This is one of the Kickstarter projects I backed last year when I was a little bit too obsessed with Kickstarter in general (I still check the site but I’m probably more interested in vintage teacups right now). Their Darkest Materials appealed to me because I’ve tried knitting and sewing but never really considered the history behind the craft.

Reading this after an embroidery workshop was a study in contrasts. While we think of crafts as something soothing (I spent quite a bit for the experience of learning to embroider and thought it worth it), it didn’t use to be like that. Knitting, spinning, and other material crafts used to be the main way we made things and as a result, were work-skills rather than hobbies. Apart from many crimes being committed while people knitting and spun, the working conditions in these cottage industries were terrible.

Their Darkest Materials takes us through the dark side of this history, from murder to slavery to ‘knitting schools’. The knitting schools were rather sad – children were taught to knit to give them a skill that could make them useful. As the book puts it, knitting schools tell us “how spinning and knitting were viewed – as skills to give folk who were the ‘great and good’ felt were life’s bottom-feeders. These were not regarded as valued ‘trades’ with a lengthy, complex apprenticeship.” What a far cry from the way we view knitting now, as it’s more often than not a hobby for those with the luxury of money (to buy wool and needles) and time.

In terms of structure, the book seems to take a more thematic approach. We have chapters on deaths, the nineteenth century needlewoman, runaways and slaves, prison, charity schools and poor houses, and much more. Each chapter was fascinating but the threads of time were tied within a chapter rather than woven through the entire book. While I finished this with a new appreciation of the history of materials culture, I don’t think I can give you a timeline of how things have changed. Thinking about it, it seems to take place mostly in the nineteenth century so perhaps this is more of a series of snapshots of that period of time than the story of how material culture has changed through the years.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I had no idea about the history behind textiles and their associated crafts, so this book was an eye-opening read for me. I’d recommend this to anyone who’s ever knitted or taken part in material culture, or who just enjoys histories of everyday things.