Knitting Rebellion: Elizabeth Zimmermann, Identity, and Craftsmanship in Post War America Maureen Lilly Marsh Purdue University
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Purdue University Purdue e-Pubs Open Access Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 8-2016 Knitting rebellion: Elizabeth Zimmermann, identity, and craftsmanship in post war America Maureen Lilly Marsh Purdue University Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations Part of the American Studies Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Marsh, Maureen Lilly, "Knitting rebellion: Elizabeth Zimmermann, identity, and craftsmanship in post war America" (2016). Open Access Dissertations. 808. https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/808 This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact [email protected] for additional information. Graduate School Form 30 Updated PURDUE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL Thesis/Dissertation Acceptance This is to certify that the thesis/dissertation prepared By Maureen Lilly Marsh Entitled Knitting Rebellion: Elizabeth Zimmermann, Identity, and Craftsmanship in Post War America For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Is approved by the final examining committee: Susan Curtis Chair Shannon McMullen Nancy Gabin Darren Dochuck To the best of my knowledge and as understood by the student in the Thesis/Dissertation Agreement, Publication Delay, and Certification Disclaimer (Graduate School Form 32), this thesis/dissertation adheres to the provisions of Purdue University’s “Policy of Integrity in Research” and the use of copyright material. Approved by Major Professor(s): Susan Curtis Approved by: Rayvon Fouche 5/16/2016 Head of the Departmental Graduate Program Date i KNITTING REBELLION: ELIZABETH ZIMMERMANN, IDENTITY, AND CRAFTSMANSHIP IN POST WAR AMERICA A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Purdue University by Maureen Lilly Marsh In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2016 Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana ii For my husband, Michael, and my daughters, Anna, and Kathryn; And for the men and women who are fusing their own unique blends of professionalism, domesticity, and creativity every day in their maker’s practices. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am deeply grateful to Meg Swansen, and to Cully and Michelle Swansen, of Schoolhouse Press, Pittsville, Wisconsin. Their generosity in time and access to the Elizabeth Zimmermann collection held there at the Press was extraordinary over several years. My research could not have been completed without their complete cooperation. My work there was funded by a generous Graduate Research Grant from the Craft Research Fund of the Center for Craft, Creativity and Design, in Ashville, North Carolina. Their grant enabled me to travel to several locations for research, and their support for academic research in the field of craft was, and continues to be, invaluable. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... vi ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... vii INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER 1. SETTING THE STAGE: AMERICAN KNITTING AT MIDCENTURY ................................................................................................................ 13 1.1 Knitting as Represented in Publications .......................................................... 20 1.2 Elizabeth Zimmermann in England, Europe and the United States: Issues around Class and Artistic Identity .................................................................... 42 CHAPTER 2. THE OPINIONATED KNITTER: NEGOTIATING AROUND DOMESTICITY, CRAFTSMANSHIP AND INDUSTRY ............................................. 61 2.1 Domesticity and Professionalism ..................................................................... 68 2.2 Becoming a Studio Crafts Professional: Appropriate Materials, Exhibitions and Professional Crafts Recognition ....................................................................... 76 2.3 Early Design Sales: Patterns for Industry and the incompatibility of “Craftsman” and “Industry Designer” ............................................................. 99 CHAPTER 3. “DEAR KNITTER” .............................................................................. 119 3.1 Newsletters, Wool Gathering and Television ................................................ 129 3.2 Knitting Without Tears (1971) and Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitter’s Almanac (1974) .............................................................................................. 154 CHAPTER 4. “‘DEAR ELIZABETH ...’: AMERICAN KNITTERS RESPOND” .... 166 4.1 Fan mail .......................................................................................................... 168 4.2 Book reviews and articles .............................................................................. 177 4.3 Periodical Publication .................................................................................... 190 v Page 4.4 Tensions in the new community .................................................................... 198 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................... 220 VITA ............................................................................................................................... 226 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure ............................................................................................................................. Page 1. "Dewey Decimal Classification 700 Arts and Recreation" (image by Lilly Marsh) .... 11 2. Vogue Knitting Book Spring Summer 1954, (Conde Nast). Cover ............................... 19 3. “Two Piece Dress with Own Jacket” Vogue Knitting Book, Spring Summer, 1954, (Conde Nast), 17 ............................................................................................................... 20 4. Vogue Knitting Book Fall Winter 1969, (Conde Nast) Cover. ..................................... 22 5. The Work Basket, March 1950 ...................................................................................... 26 6. "Pullover Pants" Vogue Knitting Book, Fall-Winter, 1969 (Conde Nast) 39. .............. 35 vii ABSTRACT Marsh, Maureen L. Ph.D., Purdue University, August 2016. Knitting Rebellion: Elizabeth Zimmermann, Identity, and Craftsmanship in Post War America. Major Professor: Susan Curtis. At mid 20thcentury, hand knitting in the United States was practiced as a minor and fading chore of the domestic economy, with decreasing pattern publications in national women’s magazines, and the demise of Vogue Knitting Book by the late nineteen-sixties. By 1990, it had rebounded into major new publications in periodicals and books, new and revived artisanship practices, gallery exhibitions and major international conferences and gatherings. A driving figure in this resurgence was the knitter, writer, teacher, designer, and publisher Elizabeth Zimmermann. With her initial publication in 1955 up to her retirement in 1989, Elizabeth’s philosophy of knitting stressed each knitter as an independent craftsman responsible for material and design choices, in opposition to the uncritical, or “blind follower” of the patterns knitter of the knitting industry publications. This shift in the practices of knitting intersected with increasing feminine autonomy and increasing interest in fiber arts to shape a new identity of ‘the knitter’ as original and self-determining craftsman, rather than the mere producer- reproducer of knit objects for domestic consumption. Building on both Sandra Alfoldy’s cultural/craft history work in Crafting Identity (2005) and on Holland and Lave’s cultural viii studies work in History in Person: Enduring Struggles, Contentious Practices, Intimate Identities (2001), and on a significant archive of contemporary book and periodical publishing, as well as the collection of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s papers at Schoolhouse Press, Pittsville, Wisconsin, my work traces an evolving popular craft process as identity formation and cultural production. 1 INTRODUCTION My work in excavating and analyzing transformations in American hand knitting in the post-war twentieth century is part of the reconsideration of the full range of women’s lives in post war American culture. My focus on a previously under-noticed domestic practice through the lens and archive of Elizabeth Zimmermann, a significant designer, writer, teacher, and publisher, offers multiple new angles on significant scholarly concerns around identity and agency in contemporary women in their movement across previously firmer social and cultural boundaries. In looking at hand knitting women, I am examining the effect of shifting identity and increasing agency within a dissolving boundary of domesticity. James Livingstone, among others, has cited the utter dissolution of that boundary between public and private, first articulated and claimed by the contemporary feminist movement, as in fact a crucial aspect of the entire cultural landscape of the period.1 The art historian, Elissa Auther examined this dissolving boundary among creative individuals whose cultural productivity could no longer be easily categorized as ‘art’ or ‘politics’ but contained significant elements of both in a new identity-altering fusion of creative practice, politics, and personal