HerStory 2023: Cherie Dimaline

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Cherie Dimaline is a registered and claimed member of the Metis Nation of Ontario, and it is this identity that is the foundation of her writing. Her stories blend fantastical elements with hard-hitting realities, and the central tenet of both her life and her writing is community, most particular, the intersection of her Indigenous roots and the women she grew up learning and hearing stories from (most notably her Mere, or grandmother).

Dimaline’s most-known work is The Marrow Thieves, which is a sci-fi-ish YA book that explores the continued colonial exploitation of Indigenous people. In this and many of her other books, she takes the Indigenous experience and adds a new twist: in The Marrow Thieves, Indigenous people are hunted and used for their bone marrow, as that is the key to non-Indigenous folks connecting with their dreams after an ecological disaster. When talking about this book in an interview, Dimaline said: “An Indigenous publisher had asked me to write a short story in the apocalypse or dystopian genre, and when I sat down to think about it, I could not think of anything worse than what had already happened.” Referring to both the overall way native people have been treated in North America (and, honestly, everywhere colonialism has taken root), and most particularly to the residential schools that existed all over Canada and the US, Dimaline’s work shares the pain and anguish, as well as the connection and beauty, that is inherent in Indigenous life in a colonial society. 

Plus, her books are just plain fun; VenCo imagines a female-centered witchy coven, battling against a patriarchal secret society hell-bent on the coven’s destruction. Themes of connection are strong in this book (and all of Dimaline’s work); connection to other women, connection to native land, connection to tradition and magic and storytelling. 

Perfect for this time of year, when the veil seems to thin and we are all hunkering down for a long and chilly winter, Dimaline’s writing is both a little bit scary and a lot bit thought-provoking. As is our November colorway, Marrow Thieves, which is inspired by that book’s cover. Wind this skein up, snuggle in, and lose yourself in Dimaline’s writing this month.

Books by Cheri Dimaline:

  • The Marrow Thieves
  • VenCo
  • Empire of Wild
  • Funeral Songs for Dying Girls

Want more like this? Here are some other authors we suggest you read/listen to:

  • Michelle Porter
  • Kaylynn Bayron
  • Michelle Good
  • Kim Johnson

HerStory October 2023: Justina Ireland

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It’s spooky season, friends, and what better books to read as the veil thins than those that have to do with zombies and ghosts? Our October HerStory recipient, Justina Ireland, does both of those genres very, very well, and we are so excited to dive into her books (and activism) this month!

Justina Ireland is a Black woman who writes YA and isn’t interested in backing down from a fight. Throughout her career, Ireland has been an active critic of the overwhelming whiteness in the YA publishing field, and the reticence of folks in that particular segment of the book world to engage in conversation about the lack of diversity in the field. She uses her Twitter account to call out disparities in the YA publishing world, to start conversations about representation, and to talk about books that uphold white supremacist ideals. Her twitter activism even inspired an author to revise her work to lessen its central white saviorism core (the jury is still out on whether that author was successful, and Ireland herself is more interested in the industry as a whole leaning into reform than individual works being reformed). She started a database of “sensitivity readers” that writers, particularly white writers, can hire to read their works from non-white perspectives, thus helping the industry become more inclusive. Ireland is also the founder of Writing in the Margins, an organization that provides mentorship to writers from historically marginalized groups, and she’s the former co-editor in chief of FIYAH Literary Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, for which she won a World Fantasy Award.

She is one of the architects of a multimedia Star Wars project called The High Republic. If you know anything about fandoms like Star Wars, you know that there is a lot of white male gatekeeping going on, so Ireland and her cohorts have borne the brunt of a LOT of that baloney. And, she’s responded well; in one tweet, responding to a query about whether it’s smart or safe to include politics in your writing/work, she said “If you don’t like my politics and moral compass, you aren’t going to like my books, so let’s just go ahead and save everyone some time.” In other words, don’t buy my books if you don’t like what I have to say, because it’s going to be more of the same, and you won’t like it.

