Reading Jag 41
No Idle Hands: A Social History of American Knitting
by Anne Macdonald
This is pretty cool stuff. The history of knitting in America is intimately tied to warfare. The stamp act stimulated a HUGE push towards home textile manufacture, and the increase in domestic production of clothing both helped the colonies to become economically self sufficient, and was hard for the British to asses and take into consideration. By the end of the Civil War, technology had improved enough that factory produced clothes were less expensive than hand knit goods, and there was enough knitter 'burn out' that the art went into decline. Knit goods were vital for WWI, and, again, for WWII. Knitting was once again cheaper than purchasing clothes during the depression.
Knitting was a key of feminists during wartime, and a symbol of domesticity during peacetime.