"WOOLLIES"

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 29, 4 February 1939, Page 11 (Supplement)

"WOOLLIES"

'•i QOCKS, did you say? Well, tD never mind, the winter's coming." •No doubt you have heard, or made, this remark in those days gone by. , And behind the remark was .the picture, somewhere back in New Zealand, of someone whose needles clicked busily in the lamplight by. the fire in the old house "Down Under," someone whose thoughts were woven into each row of that garment, he it sock, balaklava or muffler. Thoughts—and anxiety. Anxiety lest you, the one for whom it was being made, should never receive it. Who can deny that the lot of those left behind — mothers, sweethearts, wives — was not a greater trial than any we put up with? Fearful lest at any moment would come that slip of paper —a telegram —announcing the death in action of the loved one. Yet they knitted woollies. Purl one, plain two; purl one, plain two, until the job was done and included in that parcel for "the front." It was pounds to peanuts, anyway, an even bet, if you will, that each parcel contained either a pair of socks, a balaklava 01* a muffler. Sometimes you got more than one pair. Perhaps, in addition, "the" girl tried her hand.

For E.M.S. Neu) Zealand

Slum's socks were always best; no knots or anything of that sort. Muni's socks were always the right size—just long enough in the foot, and plenty on the legs. Slum knew how to knit socks; one of the old school, and no mistake about it. The amount of wool which found its way into home-made woollies must have been stupendous. Then there were the socks and other things made by groups of women who collected of an afternoon, or several of them, each week, and set to with right good will to prepare more garments for hospitals, refugees, ships at sea and many others. Added to all these were the_ "issue" varieties. These were made, of course, by Army contractors, at prices in reverse proportion to the wool they contained. " s Ow are you off for socks, mate? Take them issue things and sling them in the ditch. *"Kre's a pair of dinkum > home-made." Right gladly were "them . issue things" discarded, the only thing most of them were lit for. Hard, with cotton, they were looked on with ill [ favour. They had nothing to commend — least of all, sentiment. ! Purl one, plain two; purl one, plain two. God bless the kuitters of "woollies." —W.M.R.