Knitting Together Memories of Leicestershire's Hosiery Industry

Geoffrey Bowles Siobhan Kirrane

GLOSSARY OF TERMSFROM THE

KNITWEAR AND HOSIERY INDUSTRY

Geoffrey Bowles and Siobhan Kirrane

HTTP://MYLEICESTERSHIRE.ORG.UK

This glossary and all images are excerpts from the book

Knitting Together: Memories of Leicestershire’s Hosiery

Industry by Geoffrey Bowles and Siobhan Kirrane. The

book was published in 1990 by the Leicestershire

Museums, Arts, and Records Service, and is now

available online at http://myleicestershire.org.uk.

Right: Knitting on a fully fashioned stocking machine.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS FROM THE

KNITWEAR AND HOSIERY INDUSTRY

PATTERJ'IS OF WORK

The factory workforce

Knitting on a fully fashioned stocking machine.

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PATTERNS OF WORK

Starting and getting on

When I first started, I shall always remember, me mam sent me to work in me gym tunic and black stockings from school. All the other women were in frocks and I felt really out of it.

Joyce Higgins

For most young people in the 1920s and 1930s the transition from school to work came abruptly on or near their fourteenth birthday. Joyce Higgins had been offered a place at Kibworth Grammar School but, like so many others, her fami ly could not afford to let her remain at school until she was sixteen. The wages of teenage brothers and sisters formed an important part of the family economy and they were expected to take up a well paid job as soon as they could.

Ironing transfers on to socks.

In the 1930s a new hosiery trainee could expect to earn between ten and twelve shillings a week. It wa an attractive proposition, particularly as the work was clean and relatively secure . Neverthele there doe seem to have been a certain stigma attached to factory work, as Gladys Chapman recalls:

My father, of course, being old fashioned a he wa , no way could you go into a factory. he wouldn't allo\\" that. you'd got to go into service.

Once you became a factory hand you were expected to fit into a certain mould. Poor Vera Taylor attended evening ballet classes but dared not tell her workmates where she went after work, or the other dancer that she worked in a factory. For most families , though, the size of the wage packet wa the prime con ideration. Leslie Holohan was enterprising enough to ecure a position as a trainee cartoonist with the Leicester Mercury but, with the pay at only five hilling a week. his father insisted he work in a factory.

Finding your first hosiery job depended a much on who you knew as what you knew. There doe, not seem to have been any need for school certificate, and most newcomers were introduced lO the foreman or forewoman by aunts, brother, neighbour ' . or in

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CIRCULAR MACHINE

A knitting machine which makes a tube of fabric as opposed to a flat piece. First invented in 1806 and generally introduced from the 1860s. Now the most common form of industrial

knitting machine.

CONE

The yarn as rewound in the factory, ready for the knitting ma-chine. The conical shape helped the yarn to slip off without snagging.

CUTTING

Part of the making up process. Knitted fabric was cut with shears (scissors) by hand, or with a band knife or circular-bladed cutter. Both of these were in use by about 1912.

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Glossary

FASHIONING

Shaping a flat fabric during knitting. This is done by varying the lengths of successive knitting courses. The product is known as 'fully fashioned.'

FINISHING

Operations performed on a knitted garment to make it ready for sale. The full list included scouring (washing), milling or fulling to improve the 'feel', bleaching and dyeing. Since the war, finishing operations have become much simpler.

FLATLOCKING

A development of overlocking producing a flatter join, intro-duced in the 1920s.

FULLY FASHIONED MACHINE

A knitting machine which produces a flat fashioned fabric on a number of knitting sections turned by a single long shaft. First introduced by William Cotton of Loughborough in 1864. Used for high class work only, usually in fine gauges.

GRISWOLD

A small circular machine usually turned by hand and used to make socks. First patented in 1872 in America.

HANDFRAME

The first type of knitting machine, invented in 1589 by Wil-liam Lee. It produced flat fabric, and was driven by the knit-ter's hands and feet.

HOSIERY

A thoroughly confusing but essential term. Because the ma-chine knitting industry began by making stocking or 'hose,' the term 'hosiery' became synonymous with the whole indus-try and is still used in this sense today. However, 'hosiery,' as applied to the industry's products refer only to stockings and tights (full hose and panty hose) and socks (three-quarter and half hose).

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KNITTING

Broadly, making an elastic fabric by looping one or more con-tinuous yarns. Embraces both weft knitting, in which the courses go across the fabric - as in hand knitting - and warp knitting, where the courses go down the length of the fabric. Since the war, warp knitting has grown to become an indus-try in its own right.

LlNKING

Joining up the selvedges of a piece of knitted fabric loop for loop. The first linking machine was invented in 1858. Linking was a slow process whether done by hand or machine, suit-able for high class work only.

LOCKSTITCHING

Sewing with the basic domestic machine stitch. Used for at-taching ornamentation to a knitted garment.

LOOM

Old term for warp knitting machines. Generally the only thing worse than calling a knitting yarn 'thread' is to call a knitting machine a 'loom.'

MAKING UP

Joining knitted fabric pieces together to form a garment, and attaching fastenings, and so on, to it. Embraces seaming join-ing selvedges), cutting and sewing.

OVERLOCKING

Sewing cut edges of knitted fabric with a double chain stitch which covers the join to prevent fraying. Overlocking ma-chines were first introduced in the 1880s.

SEAMING

See making up

SEWING

See making up

SHEARS

See cutting out

THREAD

Used for sewing or seaming knitted fabric pieces together for making garments. Not used for knitting - see yarn.

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TRIMMING

Refers to the 'dry' finishing operations, particularly pressing. This was the counterpart to hand ironing, and was done in a steam press. A continuous process known as calendering could be used for some yarns.

WELTING

Knitted fabric unravels at top and bottom unless the first few courses (the 'welt') are turned in. Turning the welt was nor-mally part of knitting, but sometimes the welt had to be formed afterwards on a sewing machine. This was known as welting.

WINDING

Before the war, spinners supplied yarn either in hanks or on cops, spools or cones, and it usually needed rewinding at the knitting factory. It was normally done on large multi-spindle machines, though hand winding also persisted.

YARN

The knitting industry's main raw material. Knitting yarn is softer and more pliable than thread. Before the war the yarns used were wool, worsted, cotton and silk, together with rayon or 'artificial silk,' which was introduced in 1906 and used for underwear and stockings.

YARN PREPARATION

Before knitting some yarns needed lubrication with soap, oil or wax. Some knitting factories prepared their own yarn in this way.

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