CWA knitting competition (1971) | RetroFocus
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- Опубліковано 5 вер 2018
- Tension increases as the 7 top knitters in the land prepare their needles for combat.
This Day Tonight aired this story on 20 April 1971
#knitting
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I knew shit was about to get serious when they all started powdering their hands!
No Cap
I love that a knitting technique could be considered "controversial".
Yes, does anyone know what are they referring to, by "controversial"?
@@seseaghito Some people knit ‘continental’ style, with the working yarn held in the left hand and they ‘pick’ up the yarn to form a stitch. Others knit what I know as English style, with the working yarn held in the right hand and stitches formed by ‘throwing’ the yarn round the needle. Of course whichever way you learn will seem the quickest to you, at first anyway, but there are some techniques that suit one knitting style a bit better than the other. I love knitting 😀
@@katyjudd1061thanks! But why would it be controversial?
@@seseaghito I think it’s different now we have UA-cam etc, and are more easily exposed to different styles and techniques but, years ago, if someone knitted differently, people would scoff and say they’re obviously doing it all wrong. Nowadays we think if you get the same end result it really doesn’t matter how you get there - neither is right or wrong. 🙂
@@katyjudd1061 thanks !
Wait. Are you telling me we used to have televised knitting competitions? We need to bring this back pronto
Yes , completely agree with you.
One hundred percent
seperate crochet competitions!!
Exactly. I would watch that all day.
Well said
I'm a 36 year old male disabled veteran. I served for over a decade in the Army. I can strip and assemble a weapon with the best of them. I'm an expert in close quarters combat. I've recently taken up knitting as a hobby and hells bells, I was not prepared!
I got bored in Afghanistan and used discarded surgical tools and 550 cord to knit for a couple hours. Put it down to do something else and when I came back my commander was trying to figure out who'd done it. I don't think I ever saw a combat vet look so scared as my commander holding a bit of knitting. XD
@@tammyt3434 I’d be alarmed too if I saw two scalpels with rope tied around them at then end of some beautifully assembled mittens as well…
Takes practice just anything else. I bet it took you a long time to learn how to strip a gun.
Keep at it.. if you can strip a weapon you can certainly knit pearl your way to success!
Good luck on your new hobby!!
In case anybody else wonders: The winner was NT's Mrs. Smith (according to ABC), the traditional English-style knitting cardigan and jumper specialist.
Thank you!! I was like so who won?? 😅 You saved me a lot of grief and anxiety.
Crazy to think that they asked in 1971 if knitting was "old fashioned". My mother was 3 years old in 1971, she is in her 50s now and this year she has taught me how to knit (I'm 18). I find it interesting that someone might've considered knitting outdated in the 70s but even today it's a skill that is being passed through generations. For example knitting in my family has been passed from my grandmother to my mother to myself and my eldest sister and most recently my 11 year old niece. I genuinely hope there is never a day where knitting is considered archaic or dead, I plan on teaching my future kids and grandkids how to knit one day :)
I thought the same. Im self taught through online tutorials and books. And wish I had more time to spend on the craft. I will be knitting my heart out in retirement one day 😆
They should have kept knitting and crocheting in schools.
It seems like the lockdown got people to take an interest in the craft
@@denisespencer6550 I don't even remember if mum offered to teach me or if I asked her to. I'm glad I learned though as it satisfies that urge to create something with my hands haha.
@@Jessie_03 that's good to hear. They should have kept knitting and crocheting in schools
I also learned when I was 18 and I feel like it’s always going to have this “old lady” connotation until it becomes more mainstream knowledge that people are learning and knitting from before they were old 😂😂😂 I’m 36. There’s almost no representation of young knitters in the media 😂😂😂 I think Tom Daley really did something by knitting during the olympics 🤣
And the winner was... Mrs. Mary Smith from Alice Springs!
Thank you. I couldn't believe you didn't show the rest. Bad words were said!
😂 isn’t it knitting old fashioned asking in 50’s 😁
2021 I’m millennial knitting right now a cardigan 😂
Knitting 🧶 is therapeutic.
According to studies, it can help with modern anxiety.
