War time knitting

Home By Christmas was great. The story was told a bit differently than I had expected, less enacting of scenes and more narration by the actor playing 'old' Ed, but he told the story in such an understated way and had such humour that I never got bored. There was also the fun of 'spot the Wellington actor' as lots of people Guy and I know had small roles or were extras in it.

The WWII New Zealand era costumes and sets were really well done AND there was a lot of knitting! I had wondered if it would be mentioned/shown as I had come across an article about Her Excellency's Knitting Book a while ago (although that particular book is from WWI I knew women in New Zealand had knitted for the men serving overseas in both world wars).

In Home By Christmas the character of Tui Preston writes to her husband Ed and tells him everyone at home is furiously knitting, some are knitting socks and she is attempting a balaclava.

There are quite a few scenes in which Tui is knitting and in this one she is sitting on a bed covered with yarn and knitted items (all in the same cheerful colour...):


The little boy in the movie also wore lots of knitted goodness. In one scene he wore these amazing knitted dungarees, but sadly you'll have to watch the movie to see them, I couldn't find an image of him wearing them. Instead I found an image of him wearing his good old knitted cardigan:

(all Home By Christmas images sourced here)

The cool thing was, we stayed to watch the credits and there was a credit for a number of women under 'Hand knitters'. They definitely did a great job!