Our Dread Nation colorway, a delightfully zombie-riffic green splattered with red, is inspired by her best-known books, Dread Nation and Deathless Divide. Imagine the dead rising as zombies during the Civil War, and Black children are trained to be zombie hunters, charged with protecting privileged white people. It’s a new flavor of white supremacy, all wrapped up in a zombie series. And it’s so good! We hope you enjoy Ireland’s writing AND this colorway during spooky season!

Books by Justina Ireland:

  • Dread Nation
  • Deathless Divide
  • Ophie’s Ghosts
  • Promise of Shadows
  • Star Wars: High Republic

Want more like this? Here are some other authors we suggest you read/listen to:

  • Mira Grant
  • Silvia Moreno-Garcia
  • Alma Katsu
  • Nalo Hopkinson
  • Kaylynn Bayron

HerStory September 2023: Beverly Cleary

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Since it’s back to school time, we decided to showcase one of our fave children’s authors (who just so happens to have been a Pacific Northwesterner), Beverly Cleary!

Born in a small town in Oregon, Cleary’s family moved to Portland when she was 6. Her legacy here in Portland can be seen in the Grant Park neighborhood of Portland where she spent her formative years: the statues inspired by her most famous characters in Grant Park itself, and the naming of the neighborhood’s public elementary school after her. 

We’ve talked a lot about how important representation is in literature throughout this book-based chapter of HerStory, and much of our talk of representation has centered on identity, and how important it is for folks of different identities (cultural, racial, sexual, and gender) to see themselves in the media they ingest. Beverly Cleary has been credited as one of the first authors of children’s literature to figure emotional realism in the narratives of her characters, often children in middle-class families, giving children everywhere books that more accurately represented themselves. She found her way into writing about real children because of her own struggles with reading and with wanting to read when much of what she was given to read was uninspiring. It wasn’t until she read a book about ordinary children and their adventures and struggles that she found her love of reading (and therefore writing). She knew that were she to write, her writing would have to include things for the children: humor and relatability. This belief was underscored by a query from a child when she was a children’s librarian; a young boy asked Cleary: “Where are the books about children like us?” And so she wrote them, books about more ordinary children doing more ordinary things, helping to pave the way for books about other children, with different experiences and backgrounds and cultures.

As we thought about what colorway to create to pay the most and best homage to Beverly Cleary, we had a lightning bolt of inspiration: our New Galoshes colorway is red, blue, and yellow. The red represents rain boots are the red, the blue denim pants, and the yellow a bright raincoat, perfect for our Northwest rainstorms. 

Books by Beverly Cleary:

  • Henry Higgins
  • Ellen Tibbets
  • Ramona Quimby, Age 8
  • The Mouse and the Motorcycle

Want more like this? Here are some other authors we suggest you read/listen to:

  • Judy Blume
  • Astrid Lindgren
  • Renee Watson
  • Tae Keller

National Parks 2023: Rosie the Riveter WWII Homefront NHP

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It’s time for the annual National Parks Club! Find out information about participating shops, Vacay Bingo, the KAL, and more here.

Where is it located?

Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park is a United States national historical park located in Richmond, California, near San Francisco.

Whose land does it reside upon?

Ohlones and Coast Miwoks. Native Americans have called the San Francisco Bay region home for over 10,000 years. Park areas south of the Golden Gate, from the San Francisco Peninsula, to the East Bay and south to Monterey, are the aboriginal lands of the Ohlones (also called Costanoans).

When was it established?

January 31, 2001

About this park:

On the morning of December 7, 1941, military forces of the Empire of Japan attacked the United States Naval Fleet and ground bases at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. On December 8, 1941, one day after the “Day of Infamy,” the United States declared war against the Empire of Japan and on December 11, 1941, Japan’s ally, Germany, declared war on the United States. Ten million Americans, mostly young working age men, would serve in the military during WWII, out of an overall United States population of 113 million. While an unprecedented number of young men would serve in World War II, the country would drastically increase its war production on the Home Front, serving not only the needs of the armed forces of the United States but her allies as well – what President Franklin Roosevelt called “The Arsenal of Democracy.” The combination of so many serving in the military, during a period of necessary and drastic increases in production, led to unprecedented social changes on the American Home Front.

