Exploring Knitting Folklore： Myths, Magic & Traditions

I'm basically just an obsessed knitter and it's going great so far. How's your day been? You okay? Did you finish that whip? Bet you didn't because I didn't either but that's fine. So today we're going to talk about some knitting myths, legends, superstitions, basically all the weird spooky stuff because that's what I like. I love all the spooky stuff and knitting has a lot and I was kind of shocked at how much it actually had so I think it'd be interesting to go through them and pick them apart and just have a gander at them and see what's what because it's funny and I love knitting so I don't know how long this video is going to be but I'm going to try and make it as long as possible so you can just sit there with your so yeah if that sounds good to you let's crack on because we've all got ---- to do so. So knitting has been around for a long long time like longer than I actually thought when I was researching it because I first thought hey why don't we do a video on the history of knitting which I might still do because there is a lot of history that I didn't know and that is really interesting. I love a bit of history myself so I might actually partake in that but yeah knitting has been around for such a long time like you could probably say it's been around in some form for since the dawn of human civilization and many cultures from around the world all have their own myths, legends and superstitions about knitting. Join me as we go through the spooky, the strange and sometimes really weird superstitions and legends of knitting. I was going to do some knitting while I do this but I can't do I can't speak to people and knit at the same time I'll get confused so pretend I'm knitting. So beginning with one which people may or may not be familiar with I feel like if you're a knitter you may have heard this before if you're not a knitter and you're just watching because this is on autoplay then I'll give you a bit of context. So we're going to start with Aran Sweaters. The legend of Aran Sweaters comes from a collection of islands off the west coast of Ireland. If there is any Irish people watching I am so sorry because I'm about to butcher the names of these islands. So there's three islands Inishmore, Inishman, Inishere. I think I got that right. The story goes that women would knit these sweaters for their family members and they would kind of put on very specific patterns in order for them to be identified if their husbands or sons were to drown at sea. A bit morbid but is this true? I've I'm sure people have always heard this before. It's been around for ages I thought anyway. So I did some research and I was like let's get to the bottom of this. Is it true? Where did the legend come from or myth? Sorry. The earliest mentions of the Aran Sweater I can find it started to originate in the 1890s. A lot of fishermen were sent to the Aran Islands with their wives from different parts of England and Ireland to basically teach the Aran Islanders better ways to catch fish and process fish. And it's thought, from my research anyway, don't know if this is true, that the English people brought the Guernsey Sweater which is very similar to the Aran Sweater. They actually get mixed up quite a lot and this myth of finding identifying bodies with the patterns in the knitwear does also get attributed to the Guernsey as well. Basically it was kind of romanticised of having this long history within Irish culture with the idea of it being passed down from generation to generation by mothers and wives. So there's this guy called Heinz Agathe Kiwi. Kiwi? I can't pronounce his name. He was a textile historian. It's very hard to find information this month. I read an article as well that someone called him a knitting crackpot so I don't know. But most of the kind of legends around the Aran Sweater seem to originate from him. He also, he didn't claim that the Aran Sweater was thousands of years old but he didn't dismiss it. He kind of saw the Aran Sweater and kind of just went with it and he didn't ever disprove it. He was just kind of like whatever I don't care. I was reading this book called The History of Hand Knitting by a guy called Richard Rutt who is a knitting historian which I want to do that. I want that job. Anyway, the book is actually really good and it's available for free online. If you go onto the internet archive, I'll link it below, you can read the whole book for free. You just need to sign up. It's really good and I recommend if you're like, if you like history and knitting it's a good read. But anyway, in this book he basically, it's a letter by Heinz Edgar Kiwi. I don't know, I'm so bad at reading and I'll read you the quote now because it's quite interesting. He's basically saying that this is why people thought it was thousands of years old. Heinz perceived a connection between Aran knitting designs and ancient Irish art. He never claimed this was a scholarly theory. He accepted it as an intuitive perception. In a letter to me he wrote, I never romanticized it yet I never