This article was first published on my Everyday Knitter Substack on 19 June 2024. If you’d like to find out more about my Everyday Knitter community there and join in the conversation please tap here to find out more: See what’s on Substack.
My Nana who taught me to knit was a font of all knitting knowledge but was also raised from a strong Irish Catholic background - and as such she had some deep rooted and ‘interesting’ superstitions that she wasn’t shy about sharing with us.
She was scandalised for example when I wore my fabulous new pair of red shoes on my graduation day - as red shoes were a well known sign of a fallen women, apparently. When my Dad took photos she insisted that he crop my feet out of shot.
Showing a similar colour bias she would also refuse to knit with green yarn on the grounds that it was unlucky. After doing a bit of reading around this it does seem to be a widely held belief, especially in Ireland that green is a colour worn by faries - and for humans to do so is considered ill luck, especially when knitting for babies.
She did make an exception for my bottle-green school cardigans however, presumably on the grounds that, that particular shade of bottle-green was so ugly that no self respecting fairy would want to wear it.
There are other superstitions which she held which I think are more widely known among knitters in general.
Never to stab your needles through your ball of yarn is quite a common one - as it’s said to cause bad luck. Similarly she would never hand knitting needles to me directly, she would always put them on the table in front of me and have me pick them up. And if she dropped a pair of scissors on the ground she would always cross herself.
After reading various online knitting forums over the years I’ve also come across a number of other knitting superstitions, some of which include:
Knitting a strand of your hair into a garment for a loved one will tie them to you.
Never knit socks for a loved one or they will walk away from you - I think after years of knitting socks for my husband I can safely debunk that one.
It’s bad luck to start a knitting project on a Friday
Every knitting project should have a deliberate mistake to keep you safe from the fairies
The boyfriend sweater curse is well known too - although I have never tried this out in practice.
Have you ever come across any knitting superstitions in your crafty endeavours?
I don’t particularly hold any myself although I do refuse to knit with black or navy yarn.
Though this is less to do with long-held superstitious beliefs and much more to do with declining eyesight.
