"I cannot believe that our factory system is the best mode by which men may get clothing. The condition of the operatives is becoming every day more like that of the English; and it cannot be wondered at, since, as far as I have heard or observed, the principal object is, not that mankind may be well and honestly clad, but, unquestionably, that the corporations may be enriched."

-Henry D. Thoreau

 "...it seemed as if this were the Loom of Time, and I myself were a shuttle mechanically weaving and weaving away at the Fates. There lay the fixed threads of the warp subject to but one single, ever returning, unchanging vibration, and that vibration merely enough to admit of the crosswise interblending of other threads with its own. This warp seemed necessity; and here, thought I, with my own hand I ply my own shuttle and weave my own destiny into these unalterable threads.."

-Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

 

Vintage Knitting Projects

Shepherds, all, and maidens fair, Fold your flocks up, for the air 'Gins to thicken, and the sun Already his great course hath run...

See the heavy clouds low falling,...

Hovering o'er the wanton face Of these pastures, where they come,..

Therefore, from such danger lock Every one his lovèd flock; And let your dogs lie loose without,

Lest the wolf come as a scout...

John Fletcher, 1579-1625