Knitting

Industrial knitting

Interlock knitting at Harrison and Hayes, 1928

Knitting machines were driven by belts and pulleys, and varied from big machines such as the Cotton's Patent that turned out dozens of garments at once, through framework knitting machines, to small circular sock knitting machines like the Griswold. Knitters (mainly men) looked after the machines, keeping the yarn replenished, making repairs to broken or bent needles. Early in the last century some garments needed to be made on two different machines and one of the first machines to make rib top socks all in one go was the XL - a well-known name in Leicester.

The picture above is taken in a large factory in Leicester, however before the development of factories a large amount of knitting would have been done in small workshops. Find out more about knitting workshops in Leicestershire.

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