I came across Kitchener one afternoon while perusing the National Portrait Gallery. I was looking for someone interesting to sketch. I actually wanted to sketch some people from the Elizabethan area, but it seemed to be taken up by some kind of class. Every bench I came across had other students sketching. I couldn't seem to find a bench anywhere.
So I ended up down by a load of Earls, and there was Kitchener with his famous mustache. I didn't even look at his name plate before standing in the middle of the gallery and attempting to sketch his face. It wasn't until I was done that I looked. And then there was the plaque explaining how this was the same Kitchener that invented the Kitchener stitch.
I couldn't believe it! I have been finishing any knitted object I could with Kitchener stitch. I absolutely hate seaming bound off stitches, so it is perfection for me.
Since then, I have learned a lot more about the man (although mostly from wikipedia...). But I had no idea at the time that his was the famous mustache that spawned the British recruitment poster, which in turn inspired the famous Uncle Sam "I Want You!" poster. He seems a controversial character, first rescuing farmers from debt (he received an island for that), then court martialing and signing the death warrant for a man who sounds like he was carrying out Kitchener's orders.
I haven't decided whether to like Kitchener or not, but I sure like the seam he created for women knitting socks for soldiers. So I created this pattern in his honor. I can just see him casting on in a tent somewhere in the Sudan...
Kitchener's Army Socks
"The gentle waves represent the undulating sand dunes he must’ve become accustomed to in his Sudanese campaigns. This simple pattern lends itself to both solid and variegated colorways. It also features the famous Kitchener Stitch in both the toe and heel."
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