In March of this year, I spoke of seeing a piece of ancient South American fabric that looked like i cord or spool knitting and was described as being made with a needle. That was a long time ago and I wasn't even sure I trusted the curator of the museum to be correct. Turns out that textile specialists know a lot about some very early forms of needle looping. Shortly after making that post, I came across a beautiful, special, knitting publication from Interweave Press called Knitting Traditions. There is a short article in it by Kax Wilson, author of A History of Textiles. She describes, and includes a picture of, a tiny, detailed strip of looped fabric very similar to the one I saw so long ago. This fragment was found in a 2,000 year old burial ground on the south coast of Peru.
Textile historians call this looping technique "needle knitting" or "cross looping" or "looped needle netting" and it is made using cactus thorn needles. Only a needle and some very fine yarn were used to create miniature figures of people, plants and animals with lots of color changes, connected along a needle looped band of the same fabric. This article is followed by another, written by Jean Scorgie detailing a way to experience the technique while creating a finger puppet. I recommend these articles and further study to all my fiber friends. My only disappointment is that a photo of the fiber tools wasn't included in the article.
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