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Alison Gates of Appleton puts her knitting skills to work for charitable causes. Photo for The Post-Crescent by Wm. Glasheen

Sixty-eight years ago this month, Notre Dame coed Peggy Tippett was pictured knitting on the cover of Life magazine. Included in the inside story, “How to Knit,” were basic instructions and a pattern for a knitted vest folks at home could create as a way to provide warmth to American soldiers fighting in World War II.
It was charity knitting at its best, according to Alison Gates, associate professor in arts and design and chair of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

“Back in the day when everybody knit, most of the warm woolies that clothed our troops were knit by groups of people. …That was something that was very big in Europe and in the United States.”

Sure, vests, socks, bandages and hand-knit helmets wouldn’t end the war. But it helped those on the home front feel like they were making a difference......

Read more at -  http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20091108/APC04/91106090