The Wonderful Knitting Machine

One of the unsung heroes of the World War I, the knitting machine helped preserve the feet of the soldiers in the trenches and keep them fit for active duty. This documentary, The Wonderful Knitting Machine, directed by Rasec Ozal, talks about the knitting machine and its role in WWI, and includes a demonstration of how to make a sock on an antique knitting machine. Part 1 of The Wonderful Knitting Machine appears above while Part 2 appears below.

I will quibble with this documentary on one thing, though. In the video, the narrator claims knitters could make a pair of socks in a week. This might have been the average rate of production, but many knitters could and did knit socks much faster than that. One of my great-grandmothers, who was of an age to knit for WWI, could make a pair of socks in an evening.





Here is Part 2 of The Wonderful Knitting Machine.