Daily AncestorKnitter
A knitter made knitted goods such as stockings, either by hand with needles or by tending knitting machines in a mill.
Knitting builds fabric from rows of interlocked loops of yarn. By hand the loops are made one at a time on needles; a machine works a whole row at once on hooked needles.
Machine knitting is old: William Lee of Nottinghamshire invented the knitting frame, or stocking frame, in 1589. A knitter in a census may be a home worker or a hand in a hosiery or knitting mill.
As seen in a recordOccupation and industry columns of the 1910 to 1940 census
Annie Gray, 17, Knitter, Hosiery mill
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Knitter." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/knitter. Last checked 2026-10-10.