Mrs. Stone's Treasury of
Historical Knitting Facts, Tidbits and Patterns

Trivia

The term sweaters began to be used for knitted pullovers formerly called ganseys or jerseys after they were used for athletic clothes.  It is said they were called sweaters because that's what the athletes who wore them did -sweat!

Saboteurs were named for industrial protestors who complained when the old knitting machines they were skilled at began to be  replaced with ones that it required less skill to use, thus cutting into their earnings.  The sabots refer to their wooden clogs!

Although sweaters were not commonly worn in non-coastal areas of the US before the late 1800s, some of the mountain men who trapped beaver in the wilds of the intermountain west came to appreciate them.  Osborne Russell one of the well documented trappers who worked this area is on record for having bought a sweater at Fort Hall.

Mrs. Stone's Historical Knitting Treasury