- Paperback: 512 pages
- Publisher: Ballantine Books; Reprint edition (April 1990)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0345362535
- ISBN-13: 978-0345362537
- Product Dimensions: 15.2 x 3.2 x 22.9 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 438,748 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting
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15 reviews
45 of 46 people found the following review helpful
One of my favorite books
17 Dec 2003
Format:Paperback
Reading the reviews, I can understand why a non-knitter would not be charmed by this book. This book is by, for and about knitters. Whenever I'm bogged down with my knitting, I pick this book up again, seeking inspiration from 200 years of American knitters. The book is delightfully written, with lots of original source quotations, and allows us to peek into the day-to-day lives of colonial knitters, revolutionary war knitters, civil war knitters, depression era knitters, etc. It gives one a strong sense of women's role in American society at different times, reminds us (often amusingly) about fads and trends, and shows how wars shape lives beyond the battlefields. It's a wonderful book. My only regret is that it doesn't have more photographs of knitters and old knit garments.
44 of 46 people found the following review helpful
full and very readable
31 Oct 1999
Format:Paperback
This book describes the types of things that women (and sometimes men and children) knitted, the situations in which they learned, and how knitting contributed to their pleasure, financial survival, or feeling of political or social significance from the colonial period through the late 1980's, thus spanning the American Revolution, early nationhood, the westward movement and women's broadening education, both sides of the Civil War, both World Wars, and more recent generations. Setting knitting in the context of surrounding history, including such elements as wars, education, fashions, sports trends, and politics, _No Idle Hands_ would be valueable both to the ordinary knitter wanting a better idea of the past of his or her hobby and to a student of women's history. Although it contains no full patterns, it does have many excerpts from books, magazines, plays, diaries, and other writings that discussed knitting, and it has a bibliographty and index that together can help one trace sources for some of the patterns for items mentioned in the book; although some of these sources are obviously in historical societies and other out-of-the-way places, others are published sources that today's reader/knitter can buy.
28 of 28 people found the following review helpful
You are part of a looooong tradition...
5 July 2001
Format:Paperback
if you are a knitter. This book was a pleasure to read and really gave me a sense of being connected to generations and generations of women making warm things for the ones they loved. I was surprised to read about all the socks that were patriotically hand-knitted for soldiers during war years, right up through what we would consider to be more 'modern' times. Can you imagine the government asking women to knit socks for soldiers nowadays?! I now feel a compulsion to learn to knit socks - if the kids and old men could do it then, I can certainly learn to do it now!
If you are a fan of 'real life' history - not about politics and empires, but about individuals and how they lived their lives - you will enjoy this book. And you will enjoy it even more if you knit.
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