Knit happens

hand knits for servicemen via micro revolt

Whatever your position on Australian troops in Afghanistan – and this week’s “shit happens” media furore over off-the-cuff comments made to same by Opposition leader Tony Abbott – here is one war-related story that can’t surely be accused of being a beatup. The Queensland Country Womens Association has just dispatched 136 hand-knitted woollen skullcaps to our diggers in Afghanistan to wear under their helmets. Reportedly at the behest of the Australian Defence Forces and with the support of the RSL and Bendigo Woollen Mills, the project involved 20 knitters from the QCWA’s Border Division handcraft group (which has also knitted clothing for babies in Africa). Included with the parcel, which was posted to the ADF in Sydney yesterday, was a sweet letter, which read: “As some of us are old enough to be your grandmothers or great-grandmothers, we felt that our pride in you could not only be knitted into these skull caps; But that you may feel a little of the love and appreciation, which Australians hold for you when you wear them. Be safe.” There is a very longstanding connection between knitting and the war effort, which dates back to at least the American Civil War.