forced to believe in written documents during my 55 years of research in textile history. So he began to describe Aran knitting patterns in terms of the white shirt of monolithic cultures. For a long publicist for wool spinners were credited Aran knitting with thousands of years of history. And I think as this romanticized history of the Aran jumper really helped with the marketing during a period where some of the the women in the Aran era. I keep thinking of Iron Islands from Game of Thrones. The Aran women were basically encouraged to sell their wares during times of financial hardship. So how does this all kind of come back to the idea of identifying a corpse from these patterns or symbols? From what I can tell the first mention of this kind of post-mortem identification comes from a play in the 1900s called Riders of the Sea. In which a family member is identified by not a sweater or any type of knitting garment but it's a mistake in one of the stockings that is what what someone is identified by. I think we can safely say that like I mean we don't know this could be 100% true and it's kind of been either exaggerated or forgotten but most articles and books I read regarding this kind of myth they all seem to attribute it to kind of this play. I don't know this is editing me I'm just editing and I didn't really explain myself in that section so I'm just going to kind of quickly re-explain. So with the play coming out in 1900 that was around the time where the Aran pattern became very popular. Mostly in like the 1910s and 20s but we can kind of see yeah we can kind of see that because the play came out and then the pattern was also becoming popular that the idea of identifying someone by a mistake in the knitwear could have very easily crossed into people's minds and you know people would be like oh my god where did you get that from like oh my god it's a cool sweater it's from Aran and it could easily just be like oh my god did you know that yeah that's what I think anyway but we can kind of see how a myth like this would kind of grow when you start looking at the kind of the different symbolism of some of the patterns in the jumper. So I'll kind of go briefly go through some of them for anyone who doesn't know. The basket I'm going to put them up here so I'm going to move forward. So you have the basket which often represents good fortune and sort of like a good luck symbol to kind of get a good fishing catch. I don't know if that makes sense but it's thought that it would kind of be like you're going to get a good fish. And then you have the diamond which is thought to represent a fishing net because it looks like a fishing net kind of self-explanatory. You have the cable which is probably the most well known which basically is a sign of strength and safety because it looks like fisherman's rope which I actually never thought of. I've done cables for so long and I've never thought of rope so I'm just stupid. You also have the moth stitch which is also quite famous and this is supposed to kind of represent fertility and growth. That was what I was looking for. It's often said to kind of represent the kind of moss that would grow on the Irish coast so that's interesting. One of my favourite ones is called the blackberry stitch and this is my favourite because it actually apparently has loads of religious symbolism and I'm not religious in size but I do like reading about religious stuff because I don't know. I like the spooky stuff. But yeah this is supposed to represent the holy trinity so the father, the son, the holy spirit, all that jazz. And to kind of keep on with the religious theme because it's actually Easter weekend right now. Weird. So we're going to kind of continue this journey of godly knitting. So let's go. So knitting has actually always been considered a very spiritual craft which I've never thought of but now thinking about it, it is a form of meditation. It's a very soul soothing craft and lots of cultures seem to relate knitting to kind of capturing a piece of your soul within the fabric which is just so cool. Like clay doesn't have that so we got that going for us knitters. And you could even say it's a representation of divine creation in terms of religious connotations I guess. I sounded so smart there. So I'm going to go through a few of the kind of supers- not superstitions but these are basically things that have religious meaning to within knitting. So if you love god you're about to be absolutely ecstatic right now. Like god is in the house. I'm trying to be like all artsy and like but I'm not. I researched this. The idea of weaving your soul into whatever you're making that is to me is just so interesting and it can be found in so many different cultures. This is one quote that I saw that I was like that's really nice. So this quote. Many believe in leaving a mistake in a project because only god is perfect. It also connects with the idea of leaving a mistake in your knitting to kind of let your soul to escape because some people would believe that if you're making some- like if you're making a