Knowing every stitch of your sweater, hat, vest or gloves was hand-knit by someone taking great care had to have added to the comfort of Canada’s Second World War military members serving far from home.
“I’ve been deployed so often, and just receiving anything from home was a motivation to continue on,” said 14 Wing Greenwood Commander Colonel Jeff Davis. “I can just imagine the solders, sailors and aviators of 80 years ago – in trying times, what that meant to them. It is very important to bring our history forward.”
Davis officially opened “Wartime Knitting: Remembrance and Recognition” May 5 at the Greenwood Military Aviation Museum, in its first showing as a travelling exhibit from the Kings County Museum in Kentville’s original Fall 2022 show.
The Four Season Fibre Group focused its work through two years of the pandemic to knit pieces from the Monarch Knitting “Knitting for Victory” Second World War pattern book, used across Canada by thousands of volunteers to craft military uniform and comfort pieces for family members – and strangers – serving overseas. After an initial visit by knitters mid-2022 to the Greenwood museum to compare colours, yarns and designs, their full exhibit in Kentville inspired Greenwood museum volunteers to host the show.
“We weren’t sure how we’d fit this exhibit in,” said GMAM Society chairman and display lead Ian Patrick, “but these Kings County knitters are wonderful – they’re here today, scattered around to answer any questions. Their work is remarkable.”
The GMAM was able to add a number of artefacts to the original exhibit, specific to life at CFB Greenwood in its wartime days as a British Commonwealth Air Training Plan base and showing more of what serving members wore overseas.
“We have a mannequin here in a sheepskin vest – what he would have worn in in a cold hut in Iceland. Anything from Canada, for him, was a treat with the problems they had just keeping warm. They had their uniform, but they added pieces to keep warm.”
Also new at the Greenwood showing of “Wartime Knitting” is an 11-piece collection of espionage knitting. The Four Season knitters spent the winter researching secret code work hidden in knitting worn by escaping soldiers, resistance members and spies: changing stitches and knots told an essential story of numbers, locations and details.
“A sincere thank you to the group for their dedication,” Four Season member Marie Meldrum said, describing the “second phase” knitting that created the new espionage collection.
“My great-grandmother was determined and resourceful. Her three sons all enlisted; two returned. She – and many other women – did work on the home front to maintain homes, businesses and communities and, when they had a spare moment, they picked up their needles and became an army of knitters.”
Meldrum said it’s estimated 750,000 women across Canada contributed over 50 million knitted pieces shipped to Europe during the Second World War.
“Creating this display has been a time of sharing oral history of our loved ones who served, and the dedication of family. As you view this, you can remember and recognize the impact of a great generation of women and men.”
Kings County Museum curator Ellen Lewis thanked 14 Wing Greenwood and the Greenwood museum for their support of the original exhibit, but also for hosting the show.
“We are honoured and pleased the Greenwood museum is the first location for this display, on what we hope may become a wide and long tour. This has been a project born from love, gratitude and respect.”
Visit the “Wartime Knitting” display, available to June 16, and the wider GMAM collection, Wednesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The outdoor GMAM airpark is open dawn to dusk. Museum admission is free.
