Hand made cardigan : Methodist missionary Sister D E Wilson

Beige round neck cardigan with nine button holes but only six buttons. The top two buttons are close together and fasten the neck. The other four are evenly spaced down the front of the cardigan and the last three buttons are grouped on the waist band. Each button is made from a small ring-shaped cross section of bamboo that has been bound with yarn woven from cotton-wool. The body of the cardigan has been knitted in oblique moss stitch, the yoke in stocking heel stitch, all from a mixture of hand woven silk and cotton-wool. The cuffs and welt neck band are knitted in wool rib. There are diamond-shaped gussets, knitted in pearl stitch, under each armpit. All the yarn used in the construction of the cardigan is in approximately 4 ply. Attached to the waist of the cardigan with a safety pin is an example of a partially completed bamboo button, and a tuft of cotton-wool with an example of the yarn made from it.

This cardigan was knitted by Miss Mavis Fanny Green, a civilian woman captured by the Japanese in Rabaul on 23 January 1942, for Methodist missionary Sister Dora Epacris Wilson, while they were interned at Totsuka, in Japan, between July 1944 until August 1945.

Eighteen Australian women, six Army nurses, four Methodist missionary nurses, seven nurses working for the Australian Administration in Rabaul, and a civilian, were captured. They were interned first at the Catholic mission at Vunapope, near Rabaul before being transferred to Yokohama aboard the 'Naruto Maru' in July 1942 where they were housed at the Yokohama Amateur Rowing Club.

In July 1944 the women were moved to Totsuka Prisoner of War Camp, where they remained until their release in August 1945. Mavis Green knitted the cardigan for Dora Wilson, who had no warm clothes, during the last winter of their captivity, in Totsuka Camp. The silk and cotton wool yarn (made from Johnsons cotton wool that the nurses had brought with them from Rabaul, and silk scrounged from the small bags the prisoners were forced to knit, using bamboo needles, for Japanese soldiers) was made with help from Sisters Dorothy Beale and Jean Christopher.

The three women had previously noticed native women at Malaboga in New Britain making thread from Pandanus leaves to construct carrying bags, by tearing the leaves into strips and rolling them up and down their legs to make yarn. The same principal was applied by the Australian women to create a blended cotton wool and silk yarn. The resulting blended yarn was not considered strong enough for the cuffs and neck band/welt so wool for these were scrounged from from garments the prisoners had been made to knot for the camp guards. Bamboo for the buttons was found near the camp. Green created the pattern for the cardigan by copying her own garment.