During World War II six million women entered the workforce. “Rosie the Riveter” and her “We Can Do It” motto came to symbolize all women Home Front workers. A shortage of white male workers led to active recruitment, by the United States Government, to war industry jobs. Initially white middle class women were recruited, followed by minority men, and finally minority women. Integration of women and minorities into the workforce was initially met with resistance, however, the new opportunities for women and minorities “cracked open” the door to equal rights and would have profound impacts on the Civil Rights Movement and Women’s Movement during the following decades.

The World War II period resulted in the largest number of people migrating within the United States, in the history of the country. Individuals and families relocated to industrial centers for good paying war jobs, and out of a sense of patriotic duty. Many industrial centers became “boom towns”, growing at phenomenal rates. One example, the City of Richmond, California, grew from a population of under 24,000 to over 100,000 during the war. Workers from around the nation had to intermingle with each other, overcome differences, and form a cohesive identity in order to meet war demands. Following World War II, many migrants decided to stay in their new homes, forever changing the cultural landscape of the United States.

Home Front workers faced many challenges and many of which would lead to change. Working conditions on the Home Front were difficult and dangerous. Between the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December of 1941 and the D-Day Invasion of Europe in June of 1944, there were more Home Front industrial casualties than military casualties. This high number of industrial casualties would lead to improved workplace safety and regulations, as well as better access to affordable health care. Another challenge faced by working women on the Home Front was childcare, as mothers comprised a significant portion of the work force. This led to the establishment of child development centers and the professional field of early childhood development.

In addition to Home Front workers, everyone was expected to be an active participant in the war effort. Rationing was a way of life as twenty commodities were rationed and people were asked to, “Use it up –Wear it out –Make it do –or Do without.” Materials vital to the war effort were collected, often by youth groups, and recycled. Many Americans supported the war effort by purchasing war bonds. Women replaced men in sports leagues, orchestras, and community institutions. Americans grew 60% of the produce they consumed in “Victory Gardens”. The war effort on the United States Home Front was a total effort.

Why did we choose these colors?

We used this photo, of a young girl and her mother dressed as Rosie the Riveter during the 2016 Rosie Rally, as the inspiration for our colorway.

For more information:

NPS website: https://www.nps.gov/rori/index.htm

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rosietheriveternps/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RosieTheRiveterNPS/

National Parks 2023: Muir Woods NM

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It’s time for the annual National Parks Club! Find out information about participating shops, Vacay Bingo, the KAL, and more here.

Where is it located?

Muir Woods National Monument is part of California’s Golden Gate National Recreation Area, north of San Francisco.

Whose land does it reside upon?

Native Americans have called the San Francisco Bay region home for over 10,000 years. Park areas south of the Golden Gate, from the San Francisco Peninsula, to the East Bay and south to Monterey, are the aboriginal lands of the Ohlones (also called Costanoans).

When was it established?

January 9, 1908

About this park:

Muir Woods lies in the middle of the redwood’s latitudinal range that spans from the California/Oregon border to Big Sur, just south of Monterey. The weather is mild throughout the year, but summer is the busiest time to visit Muir Woods.

The incredible diversity of flora and fauna at Muir Woods can be daunting some times, elusive at other times. The redwoods themselves dominate the scene, but the humble Steller’s jay, ladybugs, ancient horsetail ferns, and the banana slug hold their own beneath the canopy. Plants adapt to low light levels on the forest floor, while whole plant and animal communities bustle in the canopy above our heads.

Muir Woods is known for its towering old-growth redwood trees. Trails wind among the trees to Cathedral Grove and Bohemian Grove, and along Redwood Creek. The Ben Johnson and Dipsea trails climb a hillside for views of the treetops, the Pacific Ocean and Mount Tamalpais in adjacent Mount Tamalpais State Park.

Why did we choose these colors?

We used an image found in this linked video (at the 43 second mark) of a banana slug in the Muir Woods as our photo inspiration. 

For more information:

NPS website: https://www.nps.gov/muwo/index.htm

Instagram: n/a

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/muirwoodsnps

National Parks 2023: Big Cypress National Preserve

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It’s time for the annual National Parks Club! Find out information about participating shops, Vacay Bingo, the KAL, and more here.

