
Wartime Spies Who Used Knitting as an Espionage Tool - artsandsci
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/knitting-spies-wwi-wwii
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mnutt
Neal 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.

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throwaway7645
Sounds like a lot of work, for not much information recorded lol.

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Steltek
The 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?

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pavement
I 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_R...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_in_the_American_Revolutionary_War)

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)

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madaxe_again
Even more analogous are Quipu, which encode information in knots.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quipu](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quipu)

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Mz
This 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...](https://judyweightman.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/more-knitting-
history-world-war-ii/)

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pacomerh
If you like this topic, check out this mini-series 'The Time in Between',
where a seamstress uses sewing for espionage purposes during WWII

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imchillyb
What to buy for that burgeoning spy?

How about the new Amazon Best Seller: String of Purls!

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foxhedgehog
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

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foxhedgehog
Spoilers!

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partycoder
Knitting steganography, who would have thought.

