Metoder för flerfärgsstickning : En undersökning av instruktioner i handböcker

Melin, O-P, 2017, Metoder för flerfärgsstickning - En undersökning av instruktioner i handböcker. (Fair-isle knitting methods – A survey of instructions in knitting manuals), Institutionen för Konstvetenskap, Department of Art History, Uppsala University. The study researches the instructions for various methods of executing patterned knitting with two or more colours (often called Fair Isle knitting) in knitting-manuals from the Nordic countries, the UK and North America, in search of similarities, differences and traditions. Professor Edward Shils defines tradition as something created by humans which is transmitted between at least three generations. Are there similarities and differences between these areas in regard to how colour knitting is worked? The study identifies and differentiates between four main methods for colour-knitting. The researched ca 130 manuals, dated from the 1950´s until the present - were analyzed in regard to the relative frequency of the methods they advocate. The result is that two-thirds of the instructions for Fair Isle knitting, during the period and regardless of geographical/cultural area, propose the stranded method with parallel floats. The other stranded method - with rotated floats - is less often given, and seems to have become less popular within the researched period. The method with rotated floats is mentioned more often in manuals from the Anglo-Saxon countries. The bound methods of Fair Isle knitting are the least suggested in the researched manuals, despite the bound and woven method being referred to, especially in British manuals, as equally advantageous. This method also never seems to have had much popularity in the Nordic countries. Bound and twined knitting, although until recently only used in areas of Sweden and Norway, might, because of the recent publication of manuals, find a new lease of life. Professor Shils regards tradition as a transmitted pattern of thought connected to a thing or practice. Knitting to create textile from thread is therefore a tradition, as well as the methods that are handed down weather by oral or written instruction. As noted, some methods of colour-knitting are traditions more in some areas than in others. Also, some knitting methods may never have been lasting enough to establish themselves as traditions. Keywords: Fair Isle knitting, instructions, methods, knitting-manuals