Where is it located?

Big Cypress National Preserve is a United States National Preserve located in South Florida, about 45 miles west of Miami on the Atlantic coastal plain.

Whose land does it reside upon?

The Calusa, Miccosukee, and Seminole all occupied the area now known as Big Cypress National preserve at some point in the past.

When was it established?

October 11, 1974

About this park:

The freshwaters of the Big Cypress Swamp, essential to the health of the neighboring Everglades, support the rich marine estuaries along Florida’s southwest coast. Conserving over 729,000 acres of this vast swamp, Big Cypress National Preserve contains a mixture of tropical and temperate plant communities that are home to diverse wildlife, including the Endangered Florida panther. 

In the 1960s, plans for the world’s largest Jetport, to be constructed in the heart of the Greater Everglades of south Florida, were unveiled. This project, and the anticipated development that would follow, spurred the incentive to protect the wilds of the vast Big Cypress Swamp. To prevent development of the Jetport, local conservationists, sportsmen, environmentalists, Seminoles, Miccosukees, and many others set political and personal differences aside. The efforts of countless individuals and government officials prevailed when, on October 11, 1974, Big Cypress National Preserve was established as the nation’s first national preserve.

The concept of a national preserve was born from an exercise in compromise. Everyone saw the importance of protecting the swamp, but many did not want this region merely added to nearby Everglades National Park that was created in the 1940s. Many felt that national parks were managed in a restrictive manner and access to the swamp would be lost. The resulting compromise created a new land management concept – a national preserve. An area that would be protected, but would also allow for specific activities that were described by Congress within the legislation that created the preserve.

Why did we choose these colors?

We used this photo of plants in the preserve as our inspiration. 

For more information:

NPS website: https://www.nps.gov/bicy/index.htm

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigcypressnps/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BigCypressNPS/

National Parks 2023: Aztec Ruins NM

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It’s time for the annual National Parks Club! Find out information about participating shops, Vacay Bingo, the KAL, and more here.

Where is it located?

The Aztec Ruins National Monument is located in northwestern New Mexico, on the western bank of the Animas River in Aztec, New Mexico, about 12 miles northeast of Farmington.

Whose land does it reside upon?

Navajos and Jicarilla Apaches live on reservations in northwestern New Mexico, and 19 other Native American groups reside elsewhere in this state.

When was it established?

January 24, 1923

About this park:

The Aztec Ruins National Monument in northwestern New Mexico, USA, consists of preserved structures constructed by the Pueblo Indians.

This is kind of annoying and colonizerish, but early settlers mistakenly thought that people from the Aztec Empire in Mexico created these striking buildings. They named the site “Aztec,” a misnomer that persisted even after it became clear that the builders were the ancestors of many Southwestern tribes. The people who built at Aztec and other places throughout the Southwest were called “Anasazi” for many years. Archeologists had adopted that word from the Navajo language, which they understood to mean “ancient ones,” and then popularized its use. Most Pueblo people today prefer that we use the term “Ancestral Puebloans” to refer to their ancestors.

Aztec Ruins, built and used over a 200-year period, is the largest Ancestral Pueblo community in the Animas River valley. Concentrated on and below a terrace overlooking the Animas River, the people at Aztec built several multi-story buildings called “great houses” and many smaller structures. Associated with each great house was a “great kiva”—a large circular chamber used for ceremonies. Nearby are three unusual “tri-wall” structures—above ground kivas encircled by three concentric walls. In addition, they modified the landscape with dozens of linear swales called “roads,” earthen berms, and platforms.

The construction at Aztec shows a strong influence from Chaco Canyon, the site of a major Ancestral Pueblo community to the south. Aztec may have been an outlying community of Chaco, a sort of ancillary place connected to the center to distribute food and goods to the surrounding population. It may have also been a center in its own right as Chaco’s influence waned after 1100.

Why did we choose these colors?

We used this photo of fall leaves through a corner doorway in the ruins as our inspiration for our Aztec Ruins NM colorway.

