Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1892-03-11
Weaving a Much More Ancient Art.
its Origin Being Lost in
Obscurity.
The First Garments Worn by Adam
and Eve We're Not of HUI
man Origin.
Spain, Scotland and France Jndoubt-
eddy Among the Earliest in
the Discovery of Knitting.

A writer In the American Knit Goods
Review thus treats of the ART of knittipo
and the manufacture of knit goods:
Although the art of knitting dates
back to the middle ages, upward Of three
and half centuries, it is scarcely more
than an infant, mere bantling as it were,
when compared to that OF weaving, the
origin Of which is lost in the obscuritv
that shrouds the very earliest perion of
the worlds history.
The ex gremely meager known facts
bearing on the first clothing of the RAJ e.
as we fad them recorded in Holy Writ,
are: That at the first the man and the
woman in Eden were naked and "were not
ashamed" that little later, in conse
quence Of their partaking of the forbidden
fruit, they became conscious of their
nakedness and proceeded to qualify it
somewhat by the adoption of garments
made Of fig leaves. Beyond this came
more substantial garments of skin, which.
y the way, have been worn at some period
by all or near y all, the primitive races,
and after that, at date and under cir
cumstanCes of which there is no reliable
record extant, came the woven fabric.
The first IntlmatlOD Of the existence of
woven cloth is given in connection with
the account OF Joseph and his brethren.
The blood-Stalned garment OF the hapless
youth, the first on record of long line
who have encountered pitfalls in their
pathway, might have been either of cloth
or Of skins; the raiment which the
Patriarch Jacob and his son Ratben rent
upon the finding of Jacobs coat of many
but the 'sackcloth which Jacob put on
his lions, IN future to ken If sorrow for
his taVorlte son, most certainly have been
woven.
KNITTING COMES LATER.
knitting has been defined as an art al
lied to weaving, but of comparatively
modern origin, the time and place of its
invention being disputed, the weight of
evidence, however, going to prove that
the time vas somewhere about the year
1900 and that the homer of the invention
| belongs to Scotland. Rewriting to the
above definition there are but two prin
cipal classes of broad textile fabrics the
woven and the knitted (felted cloth being
OF comparatively small Importance, and It
Is an interesting fact that, although of the
former early and frequent mention is
found IN tbs most ancient writings. there
was no word as to the latter until the be-
ginning of the sixteenth century.
Thus III the Scriptures the word knit
occurs but three times, the soul of Jona-
than being described as knitted unto the
soul of David, christians being exhorted
TO have taeir hearts "lznit together in
love, and III the Acts, Peter being pre-
sented as refusing, although a-hungered
fowl and tour-footed beasts let down from
heaven in great sheet, knit at the four
corners: ;" These applications OF the
word: though cIearl y typica, have, as will
be seen, no relevancy whatever TO the
fabrication of knitted cloth or garments.
1t may, be pardonable depression to re.
mark, In this connection That the chosen"
IN which the three Hebrew children were
bound when they were cast into the burn
ing, hery furnace were not knitted gar
ments, and that, inasmuch as Sbey proved
not only indestructibie but impervious to
even the smell of the flames, it might be
worth while, as an insurance measure, for
an uncertain future, to inquire as to the
material of this fire hose and, if pos
sible, secure full suit thereof without
unnecessary delay.