The New American Industry, 11/27/1914
From the Clifford Berryman Political Cartoon CollectionAfter just three months of warfare in Europe, great suffering was already apparent in the war zone. With winter rapidly approaching, the need for clothing was even more urgent. Cartoonist Clifford Berryman’s Miss Liberty sets an example as she busily knits socks and other garments as part of what Berryman calls “the new American industry.”
I’ll be presenting a poster based on a slice of my dissertation work at this year’s Textile Society of America Symposium, “Land, Labor and the Port.” My poster, “Knit A Bit for Our First Line of Defense: Emotional Labor, Knitters, and Comforts for Soldiers During the First World War,” looks at the way knitting was an important physical and emotional symbol of women’s support for the troops during the First World War. Volunteers spent time and resources hand knitting for soldiers, hoping to provide them with a physical barrier against the cold of the trenches and and emotional barrier against loneliness and homesickness.
Follow this link to see an interactive version of my poster, and take a look at some of the primary sources up close. For further reading, see the Selected Secondary Sources listed below:
Ghelerter, Donna. “Knitting in America During the First World War.” Masters Thesis. Fashion Institute of Technology. Program in Museum Studies, 1989.
Leigh, Mole. “Chronomanual Craft: Time Investment as a Value in Contemporary Western Craft.” Journal of Design History 15, no. 1 (November 11, 2007): 33–45. http://jdh.oxfordjournals.org/content/15/1/33.abstract
MacDonald, Anne L. No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting. New York, New York: Random House Publishing Group, 1990.
Scates, Bruce. “The Unknown Sock Knitter: Voluntary Work, Emotional Labour, Bereavement and the Great War.” Labour History 81 (2001): 29–49. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/27516802
Strawn, Susan M. “American Women and Wartime Hand Knitting: 1750-1950.” In Women and the Material Culture of Needlework and Textiles, 1750-1950, edited by Maureen Daly Goggin and Beth Fowkes Tobin, 245–59. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2009.
See this project on Ravelry
Material: quinceandco in Finch, Marsh
Knitting Needles: US size 3 (3.00 mm), Chiagoo steel needles
Time to Knit: 11/2-11/19/2015
Pattern Source: 1939 Pattern issued by the Philadelphia Red Cross, in the collection of Winterthur Museum, Gardens and Library.
Original needles: 4 Red Cross Needles No. 1 (Columbia #3)
I cast on for this pair of socks almost immediately after I finished the previous pair (Project #6), and knitting this pair went much more quickly. This is partly because I’d just knit a similar pair of socks, and partly because the pattern was a little bit simpler than the pattern from the First World War. Project 5 has a decrease in the leg of the sock, presumably to shape the sock around the ankle.
This pattern has fewer stitches in the cast on edge, so it doesn’t require any decreasing as the pattern is worked. This made the knitting itself go quickly, particularly since I didn’t have to frog this pair. It also helped that I’d knit a similar sock before, way back in the Fall of 2012 when I started researching World War II knitting for a term paper. The term paper led to my dissertation research, which led to this post!
This pattern calls for Red Cross needles, just like the socks in Project 5. Other versions of this pattern call for no 3 bone needles (Red Cross Knitting Manual, approved by the Milwaukee Chapter of the Red Cross), or just “needles that fit the Red Cross gauge for socks” (ARC 400-2, a later revision of the 1939 pattern used for this pair. Despite the needle differences, the revisions all produce the same basic sock,and all use the same easy to follow construction style. This meant that intermediate knitters should be able to produce predictable and wearable results.
See this project on Ravelry
Material: quinceandco Finch in Kittywake
Knitting Needles: US size 3 (KnitPicks Rainbow, laminated wood), Chiagoo US size 3 steel needles
Time to Knit: 10/4/2015-~11/2/2015
Pattern Source: Priscilla War Work Book
Original needles: Red Cross Needles #1, a needle size that’s 1/8th of an inch in diameter.
