Handywoman

by Kate Davies

Paralysed by a stroke at the age of 36, Kate Davies' world turned upside-down. Forced to change direction, Kate took a radical new creative path. Handywoman tells this story.

This is not a book about Kate's triumph over adversity. Rather, it is her account of the ordinary activities and everyday objects that stroke and disability made her see differently. From braiding hair for the first time to learning how to knit again; from the lessons of a working-class creative childhood to the support of the contemporary craft community; from the transformative effects of good design to developing a new identity as a disabled walker; in this engaging series of essays, Kate describes how the experience of brain injury allowed her to build a new kind of handmade life. Part memoir, part personal celebration of the power of making, in Handywoman Kate reclaims disability as in itself a form of practical creativity.

Kate Davies is an award-winning knitwear designer and author writing on many topics from disability and design to textile history and women’s history. She’s published eight books about hand-knitting, lives on the edge of the Scottish Highlands and is inspired by her local landscape every day.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Knitting, Disability, Crafts, Essays

260 pages

First published January 1, 2018

About the author

Kate Davies taught at the University of Sheffield and at the University of York from 1999. She specialises in American and British women's writing, and the literature of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Atlantic.

Kate also writes about and designs knitwear.

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘Handywoman’ is a memoir structured as an essay collection, describing the author’s experience recovering from a stroke at the age of 36. She writes in a measured, thoughtful, and very engaging style about how the stroke changed her material interactions with the world. Successive chapters examine her altered relationship with knitting, walking, and hair-braiding, for instance. While each essay seems like it would stand well alone, the whole adds up to a unique, fascinating, and subtle book. Davies never settles for simple conclusions about any subject she discusses, something I appreciate very much. She reflects on ableism, tools, community, and creativity. I found myself thinking anew about embodiment and how easy it is to take our bodies for granted. Her joyful experiences of knitting also reminded me that I haven’t knitted in ages and find it relaxing. The discussion of her dog Bruce is lovely:

Walking with a dog, I ceased to be an individual. From being an activity that was previously conducted largely for the benefit of the self (for exercise, for relaxation, to lose or find myself in thought), walking with Bruce involved a crucial element of reciprocity. With Bruce, I was no longer an independent walker but interdependent one. Bruce was an interdependent walker too. For him, I was the walk’s prerequisite, instigator, and director. [...] Bruce simply trusted that I knew what was happening, and then went where I did. Equally, for me, it was Bruce’s need for exercise that determined my decision to get out the door at all. Bruce must have a walk, therefore we both had one.

Overall, a beautifully written book that I enjoyed very much. The only thing I did not enjoy was the new fear that a woman in her thirties, living in Edinburgh, doing an academic job that she finds stressful, with brittle mental health, can suddenly have a very serious stroke. I was distracted from that initial alarm by the rest of the book, though. It’s the best memoir I’ve read for a while, full of astute observations.

EDIT: I should add that the edition I read was gorgeously designed to be a pleasing material object. The knitting pattern endpapers are an especially nice touch.

[Colleen O'Neill Conlan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came to this book as a knitter, having followed the author's blog for several years. Kate Davies suffered a stroke at age 36, caused by a previously undiagnosed heart defect. Handywoman is about that stroke and its aftermath of recovery.

While this is an intimate first-person account, the chapter about her stroke begins with a second person narrator. This can be a gamble, since it can come off as gimmicky. But it is eerily apt and effective here. There is an immediacy where the reader experiences what Davies experiences simply by being included in the event by the word "you." It begins, "You do not know about the hole in your heart." It's a bit of a gut punch to read on, almost as though it IS happening to YOU.

Other chapters talk about her slow and oftentimes frustrating recovery, about adjusting to life as a differently-abled person, about her professional shift from academia to knitting design and publishing, about the importance – no, necessity – of walking with her dog each day, and about adaptive design in Sweden, which is supported jointly by government grants and corporate entities (gotta love the Swedes!). But I was especially drawn to her writing about her knitting community, how much they contributed to her well being, and how knitting itself aided in her regaining use of her left hand.

