28 min listen
Love at first knit
FromThe Conversation
ratings:
Length:
27 minutes
Released:
Dec 14, 2020
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
Knitting is sometimes dismissed as a gentle domestic activity, but this craft has a rich history of activism. It also helps keep your mind sharp and make you feel more relaxed. Kim Chakanetsa meets two knitting enthusiasts to unravel the social and cultural history of the craft.
Loretta Napoleoni is an Italo-American economist who usually writes about the financing of terrorism. She is also an avid knitter and in her latest book, The Power of Knitting, she looks at how knitting became a tool for women to fight discrimination and promote social change - from the spinning bees of the American Revolution to the knitting spies of WWI and WWII.
Hélène Magnússon is a knit designer based in Iceland. She grew up in France where she was a lawyer. In the 1990s she quit her high-flying career to move to Iceland, using knitting to explore the culture and history of Iceland and to make friends, until it eventually became her main profession. For her, the benefits of knitting go far beyond a finished scarf: when she was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, she realised that, throughout her life, she had been using the craft to cope with social situations she found stressful. You can find more about her work at icelandicknitter.com
Producer: Alice Gioia
Image:
L: Loretta Napoleoni - credit Roberto Vettorato
R: Hélène Magnússon – courtesy of Hélène Magnússon
Loretta Napoleoni is an Italo-American economist who usually writes about the financing of terrorism. She is also an avid knitter and in her latest book, The Power of Knitting, she looks at how knitting became a tool for women to fight discrimination and promote social change - from the spinning bees of the American Revolution to the knitting spies of WWI and WWII.
Hélène Magnússon is a knit designer based in Iceland. She grew up in France where she was a lawyer. In the 1990s she quit her high-flying career to move to Iceland, using knitting to explore the culture and history of Iceland and to make friends, until it eventually became her main profession. For her, the benefits of knitting go far beyond a finished scarf: when she was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, she realised that, throughout her life, she had been using the craft to cope with social situations she found stressful. You can find more about her work at icelandicknitter.com
Producer: Alice Gioia
Image:
L: Loretta Napoleoni - credit Roberto Vettorato
R: Hélène Magnússon – courtesy of Hélène Magnússon
Released:
Dec 14, 2020
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Doreen Lawrence and Patrisse Khan-Cullors: Fighting for racial justice: Two women at the forefront of fighting for racial justice talk to Kim Chakanetsa by The Conversation