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Wartime Spies Who Used Knitting as an Espionage Tool
- pavement 9y agoI have to wonder by how long this technique predates WWI, since history is littered with subversive cues and signals. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_in_the_American_Revolutionary_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_in_the_American_R... Probably, any earlier than the 19th century and textiles were probably still pretty valuable, that they weren't just thrown around. Also, perhaps most notably is the scytale which is pretty much the same concept, although probably minus the steganography. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scytale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scytale
- madaxe_again 9y agoEven more analogous are Quipu, which encode information in knots. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quipu https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quipu
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- marsRoverDev 9y agoAnyone who has been a scout has probably heard of Baden Powell hiding pictures of enemy installations in his paintings/sketches of butterflies: https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/images/featuredarticles/badenpowell9.gif https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/images/featuredarticles/bad...
- mnutt 9y agoNeal Stephenson also wove this idea into his historical fiction trilogy, The Baroque Cycle, set in early 1700s Europe. One of the protagonists keeps a journal encoded in binary cross-stitch as she moves across enemy lines.
- throwaway7645 9y agoSounds like a lot of work, for not much information recorded lol.
- foxhedgehog 9y agoIt was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
- foxhedgehog 9y agoSpoilers!
- pacomerh 9y agoIf you like this topic, check out this mini-series 'The Time in Between', where a seamstress uses sewing for espionage purposes during WWII
- Mz 9y agoThis is so cool. Related: "Knitting for Victory" (about actual knitted goods, not secret codes): http://elinorflorence.com/blog/wartime-knitting http://elinorflorence.com/blog/wartime-knitting Edited to add: https://judyweightman.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/more-knitting-history-world-war-ii/ https://judyweightman.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/more-knitting...
- Steltek 9y agoThe mucher higher tech version of this is Little Old Lady memory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_rope_memory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_rope_memory Wires "knit" around ferrite cores to form ones and zeroes. Bit twiddling anyone?
- partycoder 9y agoKnitting steganography, who would have thought.
- imchillyb 9y agoWhat to buy for that burgeoning spy? How about the new Amazon Best Seller: String of Purls!