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jove64's review
5.0
I have owned this book for quite a while but my habit of reading on the Kindle and looking at what's unread on the Kindle means that it has been left unread on a shelf. This despite the fact that several of my friends have read it and loved it, and I love Kate's writing in her knitting books (which is much more than just description of designs or whatever; it is obvious she is a historian).
I'm not even sure where to start with a review. It is amazing. Her writing is lovely to read. It's deep and engaging but also accessible. Although I know Kate as a knitter and knitwear designer, it isn't really about that. It's about adapting to life following a stroke but that seems an inadequate description too.
It can be read straight through as a memoir of learning to live with post-stroke disability. It could be read as a series of essays, and the introduction has a useful set of possible selections based on your particular interests. It covers illness, disability, knitting and other forms of making, the relationship between activities like knitting and intellectual life, community, adaptive technology and design.
I suspect it will reward multiple readings. I highly highly recommend this book.
I'm not even sure where to start with a review. It is amazing. Her writing is lovely to read. It's deep and engaging but also accessible. Although I know Kate as a knitter and knitwear designer, it isn't really about that. It's about adapting to life following a stroke but that seems an inadequate description too.
It can be read straight through as a memoir of learning to live with post-stroke disability. It could be read as a series of essays, and the introduction has a useful set of possible selections based on your particular interests. It covers illness, disability, knitting and other forms of making, the relationship between activities like knitting and intellectual life, community, adaptive technology and design.
I suspect it will reward multiple readings. I highly highly recommend this book.
smemmott's review
5.0
A very thoughtful memoir about the author's experience of a stroke in her mid-30s and learning to live differently in her post-stroke body. The last paragraphs are titled "My last words: I make, therefore I am" and that truly summarizes her approach to life. She also considers how the things that other people make or design, such as adaptive equipment, have had an impact on her. This relates to one of her other takeaways: "it is possible to be proud of one's interdependence just as much as of one's autonomy." This struck me because while I know that interdependence is a fact of life, it's also something that I struggle with accepting at times.
debbiejane's review
4.0
Fascinating - especially about one woman’s determination to retrain her paralysed self. Fascinating insight into what can be achieved. Strong thread of connection to creativity and the importance of doing and making.
kmrose's review
4.0
First, let’s take a moment to appreciate this amazing cover. I kept running my hands over it, expecting to feel the thread. I love it so much. I’ve followed Kate Davies for a very long time. I knit her owls sweater, one of my favorite items I’ve made. And I remember the shock of reading when she had her stroke. This book talks about her life as a maker and coming back from that stroke to find a new normal. A great read for knitters and non-knitters alike!
norma_cenva's review
5.0
This is an amazing book! I found it by chance in a shop while buying yarn/wool and I am so happy I did! Great story with some very interesting topics discussed.
sadie_slater's review
4.0
In 2010 Kate Davies was an academic and a knitter with a reasonably well-known blog and one wildly successful published design (the Owls sweater) when, at the age of 36, she suffered a stroke which left her left side paralysed. Her memoir, Handywoman, begins with a look at the handmade influences on her childhood in 1970s and 1980s Rochdale, and then skips forward to discuss the process of recovering from her stroke, gradually teaching the left side of her body to move again and building a new life as a disabled woman who is now the owner of a very successful knitting business. Along the way she discusses gendered assumptions in medicine (as a woman with a history of mental health problems, her paralysis was initially misdiagnosed as psychosomatic rather than being caused by a stroke), walking (her love of walking led her to create a collection of knitting patterns themed around the West Highland Way, which was one of the main inspirations for my walk this summer), accessible design, and, of course, knitting, which played many roles in her recovery: a source of comfort; a skill which helped with the rebuilding of neural pathways; the foundation of a community which rallied round to provide support and send woolly hugs from halfway around the world; and ultimately, a way of making a living in a way that could be fitted around the essential self-care needed to manage the ongoing effects of her stroke.
I really enjoyed reading this. Davies's writing is precise and lyrical, and Handywoman is interesting and thought-provoking. Her reflections on accessibility have made me consider my own implicit ableism, and where I might be able to do things differently, while the sections on knitting made my fingers itch to be holding yarn and needles, and also made me think about how I use knitting to balance my own slightly wonky brain. It's probably not a surprise that as soon as I finished the book I cast on for one of Davies's Fair Isle hat patterns...
I really enjoyed reading this. Davies's writing is precise and lyrical, and Handywoman is interesting and thought-provoking. Her reflections on accessibility have made me consider my own implicit ableism, and where I might be able to do things differently, while the sections on knitting made my fingers itch to be holding yarn and needles, and also made me think about how I use knitting to balance my own slightly wonky brain. It's probably not a surprise that as soon as I finished the book I cast on for one of Davies's Fair Isle hat patterns...
gemmabelle's review
4.0
I did enjoy this book and some of the insights were fantastic. I did struggle a little with reading this as a book though. There was a lot of repetition and emphasising and re-emphasising of points. I would recommend dipping in and out of it, reading chapters as essays at various points rather than reading it from start to finish.
demo's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness
Moderate: Medical content
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