As art historian Janet Catherine Berlo says, “The work of our hands is our thought made manifest.” from With Her Own Hands

Thirty-five years ago I made my first quilt, made my first quilt friend, and joined my first quilt group. It altered my life in many ways.

Friends and family supported my hobby and were proud of my work. As we moved every few years, I could always discover a quilt group, or a group of women who gathered together working on handwork: quilting, knitting, embroidering, sewing.

The hobby brought me creativity, community, relaxation, and fulfillment.

I loved learning about quilt history and how quilts were used for political statements, charity, and expressive art.

This wide ranging book touches on textile art across time and the world to explore the importance of the fiber arts in women’s lives.


Gee’s Bend quilt owned by a friend

I was familiar with many of the traditions Nehrig explores, including the Gees Bend quilts which helped bring quilts to the level of art. Quilts gave women a voice before they had the vote. 19th c quilts featured abolitionist sentiments, while contemporary quilt artists have created quilts that speak to systemic racism.

Civil Rights in the South III, 1989, Yvonne Wells

Textiles have been used to express political protest, convey coded messages, record historical events, transmit cultural ideology, process trauma, earn an income, celebrate, and mourn. from With Her Own Hands

Textile traditions Nehrig covers includes weaving, knitting, embroidery, dyeing, sewing, quilting and art quilting. She argues these are not ‘women’s work’ to be devalued.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.

I enjoyed this a lot! It felt disjointed at times, the organization of this book felt kind of random, but as a woman who does lots of crafts I felt very connected to the stories told. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

I love the idea of this book. I am also a fibre artist and have been for most of my life. As a Classicist I enjoyed the interconnection of mythology and history in the writing. The one thing I wished for was a clearer through line/narrative. It seemed to jump from of topic or example to another, with lots of facts given, which made it difficult to follow/read at times.

Because I am a crafter, I might be a bit biased, but I thought this book was fantastic, and I will certainly re-read it.

This book describes a variety of textile traditions as practiced by women from around the world. Many fiber arts have been passed down through generations of women, essentially unchanged for centuries. Other forms are constantly developing or are even improvised. As women's work, these crafts are often undervalued, if they are noticed or appreciated at all.

The author shines a spotlight on the ways that fiber crafts indeed have tremendous value, such as shaping cultural identity; communicating or working through emotions; creating connections between people near and far; enabling women's financial independence; and becoming a powerful vehicle for activism. This is affirming for those who already work with textiles, and illuminating for those who don't.

As a knitter, I regularly encounter people who don't understand my hobby. "Why knit socks when you can buy them at the store? Why not do something more productive or financially lucrative? That looks too difficult, or too boring. Can't you do that with a machine? I thought you were a liberated woman." Even those who admire my work can sometimes make offensive comments, like "I bet you could sell that for, like, $20!" (Meanwhile, the yarn cost $30.) This book provides a variety of answers to explain why fiber artists do what we do, with solid anthropological research to back them up. I was inspired, and you will be, too.

Though fiber arts such as knitting, weaving, and spinning have often been dismissed as "merely women's work", such arts have been vital to the survival of humanity and have served as outlets of expression, communication, and power for women throughout history and around the world. In With Her Own Hands: Women Weaving Their Stories, psychologist and avid knitter Nicole Nehrig explores the richness of fiber arts and the communities women everywhere have built around them. Nehrig talks to Black quilters in Mississippi who have used their artistry to rise out of poverty, Quechua weavers in Peru who are reviving Incan traditions, and other women around the world who have used their skills in the fiber arts to heal from trauma or communicate across time and distance. Whether someone knits as a hobby or sews professionally, fiber arts have a profound effect on humanity– especially for women, whose lives have been wrapped around these arts for thousands of years.


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I learned to crochet over twenty years ago, but it's only been in the past few years that I've really taken an interest in fiber arts. I got into hand sewing during the initial COVID outbreak in 2020, and have taken up knitting in the past few months. I occasionally feel the siren song of spinning, but I have decided that three fiber arts is enough for now- especially since I am only at the beginner stage for all of them. Yes, that includes crochet, as despite my twenty years of working at it, I've never bothered to go further into it. I've been happy with what I've made with the skills I have. Regardless of my skill at actually making things with yarn or cloth, I enjoy reading about textiles and fiber arts so requesting With Her Own Hands was an obvious choice.

Nicole Nehrig took up knitting in her twenties, when her life was unraveling around her and the future she thought she'd been building suddenly disappeared. When she started attending graduate school for psychology and began building a new career, she started knitting more than ever. The repetitive nature of the craft, the tangible progress, and the ability to fix mistakes provided a counter to her work as a therapist and allowed her to connect with other knitters in her community.

