WWII patterns

Rare WWI book of patterns

I’m busy researching knitting during WWI. There is so much material available about WWII but not so much that has survived since 1914. I’ve been to look at the Coats UK archive, the Knitting and Crochet Guild stores and the British Library. Lots of patterns seemed to be in newspapers though there are a few pamphlets available. I bought this Beehive booklet on eBay.

Moustache warmer

Of course knitting for soldiers wasn’t new even then. People had been knitting during the Crimean war (like this stunning helmet liner with matching moustache) and the Civil War in America.

Pattern pamphlet of the British Red Cross Society

The best non-commercial example I’ve found is the British Red Cross pattern book and it’s rather intriguing ‘Cap Scarf’. This ‘comforter’ is a hat and a scarf. It’s made as a double layer so you can pull it over your head. What a great idea, though certainly one for the machine -knitters. Knitting machines did exist, especially stocking machines for quick sock making.

My next challenge is to find the origin of Kitchener Stitch. Apparently Lord Kitchener really was a knitter and made socks himself. Do you think he really found time to invent grafting? If you have any evidence about that one please let me know.

Rowan mag 55, Spring Summer 2014 is out, including my first article for Rowan, Irish Crochet Lace Renaissance (there might be some quite nice patterns in there too…)
Lace is going to be the big thing this year, and crochet is a great way of trying it out if you’ve never done it before – what with only one stitch to drop instead of a whole row. The interesting thing about Irish crochet is that it is made in small modular sections making it easier to manage.

These are some of my own efforts with crochet lace.

I’m excited to see my first column published in Knitting Magazine. What a classy magazine it is too (but then I would say that wouldn’t I).

But it’s not all about me, really… There’s a piece by Diana Woolf about the lovely Julie Arkel and a an interetsting pattern that I have my eye on, Angela by Vibe Ulrik Sondergaard.

In the latest issue of Selvedge Magazine is my article about Senegalese textiles. The focus of the piece is the Mandjak style of weaving that is done in Dakar particularly, though it is influenced by Portuguese colonialism.

Mandjak weaving on the street in Dakar

On the other side of town the boys on the street were no more than teenagers, and some of the younger ones working the complicated heddle sequences much younger than that. Known as Tissurands in Senegal, these boys were working on the pavement next to a busy road in Dakar with no basic comforts. Artisans working in the organised workshops were older and worked under an awning keeping off the worst of the sun. It takes two weavers per loom, one to throw the shuttles and one to lift the heddles, often an apprentice is performing this key part of the operation.

The looms are basic and are able to be dismantled so they can be left on the street, removing the key moving parts for safekeeping. A wooden heddle pulley is the main moving part while the warp is tied to a stone drag-weight on a wooden sledge that gradually slides towards the loom as the weaver works. Tradition has it that the loom is gateway between the spirits and this world with the secrets of weaving coming from a jinn spirit as detailed in the Juntel Jabali myth. It is said this is why the weavers use only bare feet on the loom, so as not to break the connection, while the cloth is supposed to protect the wearer from danger.

Symbolic of power and wealth, textiles carry symbolic messages and play an important role in daily life and ritual. Those used in ‘change of life’ ceremonies – weddings, births and funerals – become heirlooms holding great value. In West Africa these important fabrics are known as loincloths, wrappers, Seru njaago or rabal. They are considered to hold ‘the breath of life’: used to wrap new-borns along with the breath of the imam who names the child and also used as a burial shroud in death. Although Mandjak fabrics are considered part of the national heritage of Senegal, they may have more in common with neighbouring countries.

Find out more about Mandjak weaving in Senegal

• Mai Diop, textile designer and collector from St Louis in northern Senegal, www.tesss.net

• Ai?ssa Dione Tissus, www.aissadione.com