Knitting Bookshelf: No Idle Hands by Anne L. Macdonald

No Idle Hands is the best book I've read on any type of needlework history; it's a page-turner! It is also one of a few select books which has a permanent spot on my knitting bookshelf. It contains 512 pages of engaging, humorous, & detailed knitting history. Used copies are available at Amazon for as little as $5.

No Idle Hands - The Social History of American Knitting

by Anne L. Macdonald

Originally published in 1990, No Idle Hands is now available as an abridged audiobook available from

Knitting Out Loud - An Audiobook Publishing Company

From Knitting Out Loud:

'Drawn from diaries, letters and personal reminiscences, No Idle Hands tells an intimate and sometimes hair-raising story of hand knitting in America from Colonial times onward. Women knit through the hardships of covered wagon travel across the West. They knit to save their husbands and sons from freezing to death on battlefields. Shell-shocked men knit to save their sanity in hospitals during both world wars. No Idle Hands documents the importance knitting has had in American life.'