Sometimes, the best knitting book is a picture book.
If I enjoy knitting instruction books for the way they’re able to transmit the ‘how-to’ of the craft, I enjoy Barbara Levine’s People Knitting: A Century of Photographs (2016, Princeton Architectural Press) for how it manages to convey the everyday soul of knitting. This compact 144-page book is a 20th century photo compilation that captures some golden knitting moments. Levine reveals a varied cast of knitting characters: turn-of-the-century fisher girls and vaudeville performers, Hollywood starlets on break, nurses and youth group knitting bees, soldiers and wartime internees, and more.
There is no single or overarching story that Levine’s knitters tell; together, they reveal that knitting is as much a space for joy, joking around, community, and the rhythms of collective creating and everyday work as it is a place for convalescing, waiting, privacy, solitude and, in some cases, filling the time of internment (not to mention the photos of public ads which revealed the central role of knitting to various war efforts). Each image presents a unique knitting history, and Levine’s mostly text-less presentation of the images allowed me to appreciate the book as a collection of singularities that invite more exploration. The book’s preservation of historical, and human, singularities is what I enjoyed about it most.
Here are a few of my favourite snapshots.
Enjoy your Thursday!





What a wonderful book! Thanks for sharing:)
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It is! Thanks for reading, Karen. 🙂
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I love this book SO MUCH!!!!!!!!! Your description of it makes me love it all the more! Thank you!! 🙂
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Me, too. Isn’t it a gem? Thanks for reading, Melinda! 🙂
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Wow that sounds like a cool book, thanks for sharing another great book reading/looking idea. I will have to put it on my list 🙂
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Thanks for reading, Tierney. Thank goodness for books (and the library). 🙂
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I like I can get more library reading books ideas from your blog 🙂
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I read a review of this book a while back and was intrigued, so glad to see it pop up again. Love the cab driver (who says knitting isn’t maculine?) and this little card: be sure and bring your knitting. How lovely !
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Yes, that cabbie is a very good one, and there are quite a few other interesting snapshots of knitting men in the book. 🙂 It’s a delightful read if ever you’d like a new addition to the knitting library. Thanks for reading, Agnes! ❤
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Oh, I love the look of that book. Little snapshots of social history through knitting. Brilliant. Thanks for sharing it!
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Thanks for reading, Gillian. 🙂
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What a great book! I love the idea of the “pass it on” knitting projects in the hairdresser’s during wartime… It sure beats flipping through magazines! Your local library must have the best selection of knitting books on the planet, thanks for sharing them with us 😀
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Yes, that one’s an interesting knitting moment. 🙂 The sign in the back reads “If you feel inclined, please help us with our knitting for the forces.” The books are mostly requests and holds – I try to keep a lookout for titles that look interesting, then call ’em in. 😉
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Good idea! I should really make better use of my local library, who knows what treasures are lurking in there? 🤔
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this so interesting. I’m definitely going to request this one at the library. Love the meshing of two arts in one book (knitting and photography). Thanks for that great share Shirley.
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Yes, exactly – the photographs are themselves quite beautiful, and the author includes a little section on the different kinds of photographic prints, so yes, there’s lots to enjoy from a photo-history standpoint, too!
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I have definitely coveted this book for a while and it’s so nice to be able to see some of the images–thank you! Our library doesn’t have it . . . yet . . . but I’m hoping to change that!
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Thanks for reading, Melissa. 🙂 If ever you’re curious, and if you have access to the materials on Hoopla through your library card (https://www.hoopladigital.com), there’s a free e-copy of the text there!
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Wow. Thanks for sharing this interesting book. I’d never seen it before.
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😀
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I read about this book and thought it would be a wonderful addition to my own library. Thanks for sharing!
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Yes, it’s full of photographic treasures! Thanks for reading, Belinda. 🙂
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Barbara Levine here, author of People Knitting: A Century of Photographs – Thank You for shout out about the book, so glad you like it!
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