Following the discussion in the last class on the issue of gender, I remembered a practice used during the First and Second World Wars that relied on gender stereotypes to convey information.
A quick reminder about gender stereotypes. A gender stereotype is a generalized prejudice about the presumed roles of men and women in our society. It is the preconceived idea that a particular activity, hobby, or profession is intended only for men or only for women. For example, a woman is supposed to be maternal, gentle, delicate, calm, etc. These prejudices are harmful because they limit and compartmentalize the possibilities for one gender or the other. In addition, they reinforce other social inequalities such as those affecting minorities or indigenous populations, people with disabilities, or people belonging to a social status recognized as inferior. Today, we are increasingly trying to break down these stereotypes or subvert them. But there are examples where they are clearly embraced and become acts of resistance. During the First and Second World Wars, but also in other older historical events, women used knitting to code and transmit information about the enemy camp.
Women, knitting, war, and espionage
In the 20th century, society was very gendered, and women were the main actors in domestic life. They had roles and activities to perform within the home, such as cooking, cleaning, raising children, and making household linens and clothing. Sewing and knitting were seen primarily as domestic activities for women. These practices were affected by the First World War, primarily due to rationing. Clothes were unraveled to recover wool for making new ones. This is why the clothes made at that time were more form-fitting, because raw materials were scarce and had to be conserved, so clothes that required less wool were made.
Some women therefore took advantage of this gender stereotype as an alibi for spying. They exploited the endearing image of the knitter to gather information, pass through checkpoints with their knitting baskets, and hide messages inside their knitting. Women observed the comings and goings and, so as not to appear suspicious, knitted at the same time. One example is Madame Levengle (Belgium). A German officer was living in her house, and she spent her days upstairs, watching the trains from her window while knitting. She would tap her foot to communicate what she saw to her children, who would translate the code while pretending to do their homework and then pass on the message. In this case, knitting served as a cover to avoid arousing suspicion. There is also the older example of Molly Ricker during the American Revolution in 1763. During this period, the English lived in people's homes and inns. Mrs. Ricker was an elderly woman who worked in an inn. She used her job to gather information about British soldiers by listening to their conversations during meals or drinking sessions. She wrote down her information on a piece of paper, then wrapped a small stone with her paper and rolled her wool around it. Then she played on the stereotype of the old woman who knits, going to sit on a rock to knit socks and dropping her ball of wool from the rock, which rolled down into the woods where the American forces were stationed. In this way, she informed them of the British intentions.
Knitting and coding
I have previously discussed the use of knitting as a cover for transmitting messages, but its structure also made it a way of coding messages. Knitting thus became a tool for steganography, i.e., a technique for concealing information using a seemingly innocuous form so as not to arouse suspicion.
There is the knot technique, popularized by a British newspaper. Women would tie knots in their wool at certain intervals, then knit a garment, which they would send by mail. The recipient would unravel the garment and could then read the wool and decode the message.
Knitting works with a system of alternating purl and knit stitches, which visually translates into either a “v” or a bump. It is a binary system. It can easily be applied to Morse code. Silence is translated into a purl stitch and sound into a knit stitch, with one dot corresponding to one stitch and one dash to three stitches.
Here is a contemporary example of a sweater made by Kristen Haring in 2007. The coded pattern is S.O.S.
The British postal service ended up censoring shipments of knitted clothing; if a piece looked suspicious, it was blocked.
Phyllis Latour Doyle joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) in November 1941 as a mechanic. She was then spotted by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and enlisted to avenge her grandparents, who had been victims of the Nazis. She was parachuted into France in May 1944. She pretended to be a traveling soap saleswoman and tried to be invisible. In reality, she was gathering information for the SOE. She transmitted it by piercing holes in a silk handkerchief with her knitting needle, then slipping the piece of silk into a flat lace before using it to tie her hair. She was interrogated and searched several times by the German authorities. During one interrogation, after finding nothing in her clothes or on her body, a female inspector stared intently at her tied-back hair. Phyllis spontaneously removed the lace that held it in place and shook her head to dispel any suspicion. At no point did the interrogator suspect that there might be anything in the lace. She is believed to have transmitted more than 135 messages and to have actively participated in the June 1944 landings. In 2014, she received the Legion of Honor in recognition of her work.
And today
Knitting is also being repurposed as a means of self-expression and resistance. It is often used by feminist organizations for activism purposes. One example is the Pussyhat Project. Following the 2016 US presidential election, Krista Suh and Jayna Zweiman decided to create and distribute patterns for making pink cat-eared hats. They wanted to wear them for the 2017 Women's March. The patterns were widely distributed and can be adapted to different knitting, crochet, and sewing techniques. The stitches are simple, making production quick and accessible. The pink hats became a symbol of solidarity for women's rights. The project has been criticized for not representing all women, as it only represents cis white women, and for not representing trans women and women of color.
Hansol Kim, a student at La Cambre, created a crocheted book in 2023. She was inspired by coded knitting from World War I. She adapted the code to the crochet technique and, during evening crochet gatherings, she made a scroll book (scarf) with her friends. Feminist phrases are hidden on the scarf. Each participant made a square and encoded part of the manifesto into it, then the squares were put together.
