[MERGE] knit text adding reductions

[Aaron Bentley]

Aaron Bentley has voted abstain.
Status is now: Semi-approved
Comment:
I am still very torn about this.  I think that the API can be misused-- 
in fact, I have misused it.  But if other people think that the 
performance (whatever "saves 30%" means! 1.42x faster?) is worth a 
slightly less safe API, then go ahead and merge it.

For details, see: 
http://bundlebuggy.aaronbentley.com/request/%3C1189396638.20312.16.camel%40lifeless-64%3E