
- Textile fragment
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Textile fragment
- Place of origin:
Egypt (made)
- Date:
410-540 AD (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Unknown
- Materials and Techniques:
Wool, single-needle knitting
- Credit Line:
Given by the Egyptian Exploration Fund
- Museum number:
1243-1904
- Gallery location:
In Storage
Before the technique of knitting with two needles evolved, textiles with a very similar structure and texture were created by a technique known as ‘single-needle knitting’. This sock, made in this method, was excavated from Christian burial grounds of the late Roman period, found in the present-day city of al-Bahnasa in Egypt. It shows that these socks wore out frequently due to friction with the sandals, but were expertly mended using the same single-needle knitting technique.
Single-needle knitting used yarn threaded through the eye of a sewing needle worked in the round through a series of loops. It was much more laborious and slower than knitting with two needles, as the yarn could only be worked in short lengths. Extra pieces of yarn had to be spliced on as the ‘knitting’ progressed.