It really much can help! Crocheting also. If you learn it and get confy with it, it can elevate a lot of stress. Only knitting for 1 hour a day uninterrupted, maybe listenjng to music, educationsl stuff or some podcast while at it is a really relaxing and fun thing. As you count the stitches, it makes you feel collected and in control. The next day you'll be able to face your problems more collected and efficient. :)
Thats what i was thinking everyone today saying its coming back i knit “vintage” patterns feom the time this video was released and they say then its coming back and now knitting from that age is considered vintage haha
And here we are in 2018, with the fibre arts having a real renaissance. Knitting, spinning and weaving, even felting on the rise. This was a beautiful clip. Thank you so much for curating and sharing these old clips. Absolutely fascinating and a nice alternative from the depressing politics de jour.
I agree. My brother liked knitting, but it was considered "gay". Gave it up. Sad. He was good at it.
Have you seen that little boy who is a crocheting and knitting genius? Sorry, can't remember his name, but if you can find some of his videos, you could encourage your brother. Before lockdown, a guy would come to the knitting group at my local yarn shop with his wife, so it isn't only gay men who knit.
Just wanted to add that the boy is called Jonah Larson.
@@waiyisit Yes, that's him! Thanks.
And this comment was made pre-pandemic, fiber arts just boomed.
Jan 2021. This was interesting. My grandmother who is soon to be 90 is still to this day knitting for every baby born in our family. Even with her now arthritic hands she makes a point of it. She has 7 great great grandchildren, the last one born 3 months ago
What a wonderful thing. Kudos to her for still cracking on with it :)
Love this grandmother made each of her 32 grandchildren an afghan!
I wish good health and joyful days for her. She's a blessing truly
3:29 This judge is passively flexing her technical nous by wearing her award winning pullover.
This the cutest video I've seen in awhile but their speed is crazy! I like how some of them hold their needles as well.
I can’t believe back then knitting was “old fashioned” when now I get called a granny for doing a craft that I adore
If knitting Continental is "controversial" these people would go absolutely BONKERS if they saw me knitting in Portuguese style
Do they also knit Portuguese style in Brazil?
Look at the 1min 11 second point. The knitter is using the same technique as I discovered on a Shetland knitter video of the 1930s-1940s, wrapping the needle with first finger left hand. The Shetlander worked at over 3 stitches per second. This knitter is knitting over 1 stitch per second which is still pretty fast.
I love how humble these older people are.
Adorable grandmas flexing their knitting game. Everyone like that.
To knit is a talent. And for come down. And for a nice product at the end.
I do knitting, since I am 10 years old, beginning with a pair of socks. Don't ask how they looked like. 🤣🤣🤣
But since this time I am in love with knitting, stitching, sewing, crochieting. I am now 61. 😁😁😁
I've started knitting and find it very relaxing . Love these ladies accents
Australian accents and one Bavarian 😊👍
THEY ARE SO METAL
😭😭Did y’all come from the instagram reel too!?
“Controversial continental knitting technique” - the rebel!!! 🤣😂 And Im going to need televised knitting competitions to make a comeback!
I knit stranded colorwork with one color in each hand. If my continental knitting wasn't so tight with just one color, I would probably do it as my regular technique :)
@@lauraandrews1676 mine is tighter on tension with one colour too! I can’t swap methods during a project because it shows!
I wish knitting competitions still exist nowadays 😌😄 !
at least we got Video game competitions 🕹🎮 !
I love stuff like this
I like how they talk to each other, instead of them being stank to each other
I never thought of powdering my knitting needles and hands. Excellent idea.
With so much stress it takes the fun out of knitting ...
I need a video edit that adds "Eye of the Tiger". I knew when she broke out the powder for her needles that it was going down.
Need this in my life
Great bit of history!!! LOL my knitting tension would increase if I tried a competition!! Fascinating different types of knitting all quite fast.
0:56 and 4:15 Good shots of lever knitting there! ... Not sure what the controversial European style is -- looks like continental to me, but could be talking about the Norwegian purl?
Looks like continental to me. Funny it would be called controversial.
I think the lever knitter was the controversial one.
Fantastic I say it never die I love knitting my mum taught me its fab.
Love to see this knitting competition.
This is fantastic!! Those ladies are speedy!
I knit English style. I can't get on with continental or other methods. Funny to hear them say in 1971 that knitting was old fashioned. A lot of my mother's friends don't knit - baby boomer generation don't knit that much so they probably thought it was old fashioned when they saw these older ladies doing it.
I think it was because knitting rapidly fell out of favor during second wave feminism and the US Vietnam war. Knitting was associated with WWII and girls raised to be idle homemakers.
@@tammyt3434When infact homemakers were anything but idle. The work of keeping a home comfortable and functioning never ends.
Thank you so much!!!!
