Women, War & Wool

Memorial Day is upon us and I was particularly struck by a historic photo in the newspaper.  It was a photo of the Dunkirk evacuation dubbed Operation Dynamo by the British.  History is one of my newest loves.  Education does it a great disservice, distilling everything into dates, geographic locations, and famous people.  Real history is the story of people, people like us, in all kinds of situations.

In the photograph were boats, mostly small fishing boats . . . a whole harbor full of boats.  I read the short story and then researched more on Wikipedia.  Hitler's army had trapped British, Belgium, and French troops during the Battle of Dunkirk (WWII).  With nothing but the sea between them and Hitler's army, they were trapped with no escape.  Their imminent plight was only this: to be killed or captured.  They were stranded and the Luftwaffe rained bullets upon them.  Secretly the War Cabinet discussed surrendering to Germany.  Instead, they voted against it and prayed for a miracle.   And the miracle happened.  It came in the form of little fishing boats and pleasure cruisers, merchant marine boats and commercial vessels too.  Men stood shoulder deep in the water for hours waiting for their rescuers.  Between the dates of May 27th & June 4th 338,226 had been rescued from imminent death and escaped the bitter despair of becoming Prisoners of War.  Not all of them were so lucky, 1 in 7 to be exact, were left behind.  What struck me so poignantly about this moment was the thought of all those people who pitched in to save those men. 

 I recalled reading how throughout history women had knitted socks for soldiers in times of war.  A less dramatic yet earnest show of care and support to the men who go to battle.  So I did a little more internet research.  On HistoryLink.org I found that during WWII, Life Magazine had published an issue on how to knit, along with a pattern for a knitted vest.  It encouraged women to knit as the best way to help the war effort.  Prior to our involvement in WWII, Americans had already been knitting and sending care packages of food and clothes to Londoners who were in the thick of the war.  Many of these WWII knitters had knitted in their youth to help our forces during WWI.  I also learned that First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was big on knitting for the war effort and was usually photographed either knitting or sporting her huge knitting bag.  She was referred to as "The First Knitter of the Land" and launched the WWII knitting effort at a "Knit for Defense tea" which was held at the swanky Waldorf-Astoria in NY.  The American Red Cross was designated as the single clearing agency for all war-time knitting at this time.  The war created shortages in meats, fats, sugars, gasoline and wool too.  It also interrupted the shipping of wool.  The Seattle Red Cross responded by teaching it's volunteers how to card and spin fiber to make our own wool yarn.  And here's something I never would have thought of:  knitters also knit cotton 15 to 20 foot stretch bandages.  The bandages were knit all in garter stitch which produced a stretchy bandage.  These were sterilized and shipped to medical units worldwide!  Women have been knitting (and men too) in support of troops all throughout history.  So I wondered, did anyone knit for the Vietnam veterans.  True, it was not an environment conducive to knitted garments, I'm sure.  But what I found out was interesting as well. 

Enter the age of the rebel with needles.  Knitting protesters!  Knitting for a cause!  A call to action during the Vietnam war and definitely a product of the 1960's which embraced the "Peace not War" line of thought.   I found an article about a Vietnam veteran who was very uneasy in the days of the Cold War and the nuclear threat that haunted all our worst nightmares.   He found solace in bridging the gap between countries and governments by starting a company called "Peace Fleece" combining Russian and American wool into thick richly colored yarn that is still made long after the collapse of the Soviet Union.   Then I found a site for "CODE PINK",  a knitting protest group who's motto is "I did not raise my children to kill another mother's child."  They call themselves "Raging Grannies".   And learned about the "Grannie Peace Brigade" who in 2008 set up their chairs within view of the White House to express their opposition to five years of war in Iran by having a "knit-in".  They came from all across the country and sat in front of the Dept. of Veteran Affairs knitting stump socks (aka: residual limb covers) to cover the limbs of amputees, casualties of war.  They also knitted baby blankets for the Iraqi children.

I guess the bottom line of all this rumination on history and wars and the many different faces of valor is simply this:  each and every individual contributes to the whole.  It is the little stories, the small sacrifices, the creative effort to solve our nations issues that all become the waft and the weave of the history of ourselves, our countries and our times.

Happy Memorial Day everyone.