<<I am sure I've read that knitters were in guilds in England, doing their apprenticeship, journeyman time, and finally a master project and becoming masters, >>
No, there was never a knitting guild in England, although there were ones on the continent, France and Germany in particular.
There was a capper's guild, but recent scholarship has found evidence that cappers simply bought the already knitted caps, and did the extensive fulling and finishing, but not the knitting. There was also a frameknitters' guild in England as well.
A professional knitter (or anything else, actually) is someone who knits (in this case, by hand) and is paid money for it. A level of competence is certainly expected, but not necessarily controlled by a guild.
Charles' shirt is knit at 20 stitches/inch in two-ply blue silk. It was knit in the round from the bottom up, and knit back and forth from the armholes up. The shoulders are cast-off together (*not* grafted). It's all worked in knit and purl stitches, in a damask pattern. There's a fairly good (but very old) photo of it in Mary Thomas.
Deborah
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