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The stocking frame was one of the first technological developments in the textile industries, dating from the reign of the first Queen Elizabeth. It was probably invented in the East Midlands, but certainly knitted garments became one of the main products of the region from the seventeenth century onwards. The frame was intended for use in the home and the whole family was involved, the men working the frame while their wives and children wound bobbins and seamed stockings. This book explains how the stocking frame worked, describes the lives of the knitters and illustrates the kinds of buildings in which knitting was done. Since the hosiery industry was the last of the textile industries to mechanise, many of these family workshops remain. There are some interesting places to visit both in Britain and Europe where the hand process is still demonstrated.

• The operation of a knitting frame required close co-ordination between the movements of hands, eyes - and feet, and so the knitter needed as much light as possible to fall on his frame. Artificial light could be provided by placing a candle behind a glass globe filled with water, which intensified the light of the single frame. Candles were expensive, and knitters tried to work as much as possible without them, making maximum use of daylight.
• The manufacture of knitted goods was the last branch of the textile industry to adapt to mechanical power. The widespread use of steam-driven knitting frames did not develop until the late nineteenth century and the industry never passed through a water-powered phase.
• The early factories can often be recognised by the domestic style of their windows, and these were many in number since light was as important in the factory as in the workshop. Most factories had large chimneys for the boilers that provided steam for the machines.