horseback returning from a tournament.
Tournaments were contests in which knights
showed off their skills and bravery.
74 Knight BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
during this time. Some of these orders
became rich and powerful.
During the late Middle Ages there were
changes in the way people fought wars.
New weapons came into use that could
be used from long distances. These
included crossbows and cannons. They
made knights less important. By the
1500s knighthood had become an
honor that had almost no connection to
fighting.
#More to explore
Crusades • Middle Ages
Knitting
Knitting is the making of textiles, or
cloth, by interlocking, or connecting,
loops of yarn. The yarn is usually wool or
cotton, but almost any type of fiber can
be knitted. Knitted cloth may be plain.
Or it may contain many colors of yarn
knitted together in attractive patterns.
Knitting is different from weaving.
Woven cloth does not have interlocking
loops. Instead two sets of yarn cross each
other in an over-under pattern. The
interlocking loops make knitted cloth
more stretchy than woven cloth. For this
reason socks, tights, and other formfitting
clothes are usually knitted, not woven.
Knitting by hand is a popular hobby. A
knitter begins by looping yarn onto two
or more needles. Knitting needles come
in different lengths and widths. The
knitter then uses the needles to stitch
many loops of yarn together. Today
most knitted cloth is made on large, fast,
computer-controlled machines.
People have been knitting since ancient
times. Early fishermen knitted fishnets.
Knitted cloth from thousands of years
ago has been found in Egyptian tombs.
Throughout history home knitters have
made sweaters, shawls, mittens, and
socks for their families.
#More to explore
Clothing • Fibers • Textile
Koala
The koala is a small, furry animal of
eastern Australia. It is sometimes called a
“bear” because it looks like a living
teddy bear. But the koala is not really a
bear. It belongs to the group of animals
called marsupials, which carry their
young in a pouch. The scientific name
of the koala is Phascolarctos cinereus.
The koala has a sturdy body with pale
gray to yellowish fur. It is about 24 to 33
Queen
Elizabeth I,
who ruled
England from
1558 to 1603,
wore knitted
silk stockings.
Many people enjoy knitting sweaters,
scarves, and other types of clothing as a
hobby.
BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Koala 75
inches (60 to 85 centimeters) long. It
has small, yellow eyes; a round, black,
leathery nose; and big, fluffy ears.
The koala lives mostly in eucalyptus
trees. It has strong claws and toes that
help it to grasp branches. The koala eats
the leaves of only a few types of
eucalyptus tree. It can be hard for a
koala to find food because it is such a
picky eater.
A female koala has one baby at a time.
The baby is called a joey. The mother
carries the joey in her belly pouch for a
few months. Then the joey climbs onto
its mother’s back. It clings to her until it
is about 1 year old.
The koala was once hunted by the millions
for its fur. Then governments
passed laws to protect it. But the koala is
still threatened by disease and by the loss
of its natural habitat.
#More to explore
Eucalyptus • Marsupial
Konigsburg, E.L.
The U.S. author E.L. Konigsburg has
written several novels for young people.
She has won two Newbery Medals, the
top honor for children’s fiction. Konigsburg’s
books deal with the important
and everyday problems of children.
Konigsburg’s original name was Elaine
Lobl. She was born on February 10,
1930, in New York City. She grew up in
Pennsylvania and earned a degree in
chemistry. After graduation she married
David Konigsburg.
E.L. Konigsburg began writing novels
after her children were in school. Her
first book, Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth,
William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth,
was published in 1967. The novel is
about the character Elizabeth’s loneliness
at a new school, where she does not
fit in. When she meets Jennifer, another
outsider, the two girls become friends.
The idea for the story came from the
experiences of Konigsburg’s daughter,
who had to adjust to school in a new
place.
Also in 1967, Konigsburg published
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E.
Frankweiler. In the book, the heroine
Claudia runs away from home with her
brother, Jamie. They hide in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York
A koala sits on a eucalyptus branch.
76 Konigsburg, E.L. BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
City. There they solve a mystery about
an important statue. Konigsburg illustrated
the book in addition to writing it.
It won the Newbery Medal.
Konigsburg later published several other
novels. She won her second Newbery
Medal in 1997. That award was for The
View from Saturday, a book of short stories.
#More to explore
Fiction • Literature for Children
Kootenai
The Kootenai (or Kutenai) are a tribe of
Native Americans. They probably once
lived on the Great Plains, in the middle
of North America. Long ago, however,
they moved west across the Rocky
Mountains. There they settled in Idaho,
Montana, and British Columbia,
Canada.
The Kootenai got much of their food by
fishing. They fished with spears and
