainability and women''s domestic work in the textile industries. Tracing its story from raw material to final product, from home-spun clothes and crafts to luxury markets and industrial-scale production, Knitting in Scotland investigates the Scottish knitting trade''s remarkable survival across two centuries of economic and cultural modernisation. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by UKRI.
List of contents
Preface and acknowledgements
About the Authors
List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Abbreviations
Glossary
1. Introduction: Stories, objects, histories
a. Pre-cursors of modern Scottish knitting
b. The modern knitwear industry
c. Histories of Scottish knitting
d. Researching knitting and knitwear
2. Geography
a. A Scottish tour of knitwear production
b. Knitting traditions and place
3. Organisation
a. Charity in the community
b. Educating the workforce
c. Business structures
4. Fibre
a. Wool: provenance and supply
b. Cashmere: luxury and heritage
c. Synthetic fibres: novelty and opportunity
5. Technology
a. Plain knitting and shaping by machine
b. Pattern and texture
c. Electronic machines and computer aided design
d. Shima Seiki
e. The pivotal role of programming
6. Making
a. The making process
b. Locations of labour
c. Skill: specialisation and flexibility
d. Gendered divisions of labour
e. Gendered remuneration for labour
7. Marketing
a. Local products, global competition
b. The work of selling knitwear
c. Competing for markets: the tale of Twomax
d. The power of retail contracts: the Marks & Spencer effect
e. Trading on tradition: Shetland producers
8. Design
a. The vagaries of fashion
b. Forecasting fashion: Pringle
c. Consolidating classics: Peter Scott
d. Design-led interventions in Scottish knitting
9. Communities
a. Factory communities: 'like a family'
b. Mutuality in an island community
c. A community of practice
10. The usable past of Scottish Knitting
a. Natural histories
b. Heritage of craftsmanship
c. Knitting as Scottish Heritage
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Lynn Abrams is Professor of Modern History at the University of Glasgow, UK.
Summary
The first critical history and analysis of a local craft turned international icon, and its remarkable survival from the 1800s to the present day.
