Recognising the Co-dependence of Machine and Hand in the Scottish Knitwear Industry

Knowledge of the economy and culture of knitted textiles in Scotland since the late eighteenth century is framed by opposing paradigms. The study of craft regards knitting as a traditional practice and focuses on the techniques and designs of the hand knitter. The industrial paradigm, on the other hand, is dominated by studies of factory production that subordinate hand knitting as an outmoded and non-economic practice superseded by mechanisation. This article analyses the production of knitwear in post-war Shetland to demonstrate how the bipolarity of that frame needs to be modified to highlight the manifest interconnectedness and mutual dependence of the two parts of the sector. It also challenges interpretations which assume craft production is automatically superseded by machine production. Knitting has maintained a dual identity as a hand craft and an industrial process since the mid-nineteenth century and thus provides a case study for bridging these disconnected histories.