Needlework and the Military

Our speaker at the September meeting, was Susan Webster, newly appointed President of the Needlework Tools Collectors Society of Australia. Susan has been a knitter for over 50 years and, as she studied History at University has always had an interest in the subject as it related to needlework. She combined her two interests in 1990 and has been collecting tools and information ever since. Her talk was entitled “Knitting and the Military” and was divided into three categories, namely – Tools used by the military, Trench Art and Civilian items. 

Tools Used by the Military: 

The earliest known war related items are pincushions from the English Civil War 1642-48. Other early tools were bobbins, needle books and thimbles. Susan showed paintings with soldiers knitting even while on sentry duty. Evidently male knitters were more common in early days than they are today when knitting is seen as a predominately female pursuit. WW11 soldiers were issued with a sewing kit called a “Huswif”. 

Trench Art: 

This includes war mementos made by soldiers, souvenirs made from discarded war materials and things produced by prisoners of war. Items from the Napoleonic wars being very sort after by collectors: these include straw work and bone work. 

One very interesting item in Susan’s collection was a knitting sheath made from a bullet casing. This sheath left one arm free to do other things such as feed the baby. 

Civilian Items: 

During war time, civilians usually like to support their fighting men and knitting was one simple way of doing this. Socks, gloves and balaclavas were all sent to the troops. Some organisations which were instrumental in gaining support during the second world war were the Australian Comfort Service. The Red Cross was at the forefront of the war effort producing many needlework aids and pattern books to raise funds. 

Source: Barbara Hetherington writing in the 2017-12 DTHS Newsletter