1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio, 2 00:00:06,160 --> 00:00:10,400 Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Boba bam here. In most wars, 3 00:00:10,560 --> 00:00:14,360 Speaker 1: bullets and bombs tend to steal the show. But knitting 4 00:00:14,680 --> 00:00:17,080 Speaker 1: is also a weapon, and a wiley one at that. 5 00:00:17,720 --> 00:00:22,040 Speaker 1: And no, it's not because of the sharp needles. For centuries, 6 00:00:22,120 --> 00:00:26,760 Speaker 1: wartime knitting has conjured shadowy powers in secret knitted codes, 7 00:00:27,280 --> 00:00:30,600 Speaker 1: encrypted messages crafted directly into the stitches of garments that 8 00:00:30,640 --> 00:00:33,879 Speaker 1: were passed along to allies who decrypted the strands and 9 00:00:33,880 --> 00:00:39,120 Speaker 1: then planned their responses accordingly. The practice, which is technically 10 00:00:39,120 --> 00:00:42,880 Speaker 1: called stagonography, has actually been around for thousands of years. 11 00:00:43,400 --> 00:00:46,040 Speaker 1: It refers to the act of hiding secret messages in 12 00:00:46,200 --> 00:00:50,239 Speaker 1: ordinary items so as not to arouse suspicion. With enough 13 00:00:50,280 --> 00:00:54,040 Speaker 1: expertise and calm nerves, a clever person could pass along 14 00:00:54,120 --> 00:00:57,040 Speaker 1: detailed messages right under the noses of even the most 15 00:00:57,080 --> 00:01:02,000 Speaker 1: intelligent adversary. To under and how codes are crafted into knitting, 16 00:01:02,320 --> 00:01:06,080 Speaker 1: you need a bit of handicraft background. We spoke with 17 00:01:06,160 --> 00:01:10,960 Speaker 1: Melissa Camerer, co creator of Nomadic Knits, knitting and Culture magazine. 18 00:01:11,680 --> 00:01:14,560 Speaker 1: She said knitting is made up of different stitches, the 19 00:01:14,560 --> 00:01:17,800 Speaker 1: most common of which are the knit and pearl. At 20 00:01:17,800 --> 00:01:22,000 Speaker 1: its simplest relatable to binary code, knit stitches are flat 21 00:01:22,080 --> 00:01:25,880 Speaker 1: and resemble the letter V, while pearl stitches are horizontal bumps. 22 00:01:27,080 --> 00:01:29,800 Speaker 1: In essence, that means anyone with the right skills and 23 00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:33,200 Speaker 1: knitting prowess could learn to hide messages in fabric, and 24 00:01:33,319 --> 00:01:36,399 Speaker 1: there are infinite ways to do so. For example, you 25 00:01:36,400 --> 00:01:39,760 Speaker 1: could conceal numbers or text as Morse code, which uses 26 00:01:39,800 --> 00:01:42,959 Speaker 1: a series of basic dashes and dots to relay information. 27 00:01:43,920 --> 00:01:47,200 Speaker 1: By alternating these two stitches to produce Morse code, the 28 00:01:47,280 --> 00:01:50,720 Speaker 1: knitter could send encrypted messages through something like an innocent 29 00:01:50,760 --> 00:01:54,200 Speaker 1: looking sweater. The message sender could pass along the garment 30 00:01:54,280 --> 00:01:56,880 Speaker 1: to an undercover agent who would interpret the code and 31 00:01:56,960 --> 00:02:00,840 Speaker 1: send along the message to headquarters. Non knitting, as many 32 00:02:00,880 --> 00:02:04,000 Speaker 1: soldiers have tended to be, would likely not notice anything 33 00:02:04,040 --> 00:02:09,080 Speaker 1: unusual about a piece of knitting. Camera explained, Knit and 34 00:02:09,080 --> 00:02:12,560 Speaker 1: pearl stitches are regularly used together in patterns to create 35 00:02:12,600 --> 00:02:15,760 Speaker 1: a variety of common textures. A picture. The ribbing on 36 00:02:15,800 --> 00:02:18,520 Speaker 1: the hems and cuffs of a sweater and the odd 37 00:02:18,520 --> 00:02:21,239 Speaker 1: pearl bump hidden in a pattern of knit stitches could 38 00:02:21,320 --> 00:02:24,960 Speaker 1: easily be overlooked, or, if noticed, assumed to be part 39 00:02:24,960 --> 00:02:28,600 Speaker 1: of the intended patterning. Even when more noticeable stitches were 40 00:02:28,680 --> 00:02:31,000 Speaker 1: used to encode a message into the garment, it would 41 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:33,920 Speaker 1: appear to the uneducated eye to simply be a mistake. 