textile history – KDD & Co

All dressed in yellow

how our attitudes to colour are bound up with the stories we tell ourselves

Marina Moskowitz

an inspiring conversation about everyday stuff and big ideas

sock of the week: no.10

the “everlasting stocking knitters” of Wales

sock of the week no.7

what might a pair of seventeenth-century stockings say about the body that once wore them?

sock of the week no. 6: clocks and socks

an image connecting the histories of eighteenth-century intimate apparel, government taxation, and the democratisation of timekeeping

sock of the week no.5: Jacobite garters

Stockings which concealed the political message of a lost eighteenth-century cause.

sock of the week no.2

By: Kate Davies Designs June 2, 2021June 2, 2021

History, sock of the week, socks, textile history, textilesfashion history, frame knit stockings, Lady Clapham, Lord Clapham, silk, silk stockings, sock of the week, socks, stockings, textile history, V&A Museum12 Comments

Eighteenth-century stockings in miniature

sock of the week no.1

Philippe Mercier’s popular portrait of an eighteenth-century stocking knitter

on the uses of handwoven tapes and bands

By: Kate Davies Designs February 6, 2020January 9, 2021

textile history, textiles, weavingband weaving, eighteenth-century textiles, inkle weaving, lanyard, Oa, phone lanyard, pickup weaving, tapes, textile history, weaving, woven bands44 Comments

I really enjoyed reading your comments on my last weaving post – especially hearing about the impressively wide range of new skills you are all currently picking up! I’m continuing to enjoy my weaving, and am finding it very inspiring. It really interests me that one of the first things many people think of when…

Mood Indigo

By: Kate Davies Designs August 26, 2019September 13, 2019

color, colour, History, textile history, textilescolor, colour, dye, dyeing, History, indigo, natural dyeing, textile history32 Comments

(top illustration: William Simpson, An Indigo Factory in Bengal (1863) I am currently completing a design project using yarn that has been dyed with natural indigo by my friends at Shilasdair. As I’ve knitted, I’ve often found myself thinking about the links between Scotland and natural indigo dye. Indigo isn’t, of course, a Scottish plant…

Jenny Jones

Over the years I’ve gathered a small collection of knitting ephemera. This includes a few different styles of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century sticks, wisps and sheaths (used throughout Britain for supported knitting) and different kinds of representations–largely photographs or prints–of knitting all over Britain. Such representations do not afford some sort of transparent window onto…

Estonian Knitting I: Traditions and Techniques

By: Kate Davies Designs August 12, 2016March 5, 2018

History, inspiration, review, textilesAnu Pink, book review, Estonian knitting, Estonian knitting: traditions and techniques, History, knitting, Kristi Joeste, review, Siiri Reimann, textile history59 Comments

Years ago, I wrote the occasional piece for Selvedge. I pitched a few ideas to them for short features which combined the history of knitted textiles with some account of how they were actually made, but was told that any sort of technical instruction was verboten “we aren’t interested in how-tos.” But why not, I…

thankyou, KCG

A few weeks ago, I visited the home of the UK Knitting and Crochet Guild – a fantastic organisation that exists to support and promote the crafts of knitting and crochet. The KCG is supported entirely by charitable donation, and is staffed by a group of wonderful volunteers, who administer a growing international membership; organise…