MacDonald, Anne L. - No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting

[oyceter]

This was a really interesting read. MacDonald explores the history of America knitting, just as the title says, going from the arrival of Europeans in America. I am guessing American Indians didn't knit? Since knitting from all accounts seems to have originated in the Arabian peninsula? Though I suspect MacDonald is operating under the unexamined assumption that America began with the arrival of the Europeans.

Anyway. She covers knitting as a means for women to earn money, as by the 1700s, knitting had already moved from being a men's craft to a women's craft. Much of the book is on knitting and its ties to war; namely, how women used knitting in war as a means to contribute to war efforts, from the American Revolution to the Korean War. I don't particularly remember if there were any concerted efforts to knit socks for soldiers for the Vietnam War; I suspect there wasn't as much. The biggest push seems to have been for WWII; after that, knitting died down a little as a craft. And the book was published before the Gulf War.

Part of me wishes that MacDonald came to her source from a more feminist POV; she clearly loves the craft of knitting, but because of that, I feel she doesn't examine some things as critically as she might. I am thinking mostly of knitting as a symbol of hearth and home and traditional femininity. I would have loved to see how this changed over the years (or didn't). MacDonald writes a little about the industrialization of knitting, particularly of knitting as one means women could earn some money, though she notes that knitters were paid horribly. She also covers the (still) rare spectacle of knitting men, along with women knitting for their boyfriends and husbands. One of the things that I found interesting was how knitting was a vehicle for female social activities (which I knew) and how husbands complained about this (which I didn't know) -- it's a neat reverse of knitting as a symbol of traditional femininity. But again, MacDonald reports more on knitting trends instead of examining underlying social principles, which I regret a little.

The book was valuable as a history; there are a lot of things in it that I didn't know. I only wish that it had a "twenty years later" update; it was published in the eighties, when knitting had a bit of a downturn. I'd love to see MacDonald's POV on knitting's current resurgence and how the knitters of today are the same as or different from knitters of previous times.

Comments

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I don't remember much about the fiber arts from my days of anthropology classes, but I think the Indians wove and knotted more than knitted. Although I'm hazy on the distinctions between knotting and knitting. :)

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Apparently I'm wrong (http://www.alitadesigns.com/knitting.php) - there was knitting in pre-Inca Peru.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

IIRC, the PNW native peoples didn't know how to knit until Europeans taught them, but several groups rapidly formed cottage industries as soon as they learned how and commercial yarn was available. It was all women in those groups, since women's power was in spinning and weaving. It's not surprising that there wouldn't be a lot of fiber-art innovation in this part of the world; wool was hard to come by and tree-bark fiber is less flexible, plus the spiritual connotations and conventions surrounding weaving probably discouraged it.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I'm going to have to try to find pictures of that now!

[telophase.livejournal.com]

:D My extensive research* is only showing Peruvian knitting, so I don't know if any other culture area knitted - that may be an artifact of my search terms, as "pre-columbian" is mostly associated with South and Mesoamerica. "mesoamerican knitting" might bring up more in Central America. I'm not sure what to use to get to North American pre-Columbian fiber arts.

But it does make sense for Peru, since they have animals with hair eminently suitable for knitting. :)


* ten minutes on Google with "precolumbian knitting" as my search terms.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

I've read this! I'd love to see an update, as well.

[oyceter]

That is awesome! Also, grrrr, this is the last time I will trust Vogue Knitting on non-European knitting history. Go figure.

Also, I forgot to note that the MacDonald book focuses mostly on white, middle-class knitting... I think there are brief mentions of POC knitting, but by and large, all the examples are white.

[oyceter]

Yeah, that's pretty much what I had figured as well, until telophase linked elsewhere!

I do know about the qiviut knitting collective in Alaska, in which Inuit women sort of translate traditional motifs to knitting, but that had been it.

[oyceter]

Yes! I got the rec from you ^_^.

I vaguely remember seeing a book on the current resurgence of knitting mentioned in some of the knitblogs I read, but I need to go hunt down the title.

Feminism in the knitting community

[atuinsails.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, there isn't alot of writing in the knitting community from a purely feminist point of view. To my knowlege, Debbi Stoller's intro to her first book Stitch and Bitch comes closest. Most knitters who are writing their craft seem to lean more to the spiritual side of it.

Re: Feminism in the knitting community

[oyceter]

Yeah... I really wish there were more of a feminist critique/discussion. There was a panel on it last year at Wiscon, which was awesome, but I haven't seen that much else.

Re: Feminism in the knitting community

[atuinsails.livejournal.com]

I agree, but I think that part of it is because of the reaction of the feminist community to knitting. Both Stoller in her first book and Stephanie McPhee-Pearl in her latest (Cast Off) make the following contrast.

Old school feminists can sometimes be appalled at feminists knitting. After all, that sort of expectation is what they were working to free women from. It's the same sort of reaction that you sometimes hear about a career woman deciding to stay at home with the kids. After all, that's kind of what the sexual revolution was supposed to be about.

However, new school feminism is more about choice. I choose to knit because it satisfies a creative need, not because it's expected. I choose to stay at home with my kid because she needs me more than we need my income. I can make those choices, because I've been freed from certain stereotypes and expectations.

Or at least that's my opinion.