
People knew knitting since the very old days. Of course it began from fishing nets, rather than socks and scarves. Historians believe that knitting dates back to the Stone Age. It is difficult to determine, when people actually began knitting, but archaeologists know that some of the first knitted items were socks.
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Ancient Lithuanians used a wooden or bone needle, later — a metal crotchet, as well as bone and metal knitting-needles. Some of the quite early items also include bands for wrapping one’s feet. Later people produced socks and mittens, sweaters, vests, wrist-warmers, hats, shoes and parts of woven clothing. Summer knits featured flaxen or cotton yarn, while winter — wool. Most popular motifs are floral and geometric ornaments, as well as gentle pastel colours. Geometric motifs used to feature straight or broken lines, stripes, diamonds, purls and checkers. The most popular floral motifs included lilies, rue, oak leaves, tulips, bells and clovers. However, one wouldn’t find the same motif on many items — knitters would keep reinventing and improving them.
Although knitting was mostly a women’s craft, there used to be quite many men-knitters too. Some of them did that in secrecy, while others gladly accepted their neighbours coming to learn new mitten patterns.