Civics & Coffee: A History Podcast · Alycia Asai

With Her Own Hands: Dr. Nicole Nehrig on Women, Work, and the Meaning of Making

·32 min·1 clip

Elizabeth Zimmerman democratized knitting design—she was the Julia Child of knitting, empowering creativity over obedience.

Dr. Nicole Narek explores how textile creation—knitting, weaving, spinning—represents one of civilization's most critical yet undervalued contributions. From enabling human survival and geographic expansion to fueling technological innovation (the loom as computer ancestor) to serving as economic engine and site of women's power, textiles are reframed as foundational infrastructure. The episode traces witchcraft accusations as responses to women's textile communities, examines how knowledge-sharing circles became vehicles for feminist ideology, and features Elizabeth Zimmerman's revolutionary approach to democratizing knitting instruction. Throughout, Narek emphasizes the psychological dimensions: textile work meeting needs for creativity, connection, agency, and voice across historical periods and contemporary experience.

As heard by us

A clear look at how women's textile work moved between labor, trade, and identity.

This episode follows how knitting and weaving passed through women's lives as labor, knowledge, trade, and identity. Dr. Nicole Narek adds a psychologist's eye to textile history, and the discussion works best when it connects cloth making at home to larger questions of economy,…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Press play if you want craft history that reaches far beyond the home.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Civics & Coffee: A History Podcast