42 00:02:34,639 --> 00:02:38,239 Speaker 1: Experienced knitters can spot any variation in stitches right away, 43 00:02:38,720 --> 00:02:43,080 Speaker 1: especially when knowing where to look. But even though knitting 44 00:02:43,200 --> 00:02:46,120 Speaker 1: was seemingly an easy way to create a secret message, 45 00:02:46,480 --> 00:02:50,040 Speaker 1: why bother? After all, the early twentieth century saw a 46 00:02:50,120 --> 00:02:55,040 Speaker 1: boom in long distance communications technologies well because knitting was 47 00:02:55,080 --> 00:02:58,160 Speaker 1: a common sight during many wars during this time, and 48 00:02:58,200 --> 00:03:01,840 Speaker 1: so it was the perfect cover. Women could thus conduct 49 00:03:01,840 --> 00:03:07,399 Speaker 1: their intelligence activities in broad daylight without raising suspicion. For example, 50 00:03:07,560 --> 00:03:11,080 Speaker 1: as World War One dragged on, Belgian intelligence agents made 51 00:03:11,080 --> 00:03:15,800 Speaker 1: friends with elderly women who lived near railway stations. Conveniently, 52 00:03:16,080 --> 00:03:19,600 Speaker 1: these women had windows in their homes that overlooked train tracks. 53 00:03:20,200 --> 00:03:23,919 Speaker 1: They surreptitiously asked these women, who perhaps looked too old 54 00:03:23,919 --> 00:03:27,280 Speaker 1: and innocent to be suspected as spies, to monitor passing 55 00:03:27,320 --> 00:03:31,840 Speaker 1: Imperial Germany's train movements. Those who agreed to help followed 56 00:03:31,880 --> 00:03:34,960 Speaker 1: a system that required them to diligently watch for passing 57 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:38,520 Speaker 1: trains as they knitted throughout the day that pearl a 58 00:03:38,560 --> 00:03:41,800 Speaker 1: stitch when they saw an artillery train, or if a 59 00:03:41,800 --> 00:03:44,840 Speaker 1: troop railcar passed, they'd drop a stitch, a meaning they'd 60 00:03:44,920 --> 00:03:48,800 Speaker 1: leave a hole in the pattern. A generation later, during 61 00:03:48,840 --> 00:03:53,360 Speaker 1: World War Two, those themes continued, Kemmer said, along with 62 00:03:53,440 --> 00:03:56,640 Speaker 1: victory gardens and scrap metal drives. Knitting warm clothing for 63 00:03:56,680 --> 00:03:58,640 Speaker 1: the men and boys was a way to lift morale 64 00:03:58,720 --> 00:04:01,160 Speaker 1: on the home front, while contry beating to the war effort. 65 00:04:01,840 --> 00:04:05,840 Speaker 1: Resources were scarce around the world. Countless supplies and factories 66 00:04:05,840 --> 00:04:09,800 Speaker 1: were destroyed, leaving soldiers to rely on donations for precious 67 00:04:09,840 --> 00:04:15,400 Speaker 1: basic necessities like socks and hats. And once again, that 68 00:04:15,440 --> 00:04:18,039 Speaker 1: meant that knitting was a way for spies to hide 69 00:04:18,080 --> 00:04:22,160 Speaker 1: in plain sight. So prolific was this sort of conspiratorial 70 00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:25,400 Speaker 1: knitting during World War One that during World War Two 71 00:04:25,720 --> 00:04:29,479 Speaker 1: authorities took action to slow the spread of knitting patterns. 