Most knitters know: Getting through a difficult time often means knitting through it. It’s this home truth—and all the homespun wisdom behind it—that comes through clearly in the writings Lela Nargi has gathered in this book. These pieces—some by contemporary writers like Donna Druchunas and Sherri Wood, others excerpted from the WPA’s Federal Writer’s Project—tell stories of knitting through adversity as widespread as war or the Great Depression, as personal as political anxiety, as unyielding as a prison term, and as tenacious as the hardships endured by the Native American community over centuries. Men and women, young and old, rural and urban, white and black—their knitting narratives are poignant, often lyrical, rich with personal and cultural history and vivid imagery. The stories conjure hardscrabble lives and immigrant experience, the work of anxious hands kept busy creating warmth and beauty or earning desperately needed money. Along with the excerpts from the WPA project, the book features black and white photographs from the Library of Congress archives, as well as a sampling of patterns to help knitters through their own difficult times.

Lela Nargi is a knitter, author, and former journalist who lives in Brooklyn, New York. Her book Knitting Lessons: Tales from the Knitting Path documented her own adventures in learning to knit, and also featured dozens of interviews with knitters around the country, as a means to understanding what it is about the practice of knitting that draws people in and keeps them returning, sometimes obsessively, to their yarn. A recent essay about knitting, “Knitting Is Work and the Widows of Sant’Arsenio” is included in Knitting Yarns and Spinning Tales. Lela is also the editor of Knitting Memories: Reflections on the Knitter's Life, published by Voyageur Press.

Table of Contents  

Acknowledgements

 

Introduction

 

Knitting Through…  

…Charity

 

            “Weaving the Past into the Future” by Christy Breedlove

 

            Excerpts from an interview with Miss Emma Willis

 

            Photo of Knitting Class, Henry Street Settlement

 

…Illness

           

“Sofia’s Hands” by Alexandra Halpin

 

Photo of Woman Knitting, Washington, D.C.

 

            Excerpt from “Knitting Sale Socks”

 

…Smoke

 

            Photo of Hélène Magnússon wearing her Hammer Rose Pattern Vest

 

“Three Stitches per Second” by Hélène Magnússon

 

Photo of soft Icelandic shoes with knitted insoles

Pattern: Hammer Rose Vest

 

 

…Grief

 

            “Knitting Life, Knitting Love” by Margaret Blank

 

            Photo of Russian knitting bag and glass candle sticks

 

…Work

 

Photo of a girl at the London (Loudon) Hosiery Mills

 

Excerpts from an interview with Alice Candle

 

            Photo of Sylvain Dornon, last of the Tchangkats

 

…Unemployment

 

            “The Rising Tide” by Amy Holman

 

Excerpts from an interview at Abyssinia Baptist Church

 

Photo of Sojourner Truth  

…Politics

 

            “Knitting Through Red States vs. Blue States” by Erica Pearson

 

            Pattern: Beginner’s Scarf (a.k.a. Election Night Scarf Redux)

 

            Four letters from the Abraham Lincoln Papers

 

            Photo of Grace Coolidge knitting

 

…Prison

 

            Excerpts from an interview with Mrs. I.E. Doane

 

            Photo of “1,200 Hats”

 

            “1,200 Hats: Art and Healing in the Making” by Sherri Wood

 

            Pattern: Crocheted Hat

 

            Photo of Sing Sing convicts knitting

 

…War

 

            “All New York in Big Knitting Bee,” 1918

 

Excerpt from “No News for Me” by John Ross Dix

           

            “Knitting In Times of War and Peace” by Vera Vivante

 

            Two Photos:

Uintah Red Cross

                        Berlin

 

…Poverty

 

            Photo of Eliza blocking lace in the Oomingmak shop

 

“Knitting Softens the Impact as Worlds Collide” by Donna Druchunas

 

Pattern: Butterfly lace pattern

 

            Photo of a Snohomish couple in temporary summer house

 

            Excerpts from an interview with Mrs. Elizabeth E. Miller

 

…Industrial Development

 

            “Knitting: My Urban Escape” by Barbara DeMarco Barrett

 

            Excerpt from “An Unfinished Stocking, New England, 1837”

 

…Families in Motion

 

            Excerpts from “A Greek Mother”

 

            Photo of a Greek peasant woman spinning yarn by hand  

           

in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in"Excerpts from an interview with J.L. Tarter

 

            Excerpts from an interview with Mrs. Mary E. Burleson

 

            Excerpt from “The Banks of the Ohio,” 1876

 

            Photo of a family on ranch in Cherry County, Nebraska

 

…Relationships

 

            Him and Her

 

                        Excerpts from an interview with Carrie Sain

 

                        Photo of A typical Irish home

 

                        “Frogging my Engagement” by Dania Rajendra

 

                        Photo of “End of the Day”

 

                        “Believing in Socks” by Lela Nargi

 

            Mothers, Daughters & Granddaughters

                       

“The Castle of Our Dreams” by Katie Benedict

 

Stereocard of two women

 

                        “Patches” by Janet Engle

 

           

Notes on the Contributors