Aww these women are all so humble and sweet. They've been doing this for almost their entire lives and all of them are like "Well I'm okay, I'm just doing my best"
Naturally intense, just because that is what a competition is about! Every lady humble n kind. They didnt need all the silly drama.
That generation were raised properly. They weren't obsessed with being the centre of attention.
Very good
Isn't it interesting that so many of these ladies hold their right-hand needle with the pen method rather than the knife method? That's pretty rare nowadays.
That's me! But that's probably because I learned my knitting from that generation of Australian knitters.
I knit like that too, more than 2 sts a second when I get going, don’t move my hand much, just my forefinger comes forward to wrap the yarn. My Granny taught me in the late 60s. We used to race across the rows, trying to out do one another, sat on the back step, I remember. I’m in the U.K.
I have never heard it called knife or pen, but I knew what you were talking about! I learned pen from my mother in the early 60s and didn't know it was rare now. Thank you. I've been trying different methods to get faster, but I may just go back to "pen".
It makes it sound like the noisiest event ever. Not possible!
Yes it's really a pity someone thought that adding that dreadful ticking was a good idea. The clack of the needles would have been so much nicer.
How fun
This is very interesting, I've been looking for something like this for a while but I couldn't find anything in Spanish, but I found it in English
That background clattering noise sounds like an automatic weaving loom - NOT anything to do with knitting!
Great knitters. I wish this showed the entire competition, though, as simply showing short snippets is NOT NEARLY LONG ENOUGH!
it's so sad what happened to these women. :(
for those who don't know, during the war, knitters around the UK were basically drafted and forced out of their homes to work in factories for the war. of course, the government had kept an eye out for these speed-knitting competitions and favoured those "speed-knitters". they kept the knitters isolated in rooms and only paid them with food for every piece they completed for soldiers. all but 2 of the women you see in this video were all drafted. one of them died (the one using the "controversial" stitch), and the other one missed the drafting period to visit her family in germany. after the war, one of the knitters you see in this video fell ill due to an infection in her wrist, which the medicine at the time could not heal, and she lived with a debilitating condition for the rest of her life. she died in 2001 at the age of 73 due to an unrelated condition, but it still made it hard for her as she relied on hospital staff for the latter 3 years of her life.
Oh, to be able to watch each one in slow motion.
Click on the UA-cam settings button/playback speed and choose 75%, 50% or 25% speeds.
@@laceandbits Thank you!
...get it, get it...nice job ladies! :-)
this is so intense
I'm in the CWA. I'm wondering if this is still run. I would love to see it in real life if possible.
60 years later, if it is I'm sure you'd have heard about it.
@@laceandbits , your maths is not good. You need good maths in knitting.
@@patriciaa3462 haha
Not one sentence was started with "so"!! Lovely to hear people speaking so articulately.
Yes! I thought I was the only person bothered by that!
They used "oh" and "er" much the way some people today might use "so." Filler words are normal, they don't make someone less "articulate."
The lady from WA had cauliflower ears 😭
Ostras, qué estres. Yo no podría
hopefully these ladies passed on their vast knowledge to someone else♥
Umm that’s awesome!
"controversial European technique"? How is that controversial? 😂 It's continental knitting, isn't it? I knit continental as well.
Don't quote me on this but I believe the lever technique was more common as it was known to be faster and more efficient than continental style which was I guess classed as more leisurely.
@@snikrdoodls14 I see, so because it was less common that they classed it as controversial? Lol 🤣
After WWII, continental knitting became very unfashionable in English speaking countries and the Netherlands (but interestingly enough not in Eastern Europe), because it was the way Germans knitted . I'm not sure if that sentiment lasted into the '70ies, but it might have something to do with it.
Also, from my own experience, a lot of English style knitters, especially the older generation, had no idea continental knitting even existed en were very confused by it. And this was in the '90ies. Although I still get surprised looks from elderly ladies now and then. I'm an Eastern European immigrant in the Netherlands, by the way.
@@CatBloom42 wow, that sounds serious, people don't know that continental knitting existed, that's strange.
I vaguely recall somewhere that perhaps the abandoning of continental knitting was due to WW1 like you've just mentioned, people not wanting to be associated with the Germans. Didn't know it was that serious though.
As for Eastern Europe and also Scandinavia, perhaps the continental styles are a bit different from the German continental style, that's why they remain in use.
