CWA knitting competition (1971) | RetroFocus

tension increases as the seven top knitters in the land prepare their needles for combat on this final judgement day speed and accuracy in following eight separate patterns each for 20 minutes will produce a new national knit off champion for 1971 two rounds down and six to go mrs. nazar representing Western Australia with the controversial European technique has been knitting since she was a little girl of nine in her native Bavarian Tropic as manian mrs. Newman keeps herself and her family in all knitted garments she had an early start at the age of four New South Wales wool knit off champion mrs. green has been knitting for over 50 years with something on her needles all the time from ladies dresses to men's cardigans for family and friends mrs. Greenwood knitting for Victoria began her practice of the craft 40 years ago with two nails and a length of string the fastest pair of needles in the Northern Territory wielded by mrs. Smith of Alice Springs a cardigan and jumper specialist the hopes of South Australia are pinned on mother of three and grandmother of six mrs. Flay's Brooklyn visiting Sydney for the first time in her life mrs. rope into the contest just for fun and with her dexterous continental style became Queensland champion suddenly finds you've got too many or too less stitches at the end of the passage and you know you're throwing the whole thing an unforgivable mistake so let's go put up with it you must have done very well anyway to be your own state champion already and to be here in the first place freak mrs. glaze would you get three nervous in the competition like this oh yes I do my fingers sort of won't weren't quick enough okay well with nervous tension one tends to get a little bit clammy and it makes them all sticky on the needles [Music] completed samples come off the needles they go to the judging panel a strict but compassionate triumvirate expert knitters all representing the CWA the wool board and Payton's knitting walls after three years experience on the bench miss em dragooning can almost pick a winner by watching the contestants at work you can tell by the temperament of the woman just how she's meeting just temperament is one of the main things really just knitting a bit old-fashioned today know anything is in doll fashion it's more on the increase and these knitting competitions that we hope have certainly inspired a lot of people to take up knitting again do you really like knitting oh I love it yes I do really not under these circumstances by any means what sort of chance do you think you've got in the competition oh well at all I just try to do my taste for the honor of Western Australia we're all just kind had at it and hoping for the best you

Channel: ABC News In-depth

Views: 65,780

Keywords: Australia, archive, archival footage, knitting, cwa, country women's association, retrofocus, from the archive

Id: wIFvvwsRTCA

Length: 4min 35sec (275 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 06 2018