Project #5 is a pair of socks from the First World War. I originally started these socks while I was at Winterthur as a research fellow. Socks are one of those projects that seem hard until you’ve knit them half a dozen times and really learn the feel of the way they’re constructed. And despite the fact that I’ve knit so many pairs of socks I’ve memorized the pattern, I had to start and restart this pair a few times before I got them right.
My usual sock pattern is worked from the toe-up using short rows, but as far as I know, toe-up sock construction is relatively new. A quick and dirty google books search shows only one book referencing toe-up socks before 2000, but feel free to send me an ask if you know of earlier references. I mention this mostly because I struggled with sock knitting until I started knitting socks from the toe up, so knitting this pair was a little bit outside of my usual comfort zone.
When I first started this project, I used needles that were several sizes too small, US size 1. Like the previous First World War patterns, this one comes from the Priscilla War Work Book, which doesn’t give gauge for this pattern, only how many knit rows should be knit for each section of the sock. When I realized how off my gauge was after I got far enough in the pattern, I frogged the work and cast on again, this time using US Size 3 (3.25 mm).
The original needles called for in the pattern are 1/8″, a size that doesn’t correspond to any contemporary standard needle. The closest standard needles are US 3, so my initial calculations were a little off. I usually knit socks on needles that vary between US 1 and US 2 (2.25 mm to 3.00 mm) so I’d sized down on the assumption that older patterns = smaller needles. Knitting this pattern on smaller needles proved that theory incorrect, however. I’m planning to do a post on needle sizes in the coming weeks as I start getting deeper into the dissertation writing process. For now, these socks are proof that experimentation is a necessary part of this process.
Material: quinceandco Lark in Marsh
Knitting Needles: Swallow Mfg Co. US size 8, 5 mm
Time to Knit: 8/27/2015-10/4/2015
Pattern Source: The American Red Cross. This pattern is 400-3C, revised December 1941
Original needles: “Gauge for heavy sweaters. Gauge* available from your Area Office.” (The pattern gives a gauge of 5 stitches to the inch, 6 rows to the inch)
I started knitting the fourth garment of this project while I was at a staff meeting, just before I left Wisconsin to go to Delaware for a month. I received a short term research fellowship from Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library, and was able to stay on site as a visiting fellow for the month of September. Most of this sweater was knitted while I was a resident, with only the beginning and end knit elsewhere.
Despite the fact that I’ve been knitting for quite a while, this sweater gave me some trouble, mostly around the neck. In contrast to the first sleeveless sweater, this one has a little more shaping, and has a “V” neck rather than a square cut out neck. I had to rip out and re-knit some of the neck section a few times before I was able to get it right, mostly due to my own inattention. I did a lot of knitting with my housemate, another research fellow, and got distracted as I worked. I imagine this was reasonably common, as knitters worked together in groups in homes or workrooms. L.M. Montgomery has a passage in Rilla of Ingleside about Anne knitting too far on a sock as she worriedly waited for news. Rilla of Ingleside is about the First World War, but the sentiment holds.
Blizzard knitting. World War II knitted helmet, using inherited vintage knitting needles. #project9 #knittingforvictory #knittersofinstagram #gettingbackonthewagon (at Capitol Hill Hotel)
Knitting, reading, and exam proctoring #multitasking #knittingforvictory #knittersofinstagram #project10 (at University of Wisconsin-Madison)
The second wristlet from “Wristlets for Army Use,” knit from a pattern book published by the Milwaukee Chapter of the Red Cross and in the @wisvetsmuseum archives #project11 #knittingforvictory #knittersofinstagram
Knitting in wartime: something everyone can get into.
Much more info on the history of wartime knitting can be found here - it’s super fascinating! The Canadian Red Cross manual can be found right here.
Some Canadian examples of war knitting. My project is from the American perspective, but knitting was also happening in allied and axis countries to support servicemen and refugees.
Turned heel and sunlight. #project6 #knittersofinstagram #knittingforvictory #knitting #socks #gottalovethatolivedrab
