Hand Knitting - in Literature

In Literature

For a more complete list, see List of knitters in literature.

Knitting is sometimes featured in literature. Knitting and its techniques may be used as a metaphor; its meditative and spiritual aspects may be emphasized; it may signal various types of domesticity; or it may be used for dramatic irony, as when an apparently harmless knitter proves deadly and implacable. Examples from 19th century novels include Madame Thérèse Defarge in Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, Anna Makarovna in Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, various characters in Jane Austen's novels and Miss Ophelia in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Several characters in Virginia Wolff's novels are knitters. In the first decade of the 21st century, knitting has been a key element in several novels and even murder mysteries.

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