72 00:04:30,560 --> 00:04:34,160 Speaker 1: Kemmer said, while hundreds of thousands of knitters were tasked 73 00:04:34,160 --> 00:04:37,920 Speaker 1: with practical knitting, dozens of brave women used their knitting 74 00:04:37,960 --> 00:04:42,440 Speaker 1: to discreetly smuggle military intelligence in secrets. If caught, these 75 00:04:42,480 --> 00:04:46,760 Speaker 1: brave women faced imprisonment or execution. During World War Two, 76 00:04:46,920 --> 00:04:50,040 Speaker 1: both the United States and the UK banned the printing 77 00:04:50,080 --> 00:04:54,080 Speaker 1: and posting of written knitting patterns as their repetitive abbreviations 78 00:04:54,120 --> 00:04:57,279 Speaker 1: could easily be ciphered into codes, but they could hardly 79 00:04:57,320 --> 00:05:01,520 Speaker 1: ban the act of knitting itself. Codes aside. Knitting was 80 00:05:01,560 --> 00:05:05,480 Speaker 1: also just a wildly bit of subterfuge. After all, who 81 00:05:05,520 --> 00:05:09,680 Speaker 1: suspects an innocent knitter of nefarious deeds? As it turns out, 82 00:05:09,920 --> 00:05:12,479 Speaker 1: one of the most famous characters of World War Two 83 00:05:12,720 --> 00:05:17,320 Speaker 1: posed as a crafty type. On May one four, a 84 00:05:17,360 --> 00:05:20,719 Speaker 1: British spy by the name of Phyllis Littore Doyle parachuted 85 00:05:20,760 --> 00:05:24,280 Speaker 1: into Normandy. She was a highly trained agent taking part 86 00:05:24,279 --> 00:05:28,200 Speaker 1: in a clandestine Special Operations executive plan to develop resistance 87 00:05:28,200 --> 00:05:32,119 Speaker 1: against the Nazi forces that were occupying France. Her weapon 88 00:05:32,160 --> 00:05:36,800 Speaker 1: of choice not daggers or bullets, but knitting, more specifically, 89 00:05:37,080 --> 00:05:40,200 Speaker 1: the detailed secret codes that she hid in her knitting. 90 00:05:41,200 --> 00:05:44,800 Speaker 1: She roamed the countryside, pretending to be a teenager, Always 91 00:05:44,800 --> 00:05:48,040 Speaker 1: helpful and talkative with German troops, she managed to gather 92 00:05:48,160 --> 00:05:51,599 Speaker 1: many bits of information, ultimately sending a hundred and thirty 93 00:05:51,640 --> 00:05:55,880 Speaker 1: five coded messages before the Allies finally liberated the country. 94 00:05:56,520 --> 00:05:59,599 Speaker 1: She told New Zealand Army News in two thousand nine. 95 00:05:59,800 --> 00:06:02,440 Speaker 1: I always carried knitting because my codes were on a 96 00:06:02,480 --> 00:06:05,599 Speaker 1: piece of silk. I had about two thousand I could use. 97 00:06:06,240 --> 00:06:08,359 Speaker 1: When I used a code, I would just pinprick it 98 00:06:08,440 --> 00:06:11,120 Speaker 1: to indicate it had gone. I wrapped the piece of 99 00:06:11,160 --> 00:06:13,359 Speaker 1: silk around a knitting needle and put it in a 100 00:06:13,360 --> 00:06:16,040 Speaker 1: flat shoelace, which I used to tie my hair up. 101 00:06:17,279 --> 00:06:20,760 Speaker 1: Even when she was shaken down by suspicious German intelligence officers, 102 00:06:20,800 --> 00:06:24,360 Speaker 1: her system was perfect. They never found her coded evidence. 103 00:06:25,680 --> 00:06:29,000 Speaker 1: Given the long history of whip smart knitters and knitted codes, 104 00:06:29,400 --> 00:06:31,880 Speaker 1: it's safe to say, if you're ever in a war, 105 00:06:32,400 --> 00:06:41,000 Speaker 1: never trust anyone carrying a bag of yarn. Today's episode 106 00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:43,480 Speaker 1: was written by Nathan Chandler and produced by Tyler Clang. 107 00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:46,000 Speaker 1: For more on this and lots of other pearls of wisdom, 108 00:06:46,200 --> 00:06:48,680 Speaker 1: visit how Stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is a 109 00:06:48,680 --> 00:06:51,200 Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio or more podcasts. My Heart 110 00:06:51,279 --> 00:06:54,279 Speaker 1: Radio visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 111 00:06:54,320 --> 00:06:55,680 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.