@@coldfusionmusical I'm from New Zealand and only learned about it in the 80s. I was travelling across Europe on a train and noticed 2 German women laughing at how l knitted. By gesture l asked them why it was funny and they showed me how they knitted. Then the 3 of us spent the next hour or so laughing about how shocked we were about how each other knitted. They managed to teach me how to do it, more or less. Although l continued to knit how I had first learned, because l was so much quicker at it, when my hands got too sore to knit English style l taught myself combination knitting and now l can knit without my hands cramping.
I wish the Bavarian lady could have won (representing my home state) but this is great nonetheless!
Notice, Mrs. Smith who seems to have been declared fastest is not knitting continental. One hears so often that 'continental is faster' as if that is inherently so.
_I’ve made mistakes. Unforgivable mistakes._
This is in the context of a knitting competition, but she sounds like she’s killed before.
🤣😂😂🤣😂
All these years later and I knit the same way….don’t let anyone tell you English style is slower than continental..it’s a lot faster
Exactly! I find it faster and MUCH less clumsy. It's also better at keeping your tension even.
Who won?
who won?
I would love to know the answer to that to Louise, hehe
We're still trying to find out!
And the winner was... Mrs. Mary Smith from Alice Springs!
Who won??
Who won???
But, who won!?
Wait...all that and you don't tell us WHO WON?????
O come on so win
Who won!?! this isn't funny! I must know!!!
From a post closer top the top:
Ariel
5 days ago
The news station made an appeal on Facebook to find the winner, and current members of Australia's CWA looked through their archives and found the name of the winner - it was the wielder of the fastest needles in the Northern Territory, Mrs. Mary Smith, from Alice Springs. (You may see her winning temperament for yourself at 1:58)
The Bavarian born lady is so prim and proper! Now, sadly that sort of attitude is very rare amongst women.
We never did find out who won the competition!!!!!
Why didn't this show the winner?!?
really you didnt tell us who won! good grief!
Oh so they’re just straight up not gonna tell us who won???
So-- who won?
Mrs Mary Smith from Alice Springs.
Why are the comments for all these old videos always so cancerous?
They're not.
Vectoreenio they are???
Define what you mean by cancerous. I can't read anything offensive in these comments.
All this nostalgia... It's not like anything important or interesting is happening in Australia and the world at the moment...
Yes because this is the only video the ABC has put out today and there's no space on the interwebs for more than one video.
Just you wait for 2020.....you’ll be sorry 😢
@@looloo4029 ahahhahahahahahah ♡
Are you serious, not everybody wants to have a phone or other similar device in their hand. To make something with your own hands is extremely satisfying and also has a positive impact.
1) Faster knitting doesn't make you a BETTER KNITTER.
2) there is NO right way to knit or Wrong way to knit. That is not true.
3) this obsession with knitting FASTER is so irrelevant, just enjoy knitting at any damn pace you want and MAKE sure at all costs that you don't get /suffer REPETITIVE STRAIN Injury from trying to knit fast and abusing your hands .
4) depending on the stitching you're doing, cables, lace etc, YOU will have to slow down so you don't make errors etc. You can get away with faster knitting if its straight stockinette. I believe people who knit often can and do knit faster than the average, but I've been knitting for years and do not knit like this, and no thanks. I got repetitive strain injury 2 years ago...still have issues with it sometimes and I cannot abuse my hands. 5)This Isn't a race people - no way!!
I wish I could like your comment 1,000,000,000 times! There's NO point in knitting faster if knitting faster is only going to result in mistakes (dropped stitches, split stitches, uneven tension) and hand/wrist strain. You eventually build your own natural pace the more experienced you become with knitting, and as you correctly said, some styles of knitting like lace and stranded colorwork require a slower, more calculated rate of speed.
While I agree with your PSA that knitters should be mindful of not aiming for speed at the sacrifice of your joint health, in this case it was actually a race between needle athletes. If you listen to the judge section again, you can hear them giving penalties for errors and poor form. These ladies were not getting RSI, because they were relaxed. It's no less valid to build up your speed knitting than it is to build up your speed playing piano or guitar, totally valid and a personal choice as long as you are loosy goosey and give your joints time to heal :D And eat bananas.
Everything is a competition if you've got the spirit for it. Are hand injuries any worse than a vocalist destroying their vocal cords or an athlete blowing out their ACL?
To each their own, personally I watch every stitch so I’m going to be slower. I enjoy watching every stitch. It’s the part that keeps me engaged. I also enjoy watching others knit really fast. There’s no wrong way.
Who won?