Stocking Frame

A stocking frame is a mechanical knitting machine that reproduces the action of hand knitting, using a row of bearded needles set on a needle bar to catch and hold loops of yarn that a presser bar and sinkers then close and draw off as finished fabric. The English clergyman and inventor William Lee of Calverton, near Nottingham, built the first stocking frame in 1589, seeking to mechanize the manual knitting of woolen stockings; his original frame carried eight needles to the inch, and an improved version he built later achieved sixteen needles to the inch for finer silk work. The stocking frame is generally regarded as the first successful mechanization of any branch of the textile trade, predating the mechanized spinning and weaving inventions of the Industrial Revolution by close to two centuries, and it remained in continuous domestic and small-workshop use in the English hosiery districts for more than 250 years.