Forgotten Wartime Knitting Songs

Crafting songs have been around for centuries: from the “Knotting Song” (1695), written by Henry Purcell, to spinning songs and “Waulking Songs,” usually Scottish tunes sung in Gaelic as women prepared traditional tartan cloth. Music specifically about knitting has appeared for centuries in folk and art songs, but during the World Wars, songs about knitting and knitters became an integral part of the war effort and presented a fascinating social history.

But why? Why did these songs even exist, and why were they so popular? Well, with these knitting songs, it was a perfect combination of timing and popular sentiment.

Popular Music in the Early 20^th Century

In the 1910s, the music publishers on Tin Pan Alley in New York and Denmark Street in London were putting out thousands of new songs every year. Sheet music was a huge business, as popular entertainment often involved gathering around a piano in the parlor and singing. There were, of course, the requisite songs about love and heartbreak, but publishers soon found that novelty songs—comic tunes reflecting current events—were some of their top sellers.

These new songs covered every topic imaginable: fashion, sewing machines, the telephone. Irving Berlin even wrote a tune about how if a girl wore a “new-fangled” bathing suit, exposing her unshapely ankles, her sweetheart would abandon her at the seashore.

When WWI began, and the Red Cross launched its ‘Knit Your Bit’ campaign, millions of women started knitting. And it was just a matter of time before the woolly craze caught the songwriters’ attention.

The War Has Brought a Custom Back

This war has brought a custom back
That seems to be most fitting,
It was the vogue in grandma’s time;
It is the art of knitting.

– “Knitting” by Anna Priscilla Risher, 1917

The knitting songs of World War I served many different purposes. They were used as entertainment, providing levity in a frightening time. They were used as encouragement, reinforcing the sentiment that knitters were an integral part of a national war effort. The songs were also used as propaganda, with the patriotic lyrics and colorful cover images encouraging the “soldier girls at home” to remain in traditional roles and primarily contribute to the war effort through knitting. The songs also served an unexpected purpose: they preserved a record of knitting during the Great War.

The knitting songs of WWI were written by a wide range of composers, including Harry Von Tilzer, the best-known Tin Pan Alley songwriter of the day. Tilzer’s two knitting songs, “And then She’d Knit, Knit, Knit” (1917) and “Knocking at the Knitting Club” (1917) were bestselling hits.

WWI Knitting Songs

Melanie Gall performing “I Wonder Who’s Knitting for Me?”

The novelty song, “I Wonder Who’s Knitting for Me?” (Jesse Winne, 1917), addressed the fact that at the start of the war, there was little quality control for handmade comforts, and all sorts of ill-fitting and badly knitted items were sent to the troops:

I wonder who’s knitting for me?
I wonder just who she can be?
She must think I’m big and tall,
She doesn’t know I’m small;
No matter, no matter, I’ll wear them after all
I’d like to thank her for the hose
They’re bigger than my underclothes!

– “I Wonder Who’s Knitting for Me by Jesse Winne, 1917

The song, “Mother’s Sitting Knitting Little Mittens” (R.P. Weston, 1915), takes a comic look at how some civilian men felt ignored by their wives and daughters, who abandoned their “home duties” to knit tirelessly for the men at the front:

Why is it Papa’s fists are always in his trouser pockets?
Well, ask him and he’ll tell you,
That he’s holding up his pants;
There are not any buttons,
And he dare not take a chance.
He has a wife and daughters,
All good needlewomen too;
But they can’t sew on buttons,
They have something else to do.

– “Mother’s Sitting Knitting Little Mittens” by R.P. Weston, 1915

Related: The Hand-Knit Socks that Won the War

There were martial songs, often written in the tempo of a military march, which directly stated that the women at home were soldiers, too. There were sentimental pieces, about mothers knitting for their sons away at war. There were also songs about the modern young women who went from rejecting anything that seemed too “Victorian” to embracing knitting. One example is the catchy British tune, “More Power to Your Knitting, Nell!” (Riley McCowan, 1918).

With her little ball of yarn tucked up under her arm,
It’s her knitting that she’s getting at each day!
She believes a stitch in time,
Would save nine and ninety-nine;
And that’s why she sits and knits the hours away.

– “More Power to Your Knitting, Nell!” by Riley McCowan, 1918

The Knitting Itch

After WWI ended, the knitting songs of the Great War were put aside and almost completely forgotten. A generation later, when a second international military conflict began, the old knitting songs remained abandoned and a new crop of tunes appeared.

These new songs had a different structure. By the 1930s, the music industry had changed, and although sheet music sales were still a major revenue source, radios were common and more people listened to music instead of playing it. Although novelty songs were still popular, much of the WWII music was more sophisticated, and was played by big bands or orchestras in supper clubs, dance halls, or onscreen in films.

