Socks and More Socks

Even some knitters failed to act upon their initial good intentions. “Officers of the Seattle Red Cross are asking that every woman who has taken out yarn to be knit into garments and has had the yarn in her home beyond a reasonable length of time, either return the yarn or the knitted garment immediately. Officers believe that twenty-one days is an entirely reasonable time to knit a pair of socks … if the yarn is held out longer, relief is being kept from the men at the front” (The Seattle Times, February 18, 1918).

In 1918, almost 10,000 sweaters were being sent to Camp Lewis in the week of February 20, 1918. “Many of the sweaters contain notes from the makers and cheery words of encouragement are offered the men. Five hundred wristlets and 500 mufflers knitted by the folks at home have been distributed this week and the demand for them is keen.” (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 20, 1918)

Also in high demand were wristlets: “(Wristlets are) more like mittens than anything else, for there is a thumb hole and the knitted palm comes down as far as the web of the fingers…without wristlets it is difficult for the soldiers to keep the hands and wrists from becoming stiffened, which makes it very difficult for them to handle a gun or bayonet with precision ... Women of Seattle are urged to make the wristlets, which will keep the soldiers warm.” (The Seattle Times, February 24, 1918)

Fort Lewis soldiers received 2,488 mufflers and 43,547 pairs of socks from the Red Cross in 1918. I find it hard to imagine how these region knitters could of achieved these numbers.

The Red Cross operated a knitting machine that would produce long knitted tubes. The tubes were cut into 27-inch lengths and the toes purled together by hand. “When the knitting machine is once ‘set up’ with gray yarn, it knits and knits and knits.” (The Seattle Times, December 2, 1917)

In September 1918, all yarn retailers were ordered by the War Industries Board to turn over their stock of service yarn to the Red Cross. In the next 6 weeks, all yarns for the war effort were only available through the Red Cross. This was done to ease the yarn shortage and to allow Red Cross knitting to continue uninterrupted.