Finding The Thread: A Story of Knitting and Crochet in the Cape
Lydia Abel
For years, the crafts of knitting and crochet retreated shyly from the public eye. Then, a few years ago, and for reasons that may or may not have to do with a hipster nostalgia for all things handmade, knitting became de rigueur – a slightly wacky, but quite cool thing to do.
As a some-time knitter myself, I could only find my kin on the net, where all adherents of odd and obscure pastimes go for community. I was delighted to come across this book of Abel’s, and even more so that the production of the book – the quality of the paper, the careful lay-out and the photographs – indulge that aspect of yarn work that so pleases me: tactility.
Abel has managed both a work of reverence for an old craft and a form of light social history in this marvellous book. – Karin Schimke
Read about the knitters of Robben Island here.
