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A stocking frame was a mechanical knitting machine used in the textiles industry. It was invented by William Lee of Calverton near Nottingham in 1589. Its use, known traditionally as framework knitting, was the first major stage in the mechanisation of the textile industry, and played an important part in the early history of the Industrial Revolution. It was adapted to knit cotton and to do ribbing, and by 1800 had been adapted as a Lace machine.
The original frame had eight needles to the inch, which produced only coarse fabric. Lee later improved the mechanism with 20 needles to the inch. By the late 1590s, he was able to knit stockings from silk, as well as wool.
The commercial outcome of Lee's early ventures did not immediately secure permanent patronage for him in England. Lee travelled and sought support abroad; records place him in France in the early 1600s and his death is usually given as about 1614.
The outcome of Lee's initial enterprise might have led to a dead-end for the knitting machine, but John Ashton, one of Lee's assistants, introduced a mechanism known as the "divider", which guided bearded needles as they were drawn forward and materially improved the practical operation of the frame.
Around 1680, Nicholas Alsop introduced stocking frames to Leicester, where he initially worked in secret due to local resistance, employing his sons and relatives’ children as apprentices.John Gough Nichols, 'Notes on ancient hosiery', Leicester Architectural and Archaeological Society, Hinckley, July 1864; R.A. McKinley (Ed.), (Occupations: The hosiery industry), 'The City of Leicester: Social and administrative history, 1660–1835', A History of the County of Leicester, IV: The City of Leicester (1958), pp. 153–200; J. Thompson, The History of Leicester in the 18th Century (Leicester & London 1871), pp. 254–57.
The organizational centre of the trade shifted as well. In 1728, Nottingham magistrates rejected the authority of the London-based Worshipful Company of Framework Knitters, marking a power shift northwards. Nottingham, already a centre for lace making, soon became a principal hub for framework knitting.
By 1750, England had approximately 14,000 stocking frames in use, with improvements increasing needle density to as many as 38 needles per inch, allowing finer fabric production.
A pivotal innovation came in 1758 when Jedediah Strutt introduced the "Derby rib" attachment, adding an extra set of bearded needles operating vertically. This enabled the production of ribbing—combining plain and Purl stitch stitches to create a tighter, more flexible fabric—expanding hosiery styles and demand.
During this period, Nottingham framework knitters increasingly faced shortages of raw materials. Although initially relying on thread spun in India, its high cost and the need for doubling prompted efforts to spin cotton domestically. Spinners used to long wool fibres struggled with cotton, while spinners in Gloucester—familiar with shorter wool fibres—adapted better and became competitors.
To apply mechanical power to a stocking frame, it would need to be adapted for rotary motion. In 1769, Samuel Wise, a clockmaker, took out a patent for changing the hand frame into a rotary. In Nottingham's case, steam coal was easily available from the Nottinghamshire coalfield.
The industrialisation and spread of stocking frames provoked social tensions. The British government passed the Protection of Stocking Frames, etc. Act 1788 in response to widespread Luddite unrest and the destruction of knitting machinery by displaced workers.
In France, the stocking frame gained significant traction, particularly in textile centres such as Lyon and Paris. By the late 17th century and early 18th century, several thousand frames were in operation, primarily producing silk and cotton stockings as well as lace. By 1800, France had over 2,000 stocking frames.
The migration of skilled Huguenot refugees after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 helped spread the technology further across France and into other parts of continental Europe.
Outside France, adoption was more limited. The Netherlands and German-speaking regions like Saxony, the Rhineland, and Prussia saw some framework knitting industries develop in the 18th century, but they generally lagged behind England in mechanisation and scale.
In 1831, Timothy Baily of Albany, New York applied water power to an existing frame, marking the first powered knitwear production in America.
By 1812, there were estimated to be over 25,000 frames in use, most of them in the three counties, and the frame had come back to Calverton.
In 1764, a profound change was made to the stocking frame that enabled it to produce weft-knitted nets. Hammond, the attributed inventor, used ticklers to stitch-transfer from one needle to the third one along crossing over two intermediate needles creating a cross stitch. He also used a tickler to move two stitches two to the right, and then two to the left in a double cross stitch, Valenciennes lace. To do this the tickler bar was detached from the frame and attached to 'dogs', that is, jointed arms. This allowed forward motion to scoop, and sideways motion to shog. New inventions were patented: Frost's tickler net of 1769, the two plain net of 1777 and the square net of 1781, and their patents were fiercely defended. Harvey changed the shape of the tickler wires to avoid one in his pin machine. This became popular in Lyon and Paris where 2000 frames were in use in 1800.
In 1803, cotton was used with silk, as Houldsworths were producing 300 count cotton.
Technological advancements also played a crucial role. The introduction of wider frames in the late 18th century allowed the production of larger fabric pieces, simplifying garment manufacturing but reducing the skill required from workers and driving wages down. Later, steam-powered and fully mechanised factories in the mid-19th century displaced the manual stocking frames, enabling faster, cheaper production at scale.
"Thou aimest high, Master Lee. Consider thou what the invention could do to my poor subjects. It would assuredly bring to them ruin by depriving them of employment, thus making them beggars."
Supposedly, this rebuke and a refusal to grant a patent demoralised Lee and led to his emigration to France. This formulation is recorded in a nineteenth-century narrative of framework knitters' memories collected by Gravener Henson (1831). As this quote and story are not found in the historical record prior to the 19th century, historians dismiss its veracity.
Another legend recounts that Lee had invented the first machine in order to get revenge on a lover who had preferred to concentrate on her knitting rather than attend to him. A painting illustrating this story was once displayed in the Stocking Framer's Guild hall in London. In 1846, the Victorian artist Alfred Elmore produced a variation on the story in his popular painting The Invention of the Stocking Loom, in which Lee is depicted pondering his idea as he watches his wife knitting (Nottingham Castle Museum).
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