International Women's Day

March 8th is INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY, and March is WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH, so I'm going to highlight a few women artists, writers and craftswomen whose works I like throughout this month. I think it is important for us to know our history---so we can change and grow as a culture---by learning from our past mistakes and injustices.

Who better to start with than journalist and American activist Dorothea Dix (1802-1887)?

And short history of INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY from Wikipedia: "The first IWD was observed on 28 February 1909 in the United States following a declaration by the Socialist Party of America. Among other relevant historic events, it commemorates the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire (New York, 1911), where over 140 women lost their lives. The idea of having an international women's day was first put forward at the turn of the 20th century amid rapid world industrialization and economic expansion that led to protests over working conditions.

More protests followed on 8 March in subsequent years, most notably in 1908 when 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights. In 1910 the first international women's conference was held in Copenhagen. Furthermore, on the eve of World War I, women across Europe held peace rallies on 8 March 1913. In the West, International Women's Day was commemorated during the 1910s and 1920s, but dwindled. It was revived by the rise of feminism in the 1960s."



And because this is also a knitting/crafting blog, I would like to also highlight Elizabeth Zimmerman (1940-1999)---I knit my first sweater from one of her books in 1979! out of yarn I spun myself from sheep raised in the Alaska Aleutian Islands. I still have that book--the now famous KNITTING WITHOUT TEARS and I still refer to it, and use the patterns--of course!


"Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn’t hurt the untroubled spirit either...." --Elizabeth Zimmerman

Elizabeth’s books have all remained in print continuously since publication. They are available at local book and yarn shops and through Schoolhouse Press.