The Inner Nana, the List Mum and Me: Knitting Identity

In a recent review of identity and heritage, Tilley (2007) argued that the freedom to construct and reconstruct identity has come about, at least in part, because of disruption to traditional roles and cultures in what is now a globalized world. Within this world of instantaneous visual transmissions, remedial engagement with craft and the hand made is increasingly important as “an essential part of the process of making self and social identity ” (17). Thus, in contemporary society “[i]dentity becomes, in part, something that may be chosen, constructed and manipulated ” (10). In this paper we extend existing analysis of craft (cf. Campbell 2005) and consider the production of textile crafts, especially women’s knitting, as a means by which identity may be developed and explored as the knitter casts on and off her creations and both draws on and distances herself from traditions of femininity. In doing so, we adopt Campbell’s definition of craft consumption as “activities in which individual