Susan Strawn

A look back into the history of a handmade item

One of the most patriotic symbols of World War I were the knitting bags carried by women everywhere.

After I wrote a story about a set of crocheted pot holders I discovered, readers responded with a range of opinions about this needlework form.

Suffragist Knitters of World War I

Corticelli advertisements claimed that perfection was the company’s only acceptable product. Susan Strawn unravels the history of the Corticelli brand of silk yarn.

Colorful embroidered Mexican souvenir jackets offered both real and imagined holidays to Mexico during the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Knit a baby bonnet from the November/December 2000 issue of PieceWork based on ones in the collection of the Amana Heritage Society in Amana, Iowa.

During World War I (1914–1918), knitters produced prodigious quantities of warm clothing and other items for servicemen and the wounded.

During the mid-twentieth century, department stores capitalized on knitting’s soaring popularity with free instruction from knitting experts.

Explore how Florence Yoder Wilson articles, published in Needlecraft: The Magazine of Home Arts during the 1930s, cast recent immigrants to America in a positive light.