Rutt was English, and the first bit is England-centric, which makes sense in a way but is neither historically useful (given that knitting and nalbinding weren't "invented" there) nor supportable by the larger geographic sweep he adduces later in the book. It's as though he took a separate essay and grafted it on, or started writing a different book partway through and didn't go back to harmonize the beginning. *shrugs*