Friday, September 21, 2007

Wartime Knitting

While on vacation in Muskoka (Bala, to be precise) we came across a small sign in town announcing that there would be a knitting exhibit at the Bala Museum. My cottage neighbour (also an avid knitter) and I went down to check it out.

It was all contained in one small room, but there was so much to see. Naturally, there were socks and hats, and patterns for the "Wartime Woolies" and such, but there were also several posters set up, that existed at the time to encourage everyone to participate in the wartime effort in any way they could.

There were also items I never would have imagined (and I suppose that fact shows how very naive I am about all this). The rifle mitts, with an open thumb and index finger for working the trigger. And there was a table full of hand knit medical bandages- bedsocks, bandage covers and leg and arm amputation covers (those last ones were both fascinating and disturbing).

For efficiency's sake, I have arranged the photos from the museum in a Flickr set:

Wartime Knitting Exhibit

p.s. I'm sorry I couldn't devote more time to this post. I am sick, and burnt out, but I really wanted to share these photos.

d.

1 comment:

Erin said...

That is very interesting. I looked through those pictures you put up and it is sort of fascinating and disturbing at the same time.