Over Here: Knitting on the Homefront in World War I

Balaclava

During World War I, people on the home front supported the troops not with yellow ribbons but with yarn — they knit everything from mufflers and afghans to socks and wristlets to sweaters and balaclava helmets.

These were not created willy-nilly: knitters used detailed instructions that came in booklets of patterns approved by the armed forces. And of course, they used approved yarn.

The Red Cross played an important role in promoting all this knitting.

Sometimes a Red Cross nurse took some time out from her duties to pick up her own needles.

“Portrait of a Nurse from the Red Cross” by Gabriel Emile Niscolet

Red Cross affiliated groups sprang up around the globe.

Members of a Red Cross group in Australia, 1915

But schools, from elementary to high schools to colleges, were also hotbeds of yarnly activity.

Knitting club of young Canadian children during WWI.

Boys from Cooperstown (New York) High School, 1918.

Plate from “La Vie Pariesienne” magazine, 1916

Not everyone knitted in groups, of course. Some spent some time with a beau on leave. Others stayed home and worried. And knit.

Knitters didn’t abruptly put down their needles in 1918; the need for warm garments continued.

Mary Pickford knits a sweater for disabled World War I veterans while waiting for filming to begin on “Sparrows” in 1926.

 

 

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For what happened during World War II, click here.