WWW: Knitter making herself a better hat?; “A seemingly endless series of very small gestures”; Estonian mitten patterns

The Canadian War Museum in Ottawa is hosting what they call a “knitting challenge”. 

The museum tells us that

during the First and Second World Wars, hundreds of thousands of Canadians supported the troops by knitting massive quantities of socks, stockings, balaclavas, caps, sweaters and other badly needed comfort items. The Canadian Red Cross estimates that 750,000 volunteers knit 50 million articles during the Second World War.

(That’s an average of 67 items per knitter, FYI.)

Inspired by that, and in honor of the museum’s special exhibition ‘World War Women’, they’ve called on knitters to help fill a First World War supply wagon with handmade woollies. They’re accepting donations of hats, scarves and mittens until the end of January, and then those items will be donated to those in need.

Beautiful. A knitter tells the story of learning to knit with the objective of keeping her hands busy while trying to quit smoking, and learning a very important lesson about kindness and love along the way.

Every stitch, every kiss, every kindness – they all count, they all add up? Maybe love is just a seemingly endless series of very small gestures repeated until you die.

Enormously pleasing.

A timely look at this archive of old Estonian mitten patterns. https://t.co/RuLByC1eYP pic.twitter.com/92B8LGEAHD

— Present & Correct (@presentcorrect) January 13, 2016

I really enjoyed this profile of Canadian designer Jane Richmond, on Huffington Post.

I wish I knew more about this fabulous photograph:

Knitting, Paris, 1933 – Paris in 1930s by Fred Stein (24 photos) https://t.co/lhSpmPkfwT pic.twitter.com/Gw6mWAIKzd

— Old Pics Archive (@oldpicsarchive) January 13, 2016

(My husband helpfully commented that he hoped she was knitting a hat, ‘because the one she’s wearing seems a bit odd’. I think it’s fantastic, personally, but it probably isn’t very warm…)