I have a new knitting obsession. It started about six months ago and it's showing no signs of abating. I've developed a love of historical knitting patterns.
I've been aware that people have passions for different eras of knitting for a while, but the patterns never really rocked my boat. When I was new to knitting, their lack of pictures left me in the dark about what the finished product would be. Even once I'd learnt my way around a pattern, historical patterns were dauntingly vague in their instructions, especially those written before standardised needle or yarn sizes.
Then I started coming across references to knitting while researching my thesis. My thesis is on military bands of World War II and it was while I was searching the catalogue of the Australian War Memorial I began stumbling across clothing that was knitted by soldiers. That's right, not clothing knitted for soldiers but by them.
Knitting hasn't always been women's work, throughout much of history, if you wanted warm socks, you had to knit them yourself. During wartime an extra pair of socks could literally mean the difference between life and death. Perhaps most poignant was the knitting made by prisoners of war. Prisoners would collect yarn unravelled from worn out clothing or Red Cross parcels and re-knit them into whatever was needed. This clothing could be worn or traded for other goods. My favourite piece in the Australian War Memorial's collection is a crocheted blanket made by Lance Corporal A V Cooke in Stalag 8B using a hook made from an old toothbrush.
Of course it wasn't just the soldiers who knitted. People on the home front were encouraged to "Knit for Victory", providing uniforms for soldiers, sailors and airmen as well as supplementing their own wardrobes while textile rations were in place. I hadn't given much thought to this aspect of knitting, until I read a wartime diary where a woman mentioned that she was knitting airman's gloves. The idea of knitting airman's gloves appealed to me because my Grandpa Dave was a navigator in the RAF. I loved the idea of being able to knit something that would have formed part of his uniform. Now all I needed to do was find a World War II era pattern.... but that will have to wait until next time.
