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KNITTING. The method of fabricating cloth by theingenious entwining of a single thread, called knitting, isfirst noticed about the commencement of the sixteenth cen-tury, and according to some, originated in Scotland , fromwhence it found its way into France , where a company ofstocking-knitters was established in 1527, under the patronageof St. Fiacre, a Scottish recluse of the seventh century. Inthe year 1530, the word knit, applied to stockings, must havebeen common in England, as at that time a grammar waspublished by the French master to the Princess Mary, daughterof Henry VIII. , in which the verb to knot or knitt is men-tioned, “ I knitt bonnets or hosen—je lasse and from anauthentic and curious household book, kept during the life ofSir Thomas L’Estrange, knight, are the following entries,“ 1533, 7th Sept. Peyd for 4 peyr of knytt hose, viiis.; 1538,3d Oct. Peyd for 2 peyr of knytt hose Is.';” the former beingfor Sir Thomas himself, and the latter for his children. It istherefore presumed that, at this period, knit stockings werepretty common in England, though woollen hose were gene-rally worn till the middle of Elizabeth’s reign.

It is related by Stowe , that in 1564, William Rider , an.apprentice of Master Thomas Burdett, having accidentallyseen in the shop of an Italian merchant a pair of knit worstedstockings, procured from Mantua, made a pair exactly likethem, which he presented to William , Earl of Pembroke,and that these were the first stockings knit in England ofwoollen yarn, which in the course of a few years becamecommon, for when Queen Elizabeth was at Norwich in 1579,.several female children appeared before her, some of whomwere spinning worsted yarn, and others knitting worsted yarnhose.

From the circumstance of Henry VIII . having received, in1530, knit silk stockings from Spain , it is by many supposedthat the art of knitting had its origin in that country.