I found this...

...knitting pattern book the other day. It belonged to my Grandmother and by the looks of it was printed in the 1940's, when girls were "Gels" and fashionable men smoked a pipe.

Obviously in wartime Britain fabrics and clothing were in short supply, so it was common to knit. Often old knitted garments would be unravelled to be knitted into something new. It also seems that there was nothing that couldn't be knitted. This book has patterns for almost everything... including underwear.

This foxy little number has the caption (to be read in a classic clipped British Ealing Studios/BBC accent)
"Who cares if it snows? Certainly no one if they're wearing this variation of the vest and pantie set. It is knitted in such fine wool that it can be worn under a fitting frock, and is so warm you can laugh at a north-east wind"
HA north-east wind! I laugh at you!


There are also some rather bonkers knitted hat designs. I'm calling this one the "Flock of Seagulls".

However this is the one that really made me chortle.

Ooo-er missis! I particularly like the use of the Bull-Worker as a fashion accessory. Wonder if you could knit it in shetland wool?