jumper for someone you're putting all of your like creative energy into it. You're putting your soul into it so you leave a mistake in your knitting to help your soul escape because they kind of owe you I guess. So that's really nice. So there's connections there between religious stuff and kind of well-known knitting myth. Another one is that- again I'm really sorry about pronunciation. I barely can speak the English language correctly. I failed English. I am so sorry for butchering this. Navajo. Navajo. This is a Native American tribe but they have something called the spirit line. So when they are weaving some sort of textile they'll deliberately leave like a line of contrasting color on the outer edge of the fabric and that kind of functions as a spiritual escape route so their soul can escape because otherwise their kind of energy will be trapped in into it. It's just everywhere really. We all have these kind of connecting myths and it's so fascinating. I can't think of any other craft that has this kind of law. So continuing on this kind of soul journey we're going on right now, I also found a mention of- I read on the internet, I think it was a Reddit post, that whenever you get some cat hair or dog hair stuck in your knitting it's kind of like a connection and like they will always be with you kind of vibe which that makes me want to cry. When I was researching this as well like if you bind some of your own hair within your knitting it binds you to the person you give it to basically and if that's not like pure like witchy TikTok vibe I don't know what is like it reminds me of that scene from weapons. I also found this amazing website slash article which I'll link below that kind of had like a list of different knitting superstitions and one that I found super interesting was people would sometimes keep bolts of wool in their homes as a kind of protection to ward off like evil spirits or illness or kind of evil stuff so they'd use like different colors as well so red would mean protection, blue would be calm and safety and white would be for mourning or remembrance. So there is just so much spirit spirituality within knitting in general and when you start adding in things like hair it gets really cool it gets really cool. So another myth slash superstition that I found was apparently it's really bad luck to knit in a church and I really could not find why. My first thought when I read this was I think they're just saying that to keep you like paying attention because if I'm gonna knit anywhere it's gonna be in church because it's probably really boring I'm sorry. I mean I like reading religious stuff but girl I would struggle so I think that's probably one of them pay attention please. There's also a myth that said it's well I'll read you it there's knitting on a Sunday or during the four holy days of Christmas is forbidden. A common superstition is that if you knit on a Sunday you'll spend one day doing your work or that you'll develop festered fingers. It's also a myth that starting a project on a Friday means it'll be a whip forever. I think the knitting on a Sunday one is quite interesting because if you look back at kind of knitting as not a hobby but as a job Sunday would be a day of rest so I think this was probably invented to make sure that people were just resting properly which is kind of sweet. There's maybe some deeper lore to this that I can't find but I thought it was interesting. Okay now we're getting on to a classic and I actually don't know how I feel about this the boyfriend sweater curse. I've seen a lot of people online talking about this I don't know I believe it but it's also kind of the ones where you're like do I tempt fate so my advice would be to just give my hand really down knit something for yourself and when it doesn't feel you don't like it more. But yeah I couldn't find any historical origins of this sweater curse. There's a lot of kind of marriage type myths regarding knitting. I think I read one that said that the woman would knit her husband or her fiance slash husband a garment and then give it to him as a kind of representation of her like determination and hard work and creativity which I'm sorry that kind of like annoys me because I'm like what is the man doing? What is the man doing? Like does she get a pottery or what does the man do? I don't know does she get a sword? I also found this really funny poem regarding that kind of legend. It said Mary knit a cardigan and handed it to Jean. He stuffed it in his bottom drawer and ran off with Maureen. It was very shocking I felt like someone really just kind of punched me and I just lost all feeling. That's so savage. So think of that poem whenever you knit something that you're about to give to someone. But with the boyfriend sweater I did find links to mentions of not knitting your lover a sweater until you're married. So if you're married you can I'd assume but I think this is one of them ones where it's like just don't knit something for someone you've only been seeing for a week kind of vibes. So heading over to ancient Greece now because