WEBVTT - How Has Knitting Been Used for Subterfuge? 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:04.320 Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio, 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:10.400 Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Boba bam here. In most wars, 0:00:10.560 --> 0:00:14.360 bullets and bombs tend to steal the show. But knitting 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:17.080 is also a weapon, and a wiley one at that. 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:22.040 And no, it's not because of the sharp needles. For centuries, 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:26.760 wartime knitting has conjured shadowy powers in secret knitted codes, 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:30.600 encrypted messages crafted directly into the stitches of garments that 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:33.879 were passed along to allies who decrypted the strands and 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:39.120 then planned their responses accordingly. The practice, which is technically 0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:42.880 called stagonography, has actually been around for thousands of years. 0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:46.040 It refers to the act of hiding secret messages in 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:50.239 ordinary items so as not to arouse suspicion. With enough 0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:54.040 expertise and calm nerves, a clever person could pass along 0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:57.040 detailed messages right under the noses of even the most 0:00:57.080 --> 0:01:02.000 intelligent adversary. To under and how codes are crafted into knitting, 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:06.080 you need a bit of handicraft background. We spoke with 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:10.960 Melissa Camerer, co creator of Nomadic Knits, knitting and Culture magazine. 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:14.560 She said knitting is made up of different stitches, the 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:17.800 most common of which are the knit and pearl. At 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:22.000 its simplest relatable to binary code, knit stitches are flat 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:25.880 and resemble the letter V, while pearl stitches are horizontal bumps. 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:29.800 In essence, that means anyone with the right skills and 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:33.200 knitting prowess could learn to hide messages in fabric, and 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:36.399 there are infinite ways to do so. For example, you 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:39.760 could conceal numbers or text as Morse code, which uses 0:01:39.800 --> 0:01:42.959 a series of basic dashes and dots to relay information. 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:47.200 By alternating these two stitches to produce Morse code, the 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:50.720 knitter could send encrypted messages through something like an innocent 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:54.200 looking sweater. The message sender could pass along the garment 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:56.880 to an undercover agent who would interpret the code and 0:01:56.960 --> 0:02:00.840 send along the message to headquarters. Non knitting, as many 0:02:00.880 --> 0:02:04.000 soldiers have tended to be, would likely not notice anything 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:09.080 unusual about a piece of knitting. Camera explained, Knit and 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:12.560 pearl stitches are regularly used together in patterns to create 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:15.760 a variety of common textures. A picture. The ribbing on 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:18.520 the hems and cuffs of a sweater and the odd 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:21.239 pearl bump hidden in a pattern of knit stitches could 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:24.960 easily be overlooked, or, if noticed, assumed to be part 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:28.600 of the intended patterning. Even when more noticeable stitches were 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:31.000 used to encode a message into the garment, it would 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:33.920 appear to the uneducated eye to simply be a mistake. 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:38.239 Experienced knitters can spot any variation in stitches right away, 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:43.080 especially when knowing where to look. But even though knitting 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:46.120 was seemingly an easy way to create a secret message, 0:02:46.480 --> 0:02:50.040 why bother? After all, the early twentieth century saw a 0:02:50.120 --> 0:02:55.040 boom in long distance communications technologies well because knitting was 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:58.160 a common sight during many wars during this time, and 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:01.840 so it was the perfect cover. Women could thus conduct 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:07.399 their intelligence activities in broad daylight without raising suspicion. For example, 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:11.080 as World War One dragged on, Belgian intelligence agents made 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:15.800 friends with elderly women who lived near railway stations. Conveniently, 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:19.600 these women had windows in their homes that overlooked train tracks. 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:23.919 They surreptitiously asked these women, who perhaps looked too old 0:03:23.919 --> 0:03:27.280 and innocent to be suspected as spies, to monitor passing 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:31.840 Imperial Germany's train movements. Those who agreed to help followed 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:34.960 a system that required them to diligently watch for passing 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:38.520 trains as they knitted throughout the day that pearl a 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:41.800 stitch when they saw an artillery train, or if a 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:44.840 troop railcar passed, they'd drop a stitch, a meaning they'd 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:48.800 leave a hole in the pattern. A generation later, during 0:03:48.840 --> 0:03:53.360 World War Two, those themes continued, Kemmer said, along with 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:56.640 victory gardens and scrap metal drives. Knitting warm clothing for 0:03:56.680 --> 0:03:58.640 the men and boys was a way to lift morale 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:01.160 on the home front, while contry beating to the war effort. 0:04:01.840 --> 0:04:05.840 Resources were scarce around the world. Countless supplies and factories 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:09.800 were destroyed, leaving soldiers to rely on donations for precious 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:15.400 basic necessities like socks and hats. And once again, that 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:18.039 meant that knitting was a way for spies to hide 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:22.160 in plain sight. So prolific was this sort of conspiratorial 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:25.400 knitting during World War One that during World War Two 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:29.479 authorities took action to slow the spread of knitting patterns. 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:34.160 Kemmer said, while hundreds of thousands of knitters were tasked 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:37.920 with practical knitting, dozens of brave women used their knitting 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:42.440 to discreetly smuggle military intelligence in secrets. If caught, these 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:46.760 brave women faced imprisonment or execution. During World War Two, 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:50.040 both the United States and the UK banned the printing 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:54.080 and posting of written knitting patterns as their repetitive abbreviations 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:57.279 could easily be ciphered into codes, but they could hardly 0:04:57.320 --> 0:05:01.520 ban the act of knitting itself. Codes aside. Knitting was 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:05.480 also just a wildly bit of subterfuge. After all, who 0:05:05.520 --> 0:05:09.680 suspects an innocent knitter of nefarious deeds? As it turns out, 0:05:09.920 --> 0:05:12.479 one of the most famous characters of World War Two 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:17.320 posed as a crafty type. On May one four, a 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:20.719 British spy by the name of Phyllis Littore Doyle parachuted 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:24.280 into Normandy. She was a highly trained agent taking part 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:28.200 in a clandestine Special Operations executive plan to develop resistance 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:32.119 against the Nazi forces that were occupying France. Her weapon 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:36.800 of choice not daggers or bullets, but knitting, more specifically, 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:40.200 the detailed secret codes that she hid in her knitting. 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:44.800 She roamed the countryside, pretending to be a teenager, Always 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:48.040 helpful and talkative with German troops, she managed to gather 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:51.599 many bits of information, ultimately sending a hundred and thirty 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:55.880 five coded messages before the Allies finally liberated the country. 0:05:56.520 --> 0:05:59.599 She told New Zealand Army News in two thousand nine. 0:05:59.800 --> 0:06:02.440 I always carried knitting because my codes were on a 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:05.599 piece of silk. I had about two thousand I could use. 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:08.359 When I used a code, I would just pinprick it 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:11.120 to indicate it had gone. I wrapped the piece of 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:13.359 silk around a knitting needle and put it in a 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:16.040 flat shoelace, which I used to tie my hair up. 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:20.760 Even when she was shaken down by suspicious German intelligence officers, 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:24.360 her system was perfect. They never found her coded evidence. 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:29.000 Given the long history of whip smart knitters and knitted codes, 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:31.880 it's safe to say, if you're ever in a war, 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:41.000 never trust anyone carrying a bag of yarn. Today's episode 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:43.480 was written by Nathan Chandler and produced by Tyler Clang. 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:46.000 For more on this and lots of other pearls of wisdom, 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:48.680 visit how Stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is a 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:51.200 production of I Heart Radio or more podcasts. My Heart 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:54.279 Radio visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:55.680 you listen to your favorite shows.