KNITTING CRAZE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 169, 10 March 1932, Page 7

KNITTING CRAZE

MANY AND YARIED COLOURED WOOLS. PARIS, February 21. 'It is getting its victims early this season, and already the elick of knitting needles has hecome a familiar sonnd. Perhaps it is the chat about winter things, now that the new fahrics and fashions have heen launched, or perhaps it is .the tempting array of new wools and new eolours in the city stores. But more than likely it is the enticing new knitting styles. They hear the stamp of 1932 — attractive sailor lad jumpers, short and snug fitting ahout the hips, jumpers with plenty of horizontal stripes, new stitches, new ideas for necklines and sleeves, some lovely scarves, some of which are hand-eroeheted, with berets to match. Hear what Paris has to say about knitting. Knitted Hats. Smart women there are eonsidering hand-knitted things on the same par as hand-woven tweeds and satins. ■Famous Parisian houses have realised that their customers will be satisfied with nothing else, and are displaying numerous hand-knitted goods — the work of experts. Knitted hats have become an absolute craze in Paris. It seems that every woman is spending her time at home knitting. They are done in close stitch and in every shape, from the standby beret to hats recalling the headgear of Middle Age robbers. Knitters will be pleased to hear that there will he a much wider range of eolours in wools this year. I was assured of this by an expert of one of the biggest knitting wool manufaeturing firms in the Commonwealth, to whom I talked ahout knitting wools in a warehouse stacked with wool to the eeiling top. Where last year one was fortunate if one could hny a range of two or three tones, this year it will he easy to procure at least five tones, for instance, from sky hlue to deep royal, and from lime to rich tango. Much

brighter in colour will be this year's Scotch tartan wools, which knit np into knoppe tweed effect, and where in the past it was possible to huy only five shades of Angora rabbit wool, very shortly there will be a range of 36 eolours on the marlcet. This will be used extensively for berets and scarves, lapels of eoats and jumpers, and horizontal bands. Another new wool will he one similar to a boucle yarn, with soft tones of silk running through it. This knits up well and firmly. "Already this February figures make those of 1931 look silly," the warehouse manager told me, "and everywhere we are supplying double the quantities we did last year." I asked him ahont keeping moths out of wool. The word "moth" made him pale. He told me if he ever sees ONE lonely moth flying in the warehouse he never rests until he kills it. It is the nature of the moth to burrow, he told me, and while with safety he can have a display of knitting wools in the light the stocks are double-wrapped in very heavy brown paper, and a close watch is kept. 1 ii