For more information:

NPS website: https://www.nps.gov/azru/index.htm

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aztecruinsnm/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AztecRuinsNM

HerStory August 2023: Alyssa Cole

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Summer is for reading romance, and we can’t think of romance and NOT think of Alyssa Cole! She’s definitely one of those Jacqueline-of-all-trades romance writers; she has written historical romance, speculative romance, royal romance, and even non-romance thrillers and graphic novels. Cole has always read romance, and in fact, when she was young, she’d Wite-Out descriptions of ivory or pale skin, changing them to brown, so she could see herself in the stories. (As a very interesting aside, particularly as we delve into writers of color and the ways in which they constantly have to prove their stories worthy of publication, is a data point from a Pew Research study which found that the most likely person to read a book, in any format or genre, is a Black, college-educated woman. And Black authors are constantly told there’s not a market for their stories. In fact, 95% of books published between 1950 & 2018 were written by white people.)

One of Cole’s core beliefs is that writing romance, particularly the way she writes romance, is inherently political. Writing a book that centers a Black woman, and writing that Black woman as a fully formed human in a world that’s always trying to say otherwise, is inherently political. Don’t get us wrong, her books are loads of fun to read, but by their very nature, they contain deeply moving statements on race, sexism, otherness, resilience, and agency. And, although her books don’t shy away from addressing the very real issues and concerns of a Black woman in the era in which the book is written, each of her stories is suffused with a beautiful optimism. Because these are, after all, romance books, and the very definition of romance means that they must end with an HEA (Happily Ever After). 

There is so much we could say about Alyssa Cole, because she is pretty awesome, but we only have so much space. We’ll summarize here. She was deeply involved in a reckoning that happened in the Romance Writer’s of America organization in 2019 that brought to light the deep structural racism inherent in the organization, and has been instrumental in diversifying that group. In 2020, she was an organizer of a massive fund-raising effort to turn Georgia blue with Stacey Abrams (who is also a romance writer!). She is outspoken, she is talented, and she is political as heck. If you’d like to read a bit more about her, in her own words, check out this article she wrote for Oprah’s magazine: oprahdaily.com/entertainment/a34995007/romance-novels-politics-alyssa-cole

Our August colorway, in honor of Alyssa Cole, is Reluctant Royal, named after our favorite series by her.

Books by Alyssa Cole:

  • An Extraordinary Union (and the rest of the Loyal League books)
  • Signal Boost (and the rest of the Off the Grid books)
  • Princess in Theory (and the rest of the Reluctant Royals books)
  • When No One is Watching

Want more like this? Here are some other authors we suggest you read/listen to:

  • Courtney Milan
  • Amy Lea
  • Kennedy Ryan
  • Beverly Jenkins
  • Vivian Stephens
  • Nana Malone

Sexy Produce, anyone?

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Ooooh, lala, tis the season for the sexiest of produce to hit the farmer’s markets and tables, and we are here for it! Wondering what, exactly, Sexy Produce is? Well, as with many things Knitted Wit, it started with lots of in-house laughs and ended with some pretty special colorways.

Color development is a collaborative thing here at Knitted Wit, and as we were developing some of our new Fall and Winter colors, a beautifully watercolory orange color was created and added to the Fall line. Lorajean being Lorajean, she dubbed the colorway Sexy Pumpkin, because it was so damned delicious. 

Fast forward a few weeks, and Claire and Lorajean were chatting as Claire photographed and labeled some of the new Fall colorways. Chatting while writing always has the potential of interesting results, so Claire guffawed when she realized that instead of writing “Sexy Pumpkin,” she wrote “Sexy Produce.” This started a whole thing in the studio, which Lorajean quickly took to Instagram, with the post, “If Sexy Produce was a color…what would it be?”

Y’ALL CAME THROUGH! We had so much fun reading your suggestions, and those in turn inspired so many new ideas, and we ran to the dye book and dye pots to start playing around. The result is the most lovely basket full of the sexiest produce colors you’ve ever seen!  Check them all out below, and start making the sexiest produce-inspired knits the summer has ever seen! (You can order any of these colorways on any base you’d like; all yarn is dyed to order, and will ship as soon as possible, within 2 weeks).