New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-18
Wool Goes Up;
Girl Knitters
Are HardHit
Price of Yarn for Sweaters
Of Men Leaps 20 Cents
a Hank

Tho price Of wool for knitting SOL
diers' and sailors sweaters went up
Yesterday 20 cents a hank. 1t is now
81 a hank, and as IL takes three hanks
TO make heavy sweater knitters are
beginning to worry about the high cost
Of being patriotic.
This rise in the cost Of yarn comes
just at the beginning Of the season,
when they are returning to town full OF
energy and with long list Of adopted
cousins for whom they have promised
TO make comforts this winter.
Costs Less at Red Cross
It is slightly less expensive to buy
wool from the various relief organiza-
lions, especially the Red Cross, at 3s9
Fifth Avenue; the Comforts Commit
tee Of the Navy League, at 500 Fifth
Avenue, and the Comforts Committee
Of the Militia Of Mercy, at 4 west
Forty-ninth Street. The wholesalers
and manufacturers have made terms
with the charitable organizations SO
that wool is given them at the lowest
possible prices, and is in turn sold by
the organizations to knitters at price
just above cost.
At the Navy League, which maintains
a large office, with many volunteer
workers, for the sole purpose Of get
ting comforts made for the navy, the
price Of wool yesterday was S2.AO a
pound. Three hanks were $3.50; two
hanks. which make a muller, were
s1.20, and one hank, enough for wrist
let's or helmet, was so cents. The Peace
Dale wool, which is much heavier than
the ordinary wool for knitting and
which makes sweaters warm enough to
carry the young sailors through naval
engagement in a blizzard. costs $3.50
a pound. This is scarce, however, and
is only doled out TO those who are
known 20 be proficient knitters.
Mrs. Clinton Braine. chairman of the
purchasing committee for the Com
forts Committee of the Navy League
said last night that wool was growing
scarcer and that she was obliged to
buy wherever she could get the ma
terial. Since April the price has riser
from $50 20 s2.40 a pound.
At the Fifth Avenue Branch head
quarters Of the American Red Cros:
one hank of wool was so cents or D.
cents, according to quality, yesterday
/ The 50 cent kind is the same kind a.
that sold in stores for 81.
/ In all the relief societies the polio!
prevails of asking the knitter Of WOO
/ to return her finished carmen 10 tn
society. II Sister Susie wishes TO max
a sweater for her own particular her
and present Il to him with her owl
fair hands, she cannot get her wool a
the reduced prices offered by the relic
societies. Her sweater, with every 9th
err Susie's sweater, goes into grea
packing box, and is sent 10 the battle
ships unmarked and unromantic:
"How can you be sure that the fin
ished garment will be returned to you
Aren't people buying the yarn at re
duced prices and then keeping th'
/ sweaters themselves"
The Red Cross official was surprised
at the question.
"Why, no." she said people dom
( steal from the Red Cross any more
than they would from church"
This seems 70 be a fact in the ex
perience of all societies. A close rec
ord is kept of every bundle Of WOO
| that goes out. The name and address
Of the knitter are taken down and II