The part women played in wartime had changed, too. In WWII, women on the homefront took a much more active role, working in factories or offices, and performing other skilled labor. Some of the music reflected this, while other songs continued to express that a woman’s place in wartime was to sit at home, knit socks, and wait.

WWII Knitting Hits

By WWII, the morals of the day had moved even further from the repressive Victorian era, and several of the knitting songs had double-entendre lyrics. In the song “Since Kitten’s Knittin’ Mittins” (Jack Meskill, 1941), the song’s young heroine was doing a lot more than just knitting:

Since Kitten’s knittin’ mittens for the army,
She cannot fill their orders and demands;
She’s got so many sweethearts in the army,
She really needs a million pairs of hands;
For the captain and the Col’nel and the Gen’ral,
She’s doin’ what she’s doin’ night and day…

– “Since Kitten’s Knittin’ Mittins” by Jack Meskill, 1941

During WWII, worldwide Red Cross agencies became more organized and instituted quality control in the goods they accepted, but that didn’t stop songwriters from poking fun at poorly knitted garments. The most unique WWII knitting song was written by a British soldier at the front. “The Pretty Little Mitt that Kitty Knit” (Jimmy Coulter, 1940), tells the highly imaginative story about a young woman, Kitty, who knit a mitten that turned out so badly that when Hitler got it, he figured the twisted yarn was an undecipherable secret code and promptly surrendered to the Allies.

Then the Nazi agents sent it to der Fuehrer.
When he looked at it he nearly threw a fit,
For he tho’t there was a trap or a secret code or map,
In the pretty little mitt that Kitty knit.
Then he packed it with a letter off to Blighty,
Stating briefly he was quite prepared to quit.
Now revered by one and all, on the foreign office wall,
Hangs the pretty little mitt that Kitty knit.

– “The Pretty Little Mitt that Kitty Knit” by Jimmy Coulter, 1940

“The Knitting Itch” (Leah Yurak, 1938) was written by a knitter who included many knitting terms and stitching puns, including: follow these directions fine/Or you’ll have a ‘ripping’ time.  “Pick up Your Knitting” (Dudley Brill, 1941) was composed to promote the “Bundles for Britain” campaign, a philanthropic effort organized by American socialite Natalie Latham. However, the most famous WWII knitting song was “Knit One, Purl Two” (1942), written by famed American clarinetist and bandleader Glenn Miller. The song was a typical wartime ballad, with lyrics about a girl tending to home, hearth, and child, while waiting for her soldier to return:

Knit one, purl two;
This sweater, my darling’s for you.
While vigil you’re keeping,
Through rain and storm,
This sweater will keep you warm.

– “Knit One, Purl Two” by Glenn Miller, 1942

Related: Home Economics vs. Hitler: Sewing in WWII

However, what makes this song most unusual by today’s standards, is that on the sheet music, Glenn Miller lists “Flossie Frills” as a co-writer. Flossie was a cartoon character in the 1940s, and it was odd that Miller gave her songwriting credit, as Flossie didn’t actually exist. Although in the first half of the 20^th Century, it was usual to adopt a feminine name when selling “feminine” products (such as the Susan Bates hooks sold by the C. J. Bates company), Glenn Miller didn’t need a feminine co-writer to sell a song, and composers do not often give up credit for their work.It is confusing and charming, and remains one of those mysteries that will likely never be solved.

Knitting Songs After WWII

Immediately after the war, the Brooklyn-based Featherknit sweater company released sheet music to two different versions of “Sweeter in a Sweater” (Buddy Kaye, 1945). This was a full-length song, as opposed to the brief jingles many companies used to advertise their products. But, apart from these two ads, once peace was declared, knitting songs once again disappeared.

In the seven decades since WWII, a few new knitting songs have been composed, but they are merely amusing tunes, not meant to encourage, comfort, or inspire. The knitting songs of the wars were truly unique, both in the stories they told and the specific social history they preserved. Although knitting music might seem like merely a quirky bit of history, they are a fascinating reminder that at one time, knitters were seen as an army, and a handmade sock as powerful enough to drive an army to victory.  

Melanie Gall is a professional singer and music historian who performs these “lost” knitting songs in her award-winning show, Stitch in Time, around the world. She has sung at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York and Royal Albert Hall in London. Melanie’s first book, Deanna Durbin, Judy Garland, and the Golden Age of Hollywood, about forgotten 1930s Hollywood star (and knitter) Deanna Durbin, is available in bookstores across North America. Melaniegall.com, @melaniepresents (Twitter, Instagram), @melaniegpresents (Facebook)

Karen Ballard is a needlework historian who has spent decades collecting historic memorabilia and researching knitting history. Her research has significantly contributed to the preservation of knitting history, and she is a generous and valuable resource.