I don’t know who Nell Armstrong was except that she was a designer of knitwear in the 1940s and 1950s. Her work covered the spectrum of knitting and crochet – doll dresses, dolls and toys, crocheted window-shade pulls, sweaters in Scandinavian patterns, clothing for little children, baby items, two-needle mittens, two-needle socks and two-needle Argyle socks. Her designs were published by Doreen Knitting Books in Lowell, Mass.

I became acquainted with Nell Armstrong’s designs last fall when I bought the Doreen publication “2-Needle Socks” at a thrift store in Solon. It cost 25 cents, which was its original price when it was published in the 1946. The previous owner of the booklet has written in pencil at the top of the first page: “81/2 Frank” and “10 Charles.” Perhaps they were the men in the family and those were the sizes that fit their feet. Indeed, the notation is written above directions for men’s socks.

Below the handwriting was a sentence the publisher had aimed at users of the booklet: “Note: For pattern where more than one size is given UNDERLINE the size desired throughout the pattern to avoid errors and make easier knitting.” That’s still good advice.

But what really piqued my interest in the booklet was this on the inside front cover: “Copyright 1946 by Nell Armstrong, 11th edition. This book fully copyrighted and method of making socks on 2-Needles covered by U.S. Patent No. 2416040.”

Immediately, my mind began to ask questions – such as, who was Nell Armstrong? If she held the patent for knitting socks on two needles, did she invent the method? Or, did the method already exist without attribution in the pantheon of women’s needlework where directions are passed around as freely as recipes? Did she see a way to improve a method of two-needle knitting that already existed? Was she a staff member of the Doreen company? Was she really a he? Was it possible at that time to fashion a career from designing knitwear, writing instructions and marketing the work to publications such as Doreen?

Hoping to find answers to at least a few of my questions I surfed the Web, but all I found were references to various sites that had for sale some of the booklets containing Nell Armstrong’s patterns – like “2-Needle Socks.” I found nothing about Nell Armstrong, no birth, wedding or death dates. No biographical information that paid tribute to her ingenuity.

Which isn’t unusual considering the fact that the entire history of clothing is the handwork of anonymous women. For millennia those women wove and stitched and sewed by hand. After the advent of the Industrial Age, women and girls tended the machines that wove the cloth or ran the machines that made the clothing – usually working for very little money in less than ideal conditions, a state of affairs that still exists today in many parts of the world.

Throughout history it was commonplace that women did not acknowledge the work of their hands by putting name or initial to it. They devised their own designs, patterns and sets of instructions and did not write them down. To hand on what they knew, they demonstrated their skills to daughters, female friends and relatives – a new way to turn a heel, a particular way to set in a sleeve or a new approach to piecework quilting. Or if they did write down the instructions, they did so in notebooks intended for personal use.

Gradually, of course, magazines like Peterson’s, The Delineator and many others published needlework patterns in their pages. Clearly, some of those patterns were from the common and cumulative well of needlework know-how, not patented by any individual.

Then along comes Nell Armstrong who apparently invents a method for knitting socks on two needles, patents the process and figures out a way to market it.

I hope that somewhere there exists at least one paragraph in a history of costume that gives Armstrong credit for those two-needle socks.

To obtain a free pattern for two-needle socks, visit www.lindascraftique.com.

Snippets

Those who do counted cross-stitch and other types of embroidery will find lovely free patterns and instructions from The Caron Collection at www.fuzzycrawler.com/class.html. I was very intrigued by a design called “Spring in the Garden” and by another dubbed “A Good Vintage Pincushion.”

Those enthralled by knitting will want to visit www.janevdoviak.blogspot.com to chat with this Down East blogger.

Call Ardeana Hamlin at 990-8153, or e-mail ahamlin@bangordailynews.net.