What is Buff Knitting?

[admin]

This is a discussion regarding a very interesting knitting technique and style that goes back almost one hundred years ago.

[Ada]

Buff Knitting is a method of making mittens used by the women for the men of the Adirondack Mountains who worked in the woods and on river boats gathering logs for the saw mills. The only material available for this purpose many years ago was wool, which lent it's self perfectly by it's natural ability to shed water & matte for warmth. The method was never written down but was passed by show & tell, friend to friend, mother to daughter. It involved making a loop in each stitch which would be clipped & matted after completing the mitten. This would make a "buff" that would be warmer & heavier thus shedding water better than just making a simple mitten with the usual stockinette stitch.

Then along comes the Acrylic yarns which is an answer for people who are allergic to wool & don't want the inconvienience of the work involved in the care of natural wool products. But this material doesn't have the ability to matte & when the loops were cut after making the mittens with the old method they would fall out.

Now you have a need for a method that could be used with any material & documented so that anyone can use it. As a result Annis has created a "Buff" stitch & written the book, "Buff Knitting". Check it our on her web site: http://www.annisknittingpatterns.com