Tweed has long been associated with bookish people: librarians, teachers, lecturers, writers. It is interesting that several Persephone authors were painted or photographed wearing tweed; EM Forster often wore rather shapeless brown tweed suits. This is Mollie Panter-Downes in a herringbone tweed jacket - possibly part of a suit, and with fashionably padded shoulders and velvet collar - which is stylish but understated and very British.

The marvellous Tirzah Garwood exhibition at Dulwich closes soon, on 26th May. It includes some of her woodcuts which reveal a deep fascination with textures and patterns. In The Dog Show (1929) she captures the instantly recognisable weave of a tweed jacket and, with her wry sense of humour, makes the coats and coverings on the people as interesting as the coats on the dogs. 

Tweed is expensive to produce and therefore to buy, but has always been regarded as a sensible investment, something you would expect to wear for years. In The Village, it is an indication of the new social position of the previously lowly Miss Moodie, who used to wear "the unnoticeable stockinette dress and cardigan of the respectable tradeswoman". But now, to Miss Porteous' snobbish confusion, she wears a tweed suit which, in Priory Dean is the "unassailable uniform" of the gentry. She may not be in an original Balenciaga suit (1954, V&A ), but perhaps something inspired by this style. 

This week on the Post we have tweed, the hard-wearing woven woollen fabric which comes from various parts of the British Isles which have plenty of sheep, water, spinners, and weavers. As this 1940s advert says, hand-woven Harris Tweed is the "unique product of unique geography and unique tradition" and appeals to both men and women. Tweed has its own rich history with a wide range of associations and fashions - many mid-C20 Persephone novelists introduce tweed-clad characters whose choice of clothing tells us a great deal.

Sock-knitting can also be a form of offering. Anne in Young Anne struggles with steel needles and a ball of buff-coloured wool, wanting to do something wifely for her husband Richard for Christmas. She does not knit with 'oiled efficiency' but she feels that knitting 'although painful, was comforting. It somehow reassured you. It made you feel like a wife. She wanted to feel like a wife. There were so many days when she didn't feel like on'. She produces a mismatched pair - like her and Richard - and his reaction is marvellous. This is Girl Knitting (c1940s, Newport Museum and Art Gallery) by Patricia Preece or Dorothy Hepworth. 

Sock-knitting can also be a form of offering. Anne in Young Anne struggles with steel needles and a ball of buff-coloured wool, wanting to do something wifely for her husband Richard for Christmas. She does not knit with 'oiled efficiency' but she feels that knitting 'although painful, was comforting. It somehow reassured you. It made you feel like a wife. She wanted to feel like a wife. There were so many days when she didn't feel like one'. She produces a mismatched pair - like her and Richard - and his reaction is marvellous. This is Girl Knitting (c1940s, Newport Museum and Art Gallery) by Patricia Preece or Dorothy Hepworth. 

There is a circle of "odds and ends" of poor relations who knit and mend socks in Family Roundabout, held together tightly by the formidable Mrs Willoughby who keeps her grandchildren and son Max in socks. Each Sunday they appear, "a crow-like assembly", dressed in rusty black to receive charitable donations of money and food in return for their "industrious domesticity". This is Old Woman Knitting (c1881, The Met) by Mary Cassatt.