Knitch Magazine

Sometimes nothing feels better than a blanket. Whether you've had a bad day at work, you're at a football game, or you're afraid there are monsters under your bed, nothing else brings comfort like the softness and warmth of a blanket.

Throughout the course of history, blankets have been used to protect and warm travelers, troops, livestock, athletes, agriculture, and even engines. They've been made from cotton, wool, burlap, and later, man-made "high-performance" fibers such as polyester, nylon and pvc (polyvinyl chloride). These pieces of cloth have also taken many forms--quilts, bedspreads, baby blankets, saddle blankets, and in some cases, giant field blankets that cover sports arena fields when it rains. These items were originally knitted, crocheted or woven by hand before automated machinery was available. Blankets have been used for such practical purposes as trade for food and supplies, for fun as homemade forts, and for therapy to comfort autistic children.

Some of the most historically noteworthy and memorable types of blankets have been handmade, lovingly knit, sewn, embroidered, crocheted, or woven as gifts, practical household items or for use as currency to obtain necessities like food and supplies. One handmade blanket of record can be found in a textiles collection at the Museum of Fur Trade in Chadron, Nebraska. This piece is reported to be "the oldest known Indian trade 'point' blanket, dating to 1775." (photo courtesy of The Museum of Fur Trade, copyright 2006 ) Blankets used on livestock have been historically recorded as far back as 3000 BCE in Pazyryk, Siberia, where remains of horses and their blankets have been found. ("About Horse Blankets," by Rena Sherwood ) The method of making these horse blankets is unclear, but one can be sure that modern machinery for mass production was probably not available in 3000 BCE.

Knitting as a textile art possibly dates back to the 11th Century in Egypt and even earlier in Rome. Some of the original pieces that have been located are actually socks rather than blankets. Although they were not excavated by archaeologists, they are accepted as historical evidence that knitting could be dated between 1000 and 1400 CE.

These ancient Egyptian socks inspired the hands-on class Sock it! Making Ancient Egyptian Socks from Scratch. Find out more about this practical project and the knitting class that you can attend at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology in London, UK.

Photo right.©University College London, Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. UC 16767.

In the modern world, diesel engines are insulated with blanketing material, or sometimes wool batting, to reduce noise. Baseball fields are covered with tarps, originally made from cotton cloth, to protect them from the elements. Crops can be covered with blankets to prevent them from freezing. No matter how you look at it, the blanket has always been, and continues to be, a source of warmth and protection whether it's used for an animal, vegetable or mineral.

Today's knitters have vast choices of fibers for creating their own pieces of history: Wool, cashmere, alpaca, bamboo, cotton, rayon, silk, linen, acrylic, nylon, angora, mohair, tencel...in any number of combinations, weights and machine-dyed or hand-dyed colors. Fiber mills are becoming more and more clever with their product lines and fiber blends, even introducing innovate new fibers such as milk fiber, a soft, resilient, smooth fiber with a hand much like cotton and a drape like rayon. Nowadays, whether you choose the finest pima cotton for a baby blanket or the chunkiest wool for a bedspread, your new creation is sure to last through several more generations of comfort and bring a warm smile to whomever is resting underneath it.

Blanketing Kindness

KnitchMagazine.com received a very touching letter about an effort to create blankets for parents who have lost a child. The project is called The Schuyler Blanket Project, and it's being spearheaded by a woman who recently lost her first child.

She is looking for volunteers to help create blankets for other grieving parents.

If you are willing to help knit squares that will be sewn together to create a blanket, your kindness will be rewarded with the knowledge that you are helping comfort parents who are enduring one of the greatest losses imaginable.

Please visit the Schuyler blog for additional details about what is needed.