When the pandemic struck in 2020, Nehrig's life– like many others– was put on hold again, with new stressors affecting her and her family. One of the results of this restructuring of Nehrig's life was to once again upend her career plans. She found she was no longer interested in the clinical side of psychology. Instead, she grew more interested in investigating fiber arts such as knitting and weaving to see how women have used them to deal with the stress of everyday life, overcome obstacles, and create meaning in their lives.

The result of that research is this book, and while Nehrig does not take a deep dive into any one of the topics or communities she writes about, she nevertheless gives the reader a solid takeaway: fiber arts have always given women an outlet for expression and opportunities to build wealth, even when society hasn't always valued their work.

It's a strange thing to see in fantasy stories aimed at girls: the plucky heroine rejects the idea that she has to stay home and sew when she would rather pick up a sword and fight bad guys because that shows real strength. And yet the work that women do has always been vital to survival. Without fiber arts, we wouldn't have clothes to protect us from the elements, bags to put our things in, or threads to stitch up wounds. There would have been no sails for the boats at sea or fabric for the tents that gave shelter to travelers the world over. But while many societies have denigrated fiber arts, women have kept spinning, weaving, and sewing to create beautiful and useful things.

It was fascinating to see, too, how women have used fiber arts to communicate with each other and heal. Nehrig highlights sewing groups where women who have faced horrific trauma have been able to begin healing by sewing their stories and turning them into something tangible they can share. Healing through craft isn't just for wired professionals who knit on the weekends.

Though it's a bit surface level, With Her Own Hands provides a fascinating look at the importance of fiber arts for the ones who make them, and for society as a whole.



Thank you to NetGalley and W.W. Norton & Company for the advance copy for review.

This is a love letter to textiles and the women who make them. A fascinating look through the history and emotional impact of creating cloth.

When I started this I wondered if it might be too academic for me, but not very long into it I found myself desperate to get back to it I was so interested. The traditions of weaving and textile making in women's lives is explored at every level, from preserving folk history to connecting women from different walks of life, from building bonds to smashing through expectations, this book looks at it all. Across cultures and times there are things that unite women who work with cloth and these foundations allow other women to push the boundaries of what is expected and what textiles can be used for. From the weavers of Cusco to the Jacquard loom that inspired Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage. From the Gees Bend quilters challenging what art is and what political activism can be to the frustrated painters who were denied entry into classical art schools and who turned to thread, this paints a fascinating picture of the world of women's textiles.. I loved this.

Thank you to NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company for an eARC in exchange for an honest review

I am a huge arts and crafts fan, and even did university coursework on the benefits of amateur craft projects so this book was right up my street. Textile crafts come in all shapes and sizes throughout history and I loved the exploratory way that Nehrig set up her writing. To me, it read like an approachable introduction to a research paper (which makes sense considering her background in academia!) and I felt deeply informed but never bored.
Have added some of her further reading suggestions to my TBR

This is a cross between a microhistory and an anthropological exploration of how women are impacted by, and impact the world around them through textile arts. The writing is somewhat academic and dense, but I very much appreciated the free form structure of the book— examples from across cultures and time were explored thematically. Can’t wait to recommend this to my stitch n’ bitch group!

This was very informative on the history of fiber arts and women. I loved all of the information on how different cultures evolved their cloth. I really enjoyed the personal stories of the women and who taught them how to explore their art, and those of the women keeping some type of workings alive.

I would recommend anyone reading a copy of this book to keep the internet handy. I did spend a lot of time looking up the specific works that Ms. Nehrig wrote about. Such lovely and amazing work. This made me want to pick up my crochet as I read it.

Thank you to NetGally, Ms Nehrig and W.W. Norton and Company for the ARC.

I saw a comment recently that women's art work is often demeaned and referred to simply as crafts. I think this book encompasses that idea. It is about historical and contemporary women who have used textile work to speak out and have their voices heard. Through knitting, embroidery, and quilting, women throughout history have used their art and their skills to voice their thoughts and opinions when nobody wanted to hear them speak.

With Her Own Hands discusses the subversive nature hidden in women's historical and modern use of textiles. Nehrig analyzes examples of embroidery, knitting, quilting, and mending (amongst others) to demonstrate how women from various cultures, countries, and time periods have raised their voices through their handiwork, art art often dismissed as "women's work."

A fascinating deep dive into the art, history, and tradition of 'women's work' in the world of textiles. Incorporating stories from across the globe and across time, Nehrig brings together a kind of patchwork quilt to emphasize the various ways that knitting, sewing, embroidery, etc. have trapped, empowered, and defined women seemingly since the dawn of time. This is an engaging and interesting read!

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.