Red Cross produced their own branded knitting bags, while Vogue magazine advocated using their glamorous covers to decorate your own. Some women were so feverishly productive that they contracted knitting neuritis, or repetitive strain as we call it today. “The only treatment is to give up knitting indefinitely”, said a London physician.
Short Supplies All knitting and crochet had to be completed in regulation colours of khaki or drab for the army and of course navy for the Navy. Yarn was in short supply and there was controversy over the use of valuable resources for home knitting when it was needed for the textile industry. Wool was distributed by the Red Cross who needed to see ration cards and the number of the group that you were volunteering for. It was insisted that ‘Only wool of good quality should be used’.
Response depended on what region you were in. Some regions like Devonshire, knitted specifically for the 1st
and 2nd Devons. Notices were placed
in local papers and open letters included short patterns. One letter in the Aberdeen Journal, 3 Oct 1914, asked school children to make wash cloths:
“Now is the chance for the little children to do something ‘for the soldiers.’ Get a ball of cotton and two fairly thick wooden pins, cast on 40 stitches and knit three finger lengths of plain knitting, cast off and fix a loop of tape with a red cross at the top. These cloths are much appreciated because they can be dried so easily and last for months. Now then children, let us have 200 of them for the ‘Needlework Guild’ before the end of next week.”
The International Red Cross were instrumental in organizing the drive for comforts in other countries too. The Red Cross, or Roten Kreuz, also had campaigns in Germany. One commentator noted in the Daily Mail (Oct 27, 1914)
“The whole of feminine Germany is at present occupied in making socks and mittens and comforters for the men at the front. This habit of knitting has now become so prevalent that it is something of a disgrace for a woman to sit idle in tramway-car or train when with her knitting needle she might be helping the heroes of the Fatherland...
In Berlin you will see these tricoteuses, modern style, on every hand.”
Women’s work Some members of society were pleased to see women returning to the work-basket rather than asking for suffrage. One woman Mary MacArthur, questioned all this making for nothing, which was undermining the earning power of women. Her work with the Unions promoted the meagre earning capacity of the professional textile workers who were undermined by this influx of volunteer labour. The great majority of women were working in munitions factories and jobs vacated by men often in dangerous roles. The Munitions Act of 1915 meant no one could leave their post, however poor the working conditions, so MacArthur encouraged women to stay in the factories and knit for the troops instead of working until their conditions were improved. Queen Mary herself was aware of the need not to step on the toes of industry and was anxious to place as much work as possible through the Central Committee for Womens’ Employment, encouraging women who could afford it to pay others to make their contributions.
Knitting machines and grafting toes Knitting machinery was not unusual at this time and socks would be turned on an 84 needle hand- turned sock machine. These were circular machines with hooks at the top, not unlike a modern knitting frame. The socks would be taken off the looms with open toes and these would be stitched up later as a seam. It is this seam that irritated the toes of walkers and soldiers when the hand-knit pattern was published by the Red Cross was not specific about the toe joining method to be used. However, a later pattern for a spiral sock was published by Vogue magazine in July 1918 Vogue. Called ‘The Kitchener Heelless sock’ it contained instruction for grafting the toes for a smoother join, forever after known as Kitchener stitch.
Men knitting, POW and recuperation Earl Kitchener of Khartoum was allegedly a knitter himself and it would not be unusual for a military man to be a knitter. Soldiers would have a hussif or ‘housewife’ sewing kit to sew and darn their uniforms, especially socks. The majority of knitting seems to have taken place in prisoner of war camps where time was plenty. Chaplain to the forces the
Rev. B. G. O’Rorke wrote in the Daily Mail, July 1915, about his time as a POW in Germany.
“During the winter evenings idle fingers made busy with knitting-needles. Highlanders kept themselves supplied with stockings and other officers knit their own socks.... Some who had been brought up on the theory that the deft use of a needle was a feminine accomplishment espied holes in their garments with real delight for the pleasure of darning or patching them. Though it must be owned that many of the darns and most of the patches supported the above theory, there were specimens of needlework and delicate fancywork which were real monuments of masculine genius.”
Hospitals where the many injured were recuperating were also hotbeds of handiwork. It was recognised that knitting was a productive and healing pastime for soldiers who had been sent back from the fighting.
Tell them of us This community film to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War in 2014 is the story of Thimbleby village War Memorial in Lincolnshire. It follows two brothers, Robert and William Crowder, whose story is told from the perspective of the home front based on letters, memoirs and family photographs. The film follows life in the village as they coped without the able- bodied men during the war years, knitted for the troops and as they receive the news from the battle front, a story both specific and universal.
Pauline Loven, one of the organisers and costume designer, put out a call online for volunteers to knit replica clothing of the period for the actors and was overwhelmed with the generosity of the knitting community.
“I speculatively tweeted for volunteer knitters, not expecting any response, but was inundated with offers from some of the most brilliant and generous knitters one could hope to find!”
Rowan have supported the project by supplying some of the yarn for this ‘army of knitters’ and you can see some of the fantastic garments reproduced here. This project gives an insight into the clothing that people were making at home as well as the
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