Kay's Korner - A Knitters Notes

March 24, 2008

Every day, I see articles and hear interviews on the recessive trends of our economy. Fewer jobs, high interest rates, both companies and individuals turning to bankruptcy, are all indicators of lean times ahead for many Americans. Now we are all looking for more bang for our buck. Isn't it great that our craft is so practical?! You go play golf and come home with a scorecard. A model train won't keep you warm at night. Though usually hobbies choose us, rather than vice versa, I get great satisfaction that my craft has a very practical side.

Although needle arts as a hobby is a phenomenon that began primarily in the last 50 years, needle arts as a necessary skill for women prevailed throughout history, only becoming less important since the advent of ready to wear. In 1937, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) developed a standardized sizing for women's clothes, making ready to wear finally fit acceptably. This ushered in a huge change in how we clothed our families and needle arts for the homemaker became an unnecessary, though still admired, skill set. In my lifetime, I have witnessed this evolution. As a child, my mother, a fabulous seamstress, lovingly constructed beautiful clothes for my sister and I, primarily because it saved her a considerable sum. I interviewed my mother, affectionately known as "Mum", when developing this article. Mum did not purchase clothing, other than undergarments, until 1948, when she was 19 years old and started to work in the city. Even through the 60's, my mother at her Singer was a common sight in our house. She could sew superior garments for the women in our family at a reduced cost, while keeping them stylish, enjoying her craft in the process.

According to Mum, World War II was the turning point for home sewing. When so many women went to work, taking on traditionally males jobs to support the war effort, there was far less time in the average woman's day to knit, weave, or sew. Mass production accepted the challenge of developing ready to wear. It took years for ready to wear to be embraced by women, although there was early success in military uniforms, men's jackets and slacks which bolstered the young industry. Eventually women saw that they could buy ready made clothes cheaper than they could hire a seamstress, though still more than if made at home. They became used to the idea of mass produced fashion and having a wide variety of garments to choose from began to replace the women's taste for individual and unique designs.

The growing number of working women were now able to purchase their clothing, but many turned to women who remained in the home as laundresses. My grandmother worked long hours sewing in a mill and paid a local woman to wash, dry, fold, and press her families' clothing and linens. Mum remembers when she purchased her first automatic washer and dryer in the early 1960's, freeing up many hours in her busy week.

When the clothing industry collaborated with Toni, the home permanent company, in an effort to make permanent creases, especially in the very popular khaki pants or chinos, the chemical process so weakened the fabric, it would shred after 2-3 washings. In 1939, the development of nylon and polyester by a scientist named Carothers, working for DuPont Laboratories, made the new process called permanent press a success. By adding either nylon or polyester to fabric, it was strengthened enough to withstand the chemical treatment. In the following 10 years, there were many advancements in the permanent press process and in fabrics. When pleats and creases remained after washing and wrinkles were minimal, homemakers had extra hours every week to pursue other interests. Finally with ready to wear, automatic laundry appliances, and permanent press fabrics, the American housewife could claim some leisure time.

Today, many of us use leisure hours to return to traditional pursuits. Although sewing is not as popular an activity as 50 or even 25 years ago, knitting and crochet have recently had an upsurge in popularity. Needle arts allow us to be both creative and productive. Handmade gifts are cherished and women practicing needle arts are generally admired. While a well hand knit sweater will not usually save us money over a foreign mass produced machine knit, the difference in a quality and fit is noticeable. And while bowlers, golfers, and movie goers leave their leisure activities with little pieces of paper in hand, we knitters, crocheters, weavers, spinners, and seamstresses have a practical souvenir of our free time.

On Kay's Needles

After frogging my completed first attempt, I finished the "Go To" Pullover I designed, using Araucania's handpainted Limari, a merino/alpaca/silk blend, which knit up super quickly on size 17 needles. I designed the pullover to be knit sideways in one piece; from sleeve edge to sleeve edge, nipped in at the hip, tapering out to a modified batwing sleeve. For info on the "Go To" Pullover, please contact me at kmather@rarepurls.com. The Rare Purls Original Kit will be available on our website soon!

Another quick knit is "Aspa" from the book Araucanian Moments by Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton for Araucania Yarns. Requiring only two (2) 50 gram balls of Araucania's Atacama, a yummy 100% handpainted alpaca yarn, the front tie shoulder wrap is worked in garter stitch on large needles, for a sure to please weekend project.

My final effort was a felted tray to hold all of the various remote controls for our home theater. I chose both a solid and handpaint yarn from the Cascade 220 line, to match our rosewood table, and began with a knitted rectangle. Despite my knowledge that felting shrinks stockinette more per row than per stitch, when my tray came out of the washer I saw that my estimates were faulty and ended up with sides that gaped. They are obviously not a design feature, so I plan to tack and clip a dart on the two misshapen sides and chalk this project up to a learning experiment. Perhaps a needle felted design on the inside of the tray will draw attention away from my repair. Either way, I now have a tray to protect our table from marring by clunky remotes.

Happy knitting!

Copyright 2008 Karen Mather