To knit or not to knit?

Okay, okay, the answer is obvious: TO KNIT! But I wanted to share some thoughts on the verb 'to knit'. Like, for instance, it's related to the word 'knot'. It makes perfect sense, but this is not a connection I was able to make on my own.... I just never put the two together. But what about the modern word? For instance, do you say 'I knit a sweater yesterday' or 'I knitted a sweater yesterday'? I don't say either because I've never knit a sweater. ^^ But if I had knitted a sweater, I could just as easily say either, I think; neither sounds strange to me. I have no real preference between the two, and I think I would alternate between the two (though I have no idea what would influence my choice). And I don't really feel a difference between the two, either. But perhaps there are some people who prefer one form over the other... Or perhaps for someone, there is a difference in meaning... According to Webster's and the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), both are acceptable. The OED even gives a third option used in the north of Britain, 'knat' (like 'sit, sat'). But I'm curious about what you guys say/think. Is one form more common in your area than the other?

Another thing you may have noticed (or not?) is that I alternated between the forms 'I have knit' and 'I have knitted'. Again, I have no preference between the two. Do you?

ETYMOLOGY: The verb 'to knit' was originally derived from the noun 'knot' (what is called a denominative verb in linguistics--a verb derived from a noun) by the addition of the suffix -jan, which meant 'to make' or 'to cause'. This formed a new word knottjan 'to make a knot'. How did it get, pronunciation-wise, from knottjan to 'knit', then? Well, the {j} (pronounced [y]) influenced the {o} at the beginning of the word. If you notice, the [y] sound is pronounced at the front of your mouth. Try saying the word 'yawn'. Feel your tongue move from the front of your mouth for the {y} to the back of your mouth for the {aw}. But sometimes, when you pronounce words with sounds so far apart, you try to make them closer together to make the word easier to pronounce (assimilation). In this case, people would change the pronunciation of the [o] to something like the [u] sound (which is pronounced at the top of your mouth like [i]) and then to [ü], pronounced in the front of the mouth (again, like [i]). Over time, the [ü] sound was lost in English and became [i] like in our modern word. So, there you go!