Episode 53: How Knitting Helps Everyone

About this episode

The episode explores the historical significance of knitting during wartime and its impact on social connections.

Let's go back about 85 years. It's November, 1941, and America is about to enter World War II, when once again we will discover that we are a cold-footed, sockless nation. We have been here before. Think Revolutionary War, then the Civil War, and then World War I. But coming out of the Depression when there was not much money, we have evolved . We are now a nation of knitters--10 million knitters strong according to estimates from the National Dry Goods Association. So when the men pick up their guns, women pick up their needles once again, according to Anne Macdonald in No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting. What's different? This time we have more music to knit by, like Glenn Miller's "Knit One, Purl Two" (you can ask Alexa to play it for you). Emily Post also decides on some rules of etiquette for knitting in public like "Do not wave long or shiny needles about in the air" (Macdonald, p. 304), so if you are doing that, stop it. But more than anything, accounts of knitting at the time speak to how it keeps us calm and connected, and in that way, it's good for everybody, knitters and wearers alike. Handknit garments helped the men at the front because they were…

People in this episode

Hosts: Bootie, Bossy

Topics covered

• knitting
• history
• World War II
• social connections
• crafts

Keywords

• knitting
• World War II
• social history
• crafts
• American knitting

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: National Dry Goods Association, Glenn Miller

Books & works: No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting

More episodes of Bootie and Bossy Eat, Drink, Knit

• Pippa Latour, a Portrait in "Cool and Lonely Courage" · May 4, 2026 · 40 min
• The Great Catering Adventure · April 19, 2026 · 37 min
• What do Knitting and Espionage have in Common? · March 29, 2026 · 31 min
• We Salute the Knitlympians · March 13, 2026 · 30 min
• A Dream Afternoon with Keeley Richardson · March 2, 2026 · 46 min
• Got Red Wool? · February 13, 2026 · 10 min