Spot The Frippet: knitting.

 What are you wearing? Of what is it made? And how has it been made?

You may have plastic or rubber soles on your leather or plastic or textile shoes, and you may have woven trousers or a woven shirt or a woven dress or jacket, but the chances are that your socks, if you're wearing any, will be knitted. And so will your jumper, scarf, gloves, and woolly hat.

Icelandic sweater. Photo by Freimut Bahlo 

They were probably knitted by machine, but they're still knitted.

What's the difference between woven and knitted fabric? Well, basically woven things are made with lengths of thread (or something similar), um, woven through each other:

photo by Rajesh dangi 

and knitting consists of interlinked loops:

photo by Pschemp

This makes knitted fabric much stretchier. It also means that you can make fabric with just a single piece of thread and a couple of sticks:

double knitting by Elisabeth Augusta. (Double refers to the thickness of the thread.)

instead of needing a loom (which is basically a frame upon which to tie the longways threads).

Today is a day to look closely at all the fabric you see. 

And to admire the loops.

painting by Li Mei-shu.

Spot the Frippet: knitting. This word comes from the Old English cnyttan, to tie in. It's related to the word knot.

By the way, in the USA jumpers are knit. In Britain they are knitted.