MARATHON FOR KNITTERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 November 1940, Page 8

MARATHON FOR KNITTERS

AN AMERICAN IDEA. The war has produced a new kind of marathon to join the long list of endurance tests in dancing, swimming, walking and even eating, which has always been with us, but this time a useful purpose is served by the efforts of the contestants. It is a knitting'marathon, and it was inaugurated at the World’s Fair of 1940 in New York City, where so many new ideas are born. Forty-two women’s war-work organisations were represented with a team of six knitters each. A member of each team began knitting a scarf at 10 a.m. on each of the two days of the contest, and, after she had knitted for an hour, another one took over. The order to “down needles” came at 4 p.m. each day, and the team which had produced the greatest quantity of knitting won' a prize of 100 dollars’ worth of wool, donated by the Australian Commission. Interested spectators crowded round iat all sessions, and the knitters apparently took their jobs seriously, never raising their eyes from their work. The support of “seconds,” who wound and held the balls of -wool, was permitted, and the results were distributed by the various groups. The marathon lasted two days, and the winner was Finland by a stitch.