Home, Crafts and Hobbies Atlas
Things this atlas does not know. Each entry is a question that specialists
have posed and not settled, recorded with what would actually resolve it and which
expertise the answer needs.
These are kept deliberately, rather than quietly omitted. An atlas that shows
only what it is sure of implies a confidence it has not earned, and the gaps are often where
the interesting work is. Several sit exactly where two fields fail to meet: identifying the
hyssop of the Hebrew Bible needs a botanist and a philologist of Biblical Hebrew, and neither
one settles it alone.
Grouped by the part of the atlas the question sits in. Start here if you know the territory better than the technique.
Showing 1 to 20 of 23 open questions, page 1 of 2.
Tools and Equipment 8
Quilting Frame
When was the quilting frame first used?
Open Quilting Frame
Why It Is Open Quilting itself is old and practiced across many cultures with no single point of origin, and the frame or hoop that supports it is correspondingly undocumented. General sources on quilting describe the frame's function without ever fixing a date or place for when the tool first came into use.
What Would Settle It A textile historian tracing quilting frames specifically, rather than quilting generally, through surviving frames, guild records or depictions, could establish an earliest attested example the way the loom and the spinning wheel already have one.
Expertise Needed Textile history
Question posed in
Quilting (Wikipedia), Quilting techniques section.
Froe
When was the froe introduced as a tool?
Open Froe
Why It Is Open The standard reference consulted for this entity discusses only the possible Old English etymology of the name but gives no date or era for when the froe itself came into use.
What Would Settle It A history-of-technology or archaeology source naming when L-shaped froe-style cleaving tools first appear in the record, or their approximate century of origin.
Expertise Needed History of technology
Question posed in
Froe (Wikipedia).
Miter Box
When was the miter box introduced as a tool?
Open Miter Box
Why It Is Open The standard reference consulted for this entity describes basic and adjustable miter boxes and their current use but names no date or era for when the tool was introduced.
What Would Settle It A woodworking-tool history source naming when the miter box was first documented, or its approximate century of origin.
Expertise Needed History of technology
Question posed in
Miter Box (Wikipedia).
Heddle
When was the heddle introduced as a loom component?
Open Heddle
Why It Is Open The standard reference consulted for this entity describes heddle construction and types in detail but names no date or era for when heddles were introduced to weaving.
What Would Settle It A textile-history source establishing when heddles first appear on looms, by region.
Expertise Needed History of textiles
Question posed in
Heddle (Wikipedia).
Drawknife
When was the drawknife introduced as a tool?
Open Drawknife
Why It Is Open The standard reference consulted for this entity describes how the drawknife is constructed and used but names no date or era for when the tool was introduced.
What Would Settle It A woodworking-tool history source naming when the drawknife was first documented, or its approximate century of origin.
Expertise Needed History of technology
Question posed in
Drawknife (Wikipedia).
Marking Gauge
When was the marking gauge introduced as a tool?
Open Marking Gauge
Why It Is Open The standard reference consulted for this entity describes how the marking gauge is constructed and its variations but names no date or era for when the tool was introduced.
What Would Settle It A woodworking-tool history source naming when the marking gauge was first documented, or its approximate century of origin.
Expertise Needed History of technology
Question posed in
Marking Gauge (Wikipedia).
Last (Shoemaking)
When Was the Shoemaking Last First Used
Open Last (Shoemaking)
Why It Is Open Standard reference material documents Roman-era and later medieval use of the last but gives no invention date, era, or archaeological find naming the origin of the tool itself, as opposed to footwear generally.
What Would Settle It A dated archaeological find of a shoemaking last, or a specialist history of shoemaking tools naming an origin period, distinct from a general history of shoes.
Expertise Needed History of technology and archaeology of craft tools
Question posed in
Last (Shoemaking) (Wikipedia).
Sledgehammer
When was the sledgehammer introduced as a tool?
Open Sledgehammer
Why It Is Open The standard reference consulted for this entity gives the Old English etymology of the word sledgehammer but names no date or era for when the tool itself came into use.
