Irena Turnau surveys the history of hand-knitting guilds in Europe from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century, region by region: France, Spain, Italy, England, the Low Countries, the upper Rhine, Switzerland, Bohemia, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Germany, Silesia, Poland, Russia and Scandinavia. It covers guild statutes, the masterworks required for master status (especially the patterned knitted carpet, berets, shirts and stockings), finishing processes such as fulling and napping, and the coexistence of hand-knitters with William Lee's knitting frame. Eleven plates show itinerant knitters, guild marks, a guild bowl, a coffin shield and knitting workshops. Fifty endnotes cite the sources.