Originally published in 2002, this book wants to teach you how to knit without telling you how to knit. It also opens with this paragraph:
Most anarchists are gentle people. They see that government is a major source of violence in the world since governments get into wars, and that wars make people do monstrous things that they would otherwise never do. So they want to get rid of government. They see that the greatest source of oppression is greed and ownership of the sources of wealth, so they want the means of production owned by those who do the producing. They yearn to see the organizations of society grow from shared interests and mutual benefits–a constant coming together and moving apart so that no firm structure becomes established that could become oppressive. It's straightforward idealistic stuff.
She then goes on to argue that if while global anarchy may not be achievable anarchist ideology may nevertheless be applied to knitting.
[...] The I.W.W. (Industrial Workers of the World, familiarly known as "wobblies") advises: "organize on the issues, not on the ideology." It is the issues I mean to address. If we take control of our knitting and do with it what we like, we have nothing to lose but our chains and we have a world to gain.
In practice, "Anarchist Knitting" as realized in this book is about teaching how knitting works. Zilboorg begins the instructive portion of the book not with how to make a knit stitch, but rather the "Loop Structure of Knitting": how the strand of yarn interlock to form a fabric. Only then does Zilboorg instruct how to make stitches, and even then present methods as possibilities–those who would insist there is one right way to knit are "authoritarian" knitters!
I am passionate about all this, ebcause people tend to be tyrannized by the necessity of wrapping clockwise and knitting through the front of the stitch. I denounce the tyranny of clockwise wrapping and knitting through the front and proclaim the fundamental principle of anarchist knitting:
KNIT WHICHEVER WAY IS RIGHT FOR THE WAY YOU WRAP YOUR YARN. AND WRAP YOUR YARN WHICHEVER WAY YOU CHOOSE.
As a whole I love this book and it's approach to teaching: give people the tools to understand what they're doing. Equip people with the knowledge to do not just what you've shown them, but troubleshoot when things go wrong, extrapolate from the basic principles, and find workarounds that accomplish the same result in a way that suits them.
Tools are a different matter. [...] Unlike machines, tools encourage one to try different things, use them differently. Use a machine for something it wasn't made for and it will most likely break down. Use a knitting needle as a hole punch and it will peaceably comply. Hand work with tools, in this case knitting, encourages individuality in a way that machine work does not. Children should be taught to use tools if only as a counter-balance to all the teaching that tells them to follow directions. Following directions needs to be taught and learned. We cannot navigate through modern life without that ability. But we also need to use the creativity we have. I read recently somewhere, "When man ceases to create, he ceases to be in the image of God." (The sexist language suggests this was written some time ago.) An extreme statement, but I like it. When we do not create, we become like all other social animals, in total bondage to our biology. Following directions socializes us; making our own sets us free. Surely every child should be given tools with which to make things, not just computers to practise on. Knitting needles among others."
Knitting for Anarchists is in the Internet Archive's books collection.
