A Brief History of knitting in the LGBTQ+ community

Knitting tends to be associated with being feminine and with womanhood. It's often viewed as a craft rather than the genuine art form that it is. It may come as a surprise that there is a rich history within the LGBTQ+ community with knitting. As Eleanor Medhurst wrote in Lesbian Knitting: From Self-Sufficiency to Self-Representation,

"Knitting has never been a strictly heterosexual activity, nor a strictly feminine one."

From 1981 to 2000, the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp was established to protest nuclear weapons at RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire, England. Over the 19 years of its existence, Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp became well known. On April 1, 1983, 70,000 protestors created a 14-mile human chain in what has been known as the 'Nuclear Valley' in Berkshire. What is lesser known about the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp is that knitwear was also designed by some of the protestors that included lesbian imagery, including labrys and double-venus symbols.

"Knitting, a craft most often viewed as feminine and unthreatening, was integral to the way that Greenham protestors gave themselves a voice and asserted their presence and their political goals," Medhurst writes.

Another knitter who has designed lesbian knit patterns is Lesley Pattenson, a Leeds native and founding member of Leeds Lesbian Line. Her knitwear designs, which she created in the 1980s, celebrated the lesbian experience by knitting the lesbian symbol onto sweaters. It was a very visible way for lesbians to identify themselves and celebrate their identity.

Photo from: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/completed-design/HgGtR3Oht8xj2Q?childassetid=XwF0bJx18hTUWw

While not knitting, the artist LJ Roberts created a fiber art piece titled "VanDykesTransVanTransDykesTranAmTransGrandmaDykeVanDamDEntalDamDamn" made with yarn, leather, lace, recycled bike inner tubes, thread, poly-fil, metal studs, zippers, lurex, shoe-laces, and Lite Brites.

Photo from: https://halesgallery.com/artists/141-lj-roberts/works/13519-lj-roberts-vandykestransdykestransvantransgrandmxdykestransamdentaldamdamn-2014-2020/

That piece, among others, was on display at a Museum of Arts and Design installation. They chose to include the quote by queer theorist José Esteban Muñoz: "Queerness is an ideality. Put another way, we are not yet queer. We may never touch queerness, but we can feel it … The future is queerness' domain." Their work in the installation was inspired in large part by the queer radicalism of lesbian separatists in the 1970s.

While these are just a few of many LGBTQ+ artists who are knitting and using fiber arts, knitting has been on the rise in many LGBTQ+ circles, both for casual knitters and more serious designers. Knitting circles have become popular in LGBTQ+ circles—places like The Loft Community Center and the Lesbian Herstory Archives hold regular knitting circles. And the blog Queer Joe hosts a male knitting retreat.

As Queer Joe wrote, “honestly, a big part of the appeal of the community at the Men’s Spring Knitting Retreat is meeting up with other guys who are already a minority because of their chosen craft/art/hobby. It’s an amazing experience to sit down with a group of guys without having to worry about how onlookers will react…no fawning, no disdain, no being ignored…just encouragement, support and learning.”

In domains that have traditionally been viewed with particularly gendered stereotypes, such as knitting, there is a freedom in breaking away from those stereotypes and embracing queerness and how it manifests in art.