With Her Own Hands

Women Weaving Their Stories

Knitting, sewing, embroidery, quilting—throughout history, these and other forms of textile work have often been dismissed as merely "women's work" and attached to ideas of domesticity and obedience. Yet, as psychologist and avid knitter Nicole Nehrig explores in this captivating book, textile work has often been a way for women to exercise power. When their voices were silenced and other avenues were closed off to them, women used the tools they had—often a needle and thread—to seek freedom.

With Her Own Hands brings together remarkable stories of women who have used textiles as a means of liberation, from an eighteenth-century Quaker boarding school that used embroidered samplers to teach girls math and geography to the Quechua weavers working to preserve and revive Incan traditions today, and from the Miao women of southern China who, in the absence of a written language, pass down their histories in elaborate "story cloths" to a midcentury British women's postal art exchange. Textiles have been a way for women to explore their intellectual capacities, seek economic independence, create community, process traumas, and convey powerful messages of self-expression and political protest.

Heartfelt and deeply moving, With Her Own Hands is a celebration of women who have woven their own stories—and a testament to their resilience.

©2025 Nicole Nehrig (P)2026 Tantor Media

Loved this

This was such a great book. I learned so much about women and hand crafted items connection to us.

Soothing voice of the narrator

It is a thorough compendium of yarn and fabric work through centuries as it combines through life challenges sadness and joy. Empowers women to express their lives and suffering through textile art. Knit crochet woven embroidered.

Beautifully written and read

Powerful stories of women weaving, knitting and stitching community across cultures, classes, and time.

did not match book title or description

the narrative was goid, but the material did not fit my expectations. textile stories took a back seat to anthropology.