Knitters of Needham

In the 19th century, knitters from the Midlands of England, made poor by the increasing flow of work into factories, brought their craft to America. Many of them settled in Highlandville, a village of Needham. Working out of their homes, they knitted socks, mittens, gloves, underwear, and jackets, using hand- and foot-operated frame machines they brought from England. The more enterprising of them, like William Carter, John Moseley, and Joseph Thorpe, built large mills using steam-powered m...