there's some people out there who love ancient Greece. Yes I'm talking about you who watched Percy Jackson and read all the books. So with ancient Greece and basically ancient cultures in general there is quite a lot of kind of knitting legends. I want to say knitting this is very loose when I say knitting because it's more kind of weaving and yarn based myths I guess. But I'm just gonna shove it in anyway because I think it's kind of related. But yeah so in ancient Greek they had these kind of badass ditches called the and I ******* love this idea. So the story is that they are three divine beings who personified birth, life and death of the human race. It's so metal! Each had a different role of weaving the fate of mankind. So when I say weaving like I mean like actual weaving. So you had three of So we had Clotho who was known as the spinner. When a human was in the womb she would kind of rock up and start to weave different threads of their life and like each thread would kind of represent a soul's life and it contained their future and any actions and consequences in their The second one is called Lachis who was the second phase and her kind of main role was to measure how long the thread was and she would kind of dictate how long a person would live for which is pretty cool. And then you have the last one which is Atropos the unturnable. And yeah she was in charge of cutting the thread and whenever the thread was caught the person would die. And I've got a quote here that said after the cut a soul would be then sent to the underworld for judgment after which it'd be sent to Elysium the field of punishment or the fields of apostle. And there is a myth that you know that says don't cut the yarn too short bad luck. Maybe this is where it's from. It's just literally like myths from myths from myths. Everything's connected. Okay now for all you cat lovers like me. I have two cats. Love them. With yarn. I actually found the best ever myth ever that not only has cats in but knitting as well I think. So this story comes from Scandinavia. I want to say Norway but I moved around. But basically I'm going to put the name there because I'm not even going to attempt to say that name. But it's called the Yule cat and the story is called the Yule cat that devours the sweat of this. If that's not that could be a bad name I swear. But this actually comes from Iceland not sharp the country. But this legend is basically a huge black cat that roams the Icelandic countryside during kind of the winter period and basically would eat people who aren't wearing like clothing that has been gifted. So if they didn't receive clothing by Christmas Eve gone. And we're not talking about like Primark clothes or like cheap ----. We're talking about like it had to be spun it had to be worked on it had to be like finished. So we're talking about you know knitted clothes knitted beanies all that jazz. And the history of this kind of legend is really interesting as well because the cat is kind of seen as a it could basically exist to make people's failures visible because back in Iceland it's called a buck like it's an act of survival having all these warm clothes. So to see someone not having clothes that are warm it basically means death. So it's like you're not having if you don't have your clothes that are like you know warm you're dead basically. Exposure. Exposure means death in Iceland basically. And I love that because it has a big cat in it it's so cute. Okay to wrap up we're gonna this is the weirdest one I've ever heard and it's actually made me crease with laughter and I don't say laughter. So I found this one and I literally burst out laughing. But yeah this is this is a pregnant woman must not handle novelty yarn. I can't say the word novelty yarn. A pregnant woman must not handle novelty. A pregnant woman must not handle novelty yarn. Said it. Or her baby will grow up to be overly fond of wearing sequins in the day. Girl you need a high pony you need a whipped up pony because the guy's gonna want to grab onto something because he's gonna think you're a hooker because you're wearing sequins during the day. That's the end of this video. I really hope you enjoyed it. I actually spent a lot of work on this because I love myths and legends. I love knitting so I actually put elbow grease into this so I better see them in comments being like this is so good. This was the best thing I've ever seen in my life. So yeah thank you for watching and yeah if you made it to the end of this video please comment YARNBALL in capital letters and I'll thank you. If you want to see more videos like this please let me know. I really want to make like a history of knitting video so if anyone will be interested in that I will do that godly. But yeah don't forget to subscribe, like, whatever. Share with your mom, share with your dad, share into your knitting group. I don't know. I really want to hit a thousand subscribers soon so that'd be great. But yeah I hope you enjoyed this deep dive into knitting myths and legends with me sad knitting the saddest knitter alive. Bye!