What Would Settle It A history-of-technology or archaeology source naming when heavy long-handled two-handed hammers first appear in the record, or their approximate era of origin.
Expertise Needed History of technology
Question posed in
Sledgehammer (Wikipedia).
Crafts 7
Knitting
Where and when was true knitting invented?
Open Knitting
Why It Is Open The earliest surviving true knitting is a group of finely worked cotton pieces from Egypt around the eleventh century CE, which are far too accomplished to be anyone's first attempts, so the craft must be older, yet nothing earlier survives: textiles rot, and the older sock-like finds once called knitting have been shown to be nalbinding, a different single-needle technique. Where the two-needle craft actually began, and how it reached Egypt, is genuinely unknown.
What Would Settle It An earlier securely dated textile find identified as true knitting by loop structure, or documentary evidence locating the craft before the Egyptian pieces.
Expertise Needed Textile archaeology, Conservation science
Question posed in
History of Knitting (Wikipedia), History section; earliest known examples and nalbinding confusion.
Soap Making
Who first invented true soap, and did it happen once or independently in several places?
Open Soap Making
Why It Is Open True soap, which foamed and could be made deliberately in a hard or soft form, differs from the proto-soaps of ash and fat mentioned in Sumerian, Babylonian and Egyptian texts. Alkali was used to clean textiles for thousands of years before soap forms, and knowledge of how to produce true soap emerged sometime between the early proto-soap mentions and the first century AD, but no single inventor or society is confirmed; it may have been invented independently more than once.
What Would Settle It A securely dated recipe or artifact demonstrating deliberate true-soap production earlier than the first-century AD accounts, or documentary evidence naming a specific society as first to combine enough fat with alkali to foam.
Expertise Needed Archaeological chemistry, textile history
Question posed in
Soap (Wikipedia), en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap, Ancient world section.
Candle Making
Where and when were candles first made and used?
Open Candle Making
Why It Is Open Objects that could be candlesticks have been found in Babylonian and Minoan sites and in the tomb of Tutankhamun, and the earliest excavated Etruscan candlestick dates from the 7th century BC, but candle making requires a reliable supply of animal or vegetable fat, so candles could not have developed before the early Bronze Age; it remains unclear exactly when and where true candles, as opposed to torches or oil lamps, were first used.
What Would Settle It A securely dated wick-and-fuel object identifiable as a true candle from before the existing Bronze Age evidence, or a textual source naming the place and period of the first candles.
Expertise Needed Archaeology, history of technology
Question posed in
History of Candle Making (Wikipedia), en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candle, History section.
Origami
Where and when did the practice of paper folding for play actually begin?
Open Origami
Why It Is Open Although the word origami has Japanese roots, the practice of paper folding is universal, with separate traditions documented in Europe, China and Japan, and its ultimate origin remains unknown. It is not even certain when play-made paper models began in Japan itself: the earliest suggestive evidence is a sword fitting decorated with a folded-paper crane from the late 1500s or early 1600s.
What Would Settle It Securely dated paper-folding artifacts or documentary references earlier than the Japanese sword fitting and the earliest European folding traditions, tying a specific place and period to the first paper folded for play rather than ceremony.
Expertise Needed History of technology, art history
Question posed in
Origami (Wikipedia), en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origami, lead section.
Crochet
Which of the competing theories actually explains where crochet came from?
Open Crochet
Why It Is Open The first substantive evidence of crocheted fabric only appears in Europe in the 19th century, and before that, classifications often failed to distinguish crochet from knitting or from nalbinding, a different looped-yarn technique. There are three competing theories: an Arab trade-route origin spreading through Tibet and Spain, a South American origin as puberty-ritual adornment, and a Chinese origin evidenced by early dolls worked entirely in crochet, and no single theory is established.
What Would Settle It A securely dated, unambiguous crocheted textile or tool predating the 19th-century European evidence, tied to one of the three proposed regions of origin.
Expertise Needed Textile archaeology, textile history
Question posed in
Crochet (Wikipedia), en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crochet, Origins section.
