Older Romsonians will remember Molly Stokes’ wool shop in the Cornmarket between the Tudor Rose and Stares, the butcher. The shop became The Wool Centre and then Pennie’s Wool. It a brief time housing Oxfam’s bookshop before becoming part of Stares. It is now a section of Bradbeers’ shoe department.
Many a child of the 1940s or 1950s will remember having to hold up a skein of wool for mother to wind it into a ball ready for knitting. By the late 1950s wool was generally sold as balls which meant that the next generation were saved this chore.
During the war, woollen goods that had passed their prime, such as cardigans, were unpicked. The wool was formed into a skein and the threads loosely tied together in three or four places to keep them from getting muddled. The skein was washed, and when dry, wound into a ball, ready for re-use in the next garment.
If there were not enough wool for the new garment, the wool of several items could be used and stripey garments became commonplace.
Another feature that few modern home knitters will know about, is that cardigans were waisted. It was necessary to reduce the number of stitches in a row to achieve this effect, and then increase them after the waist level was passed. The introduction of home knitting machines rather put a stop to this feature as altering the row length was so fiddly as to be not worth the trouble.
Washing woollen garments was something to be done carefully in warm, but not hot water, or they would shrink. The acid water of the New Forest meant even more careful treatment to avoid felting the yarn.
Soap flakes were considered best for washing woollen goods and they had to be thoroughly dissolved before the garment was put into the water where it could not be rubbed or twisted. Dirt was removed by squeezing the item.
Knitted garments, after being washed and rinsed, were squeezed dry, although rolling them up in towels helped to remove surplus water. They had to be dried flat or they lost their shape.
The introduction of knitted garments with modern fibres means that the care of pure woollens is a lost art.
Nowadays wool and other craft materials can be bought at Greenhill Patchwork in Bell Street or within Bradbeers. Thus traditional home skills continue but as hobbies rather than necessities.
Phoebe Merrick
Romsey Local History Society