Tricoteuse

Tricoteuse is French for a knitting woman. The term is most often used in its historical sense as a nickname for the women who sat beside the guillotine during public executions in Paris in the French Revolution, supposedly continuing to knit in between executions. Amongst the items they knitted was the famous liberty cap or Phrygian cap. - Wiki

see also Tricoteuses: Knitting Women of the Guillotine

помнится, в Ленинграде была фабрика Трикотажница...