Definition of "tricoteuses"

Sitting in the courtroom ..., their laptops and tablets propped before them, power cables snaking through convoluted adapters, the Twitterati have sight of witnesses at all times – the troubadours, or perhaps the tricoteuses, of the digital revolution.

2014 April 24, Alan Cowell, “At Pistorius trial, Twitterati have their day in court”, in The New York Times‎