Embroidery
Is the Migration-period Swedish textile's reinforced trim genuine embroidery or plain repair stitching?
Open Embroidery
Why It Is Open The surviving Migration-period Swedish garment's reinforced edges could be read either as functional seam repair or as deliberate decorative embroidery, and no scholarly consensus resolves which.
What Would Settle It A technical textile-conservation study of the stitching pattern, compared against known repair-stitch versus decorative-stitch conventions from the period.
Expertise Needed textile conservation
Question posed in
Embroidery (Wikipedia), en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embroidery, Origins section, Migration-period Sweden passage.
Pottery
When was porcelain, as distinct from stoneware, first made in China?
Open Pottery
Why It Is Open Chinese tradition never classified porcelain apart from stoneware, grouping both as high-fired ware against low-fired earthenware, so no historical record marks the moment a recognizably distinct porcelain first appeared.
What Would Settle It A materials study fixing when Chinese high-fired ceramics first meet the translucency and composition thresholds used to define porcelain today.
Expertise Needed ceramic materials science
Question posed in
Pottery (Wikipedia), en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pottery, Porcelain section.
Concepts and Movements 5
Hygge
Does hygge derive from the Old Norse hyggja, meaning to think, or from a sixteenth-century word for embrace?
Open Hygge
Why It Is Open The Wikipedia account of hygge's etymology states the word derives from the Old Norse hyggja, to think, and hugr, soul or mind, but in the same breath notes that some speculate it may instead derive from a 1560s word, hugge, meaning to embrace. The two derivations are not reconciled, and no source is given for the rival hugge theory.
What Would Settle It A philological study tracing hygge's documented use through the earliest surviving Danish and Norwegian texts, rather than working backward from later dictionary etymologies.
Question posed in
Hygge (Wikipedia), Etymology and Origin section.
Visible Mending
Which re-emergence made visible mending a named movement rather than a recurring practice?
Open Visible Mending
Why It Is Open Visibly repairing textiles is a centuries-old, multicultural practice with no single founding date. The named contemporary movement has at least two separate candidate re-emergences credited to it: Vivienne Westwood's 1970s punk patches, and the COVID-19-era craft revival. The sources consulted do not settle which one, if either, is the movement's actual starting point.
What Would Settle It A history of the term's own coinage or first organized use (a magazine feature, a workshop series, a hashtag's documented origin) that clearly predates or postdates one of the two candidate re-emergences would settle which one is the movement's real starting point.
Expertise Needed craft history
Question posed in
Visible Mending (Wikipedia), Lead section.
Lagom
What is the precise year the Swedish word lagom first appeared in writing?
Open Lagom
Why It Is Open Sources place the earliest attestations of the word only broadly in the 17th century, with no specific year or document named.
What Would Settle It A dated citation to the specific earliest surviving 17th century Swedish text using the word, drawn from a Swedish etymological dictionary or philological study.
Expertise Needed Historical linguistics, Swedish philology
Question posed in
Lagom (Wikipedia), Etymology section.
Wabi-sabi
In what year did Murata Juko modify the tea ceremony in the way that began to shape wabi-sabi?
Open Wabi-sabi
Why It Is Open Sources give only the lifespan of Murata Juko, 1423 to 1502, and say wabi-sabi began to shape Japanese culture when he modified the tea ceremony, without naming the specific year or decade of that change.
What Would Settle It A dated primary or scholarly source pinning the specific year or decade in which Murata Juko reformed the tea ceremony.
Expertise Needed Japanese art history, tea ceremony history
Question posed in
Wabi-sabi (Wikipedia), History section.
Hygge
In what year did the word hygge first appear in Danish writing?
Open Hygge
Why It Is Open Sources state only that the word first appeared in Danish writing in the 19th century, with no specific year or text named.
What Would Settle It A dated citation to the earliest surviving Danish text using the word hygge, drawn from a Danish etymological or philological study.
Expertise Needed Historical linguistics, Danish philology
Question posed in
Hygge (Wikipedia), Etymology section.