Davies was previously a researcher and academic, and it shows here in the thorough detail and clear writing. Each aspect of her experience is related in a deep, personal, and exacting way, with truly gorgeous language and phrasing. There is nothing dry here, even when she is writing about tools and adaptive technologies, including a long, interesting piece about the Etac turner, an empowering tool that allowed her to participate in moving her body from bed to chair or chair to wheelchair without having to be passively manhandled and maneuvered by another. Throughout the book, without being chastising, were reminders of how the world is built and configured for the able-bodied. It is eye-opening to see things through her experience, and likewise to experience things through her eyes.

If you have ever knit one of her patterns, or read one of her essays, or perused her blog, you know how exacting and exquisite her approach is, and it is the same with this book. She includes a link to an online site of image galleries that correspond to the chapters, which I referred to again and again. I will end by looking forward to what I hope will be her next book. In this one she alludes several times to a fragile mental state, even "madness," that preceded her stroke. I hope she will turn her writerly gifts and attention to a subject that affects so many.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This memoir could have been so many predictable things. How Knitting Brought Me Back to Health, heart-warming happy-ending, lots of blaming and finger-pointing at modern workplace stresses and the misfires and misogyny of the medbiz. It was none of those, but had a bit of all of them, rendered largely minor by Kate’s own forceful and honest and witty attitude and personality. In the old-fashioned expression, she is quite a pistol! Her writing is wonderful, erudite, sharp and brightly descriptive; exemplary of her personality itself, as good biographical writing should be.

I knew of Kat’s knitting patterns and blog before I heard of her stroke. I did not know of her involvement in the creation of Shetland Wool Week - post stroke! My respect for her increased manyfold.
Her story of the constant drudgery it took to remake her body and her life also gives me renewed understanding and appreciation of what it has taken my husband’s brother to get to where he is after his own stroke at 34 years old, seventeen years ago now.

[Lindis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought provoking, insightful, challenging and inspiring. My best read so far in 2018.

[Sophy H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly, this book was amazing.

I rode the rollercoaster of emotions whilst reading this, but my overwhelming emotion was one of anger. Anger at how Kate was gaslighted by her consultant, misdiagnosed, treated as a malingerer by health care professionals and only properly diagnosed when a medical student decided to carry out her role professionally without ego or prejudice, and actually listening to her patient. I'm a health care professional and the old adage has always been "Time is Brain", meaning the quicker the diagnosis is made, and intervention carried out, the hopefully lesser the damage. Leaving Kate for hours without appropriate treatment is absolutely shocking and a terrible case of medical malpractice/negligence. The consultant should have been ashamed of himself. Yet Kate's grace and civility is without bounds. I'd have been threatening legal action. How dare he dismiss her in a clear medical emergency?

But this book is much more than "Kate's stroke". It is friendship, understanding, resilience, acceptance, love, creativity, reawakening, passion, humility and exploration. It is beautifully written. It contains no self-pity or malice. It is unapologetically honest. And for putting yourself in someone else's shoes and practicing empathy, I can't recommend it enough.

Wow, just wow. This is taking pride of place on my shelf.

[Shirley Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like to knit, mostly sweaters. It's fun to find knitwear designers who have a look or style that pull me in over and over as I discover and research their creations. When that happens, I not only track down whatever I can find on the internet that they've made, I like to discover more about their lives. Where do they live? How'd they get into knitting and designing?

Kate Davies is a knitting designer I recently discovered and admire. I would make just about any of her sweaters. I was further enchanted when I learned she lives in Scotland near the gorgeous West Highland Way, a 95 mile hiking trail my husband and I backpacked in 2012, and that it inspires many of her designs.

I also learned she became a professional knitwear designer after having a debilitating stroke several years ago while she was in her thirties. She's written a memoir, Handywoman, an account of who she was before the brain injury, how she dealt with it, and how her life was changed afterwards. It's also an intelligent, thoughtful, methodical exploration of all facets of being in the physical world, and in communities. Davies was a maker and knitter before her brain injury, but an academic by profession. She turned her intellect to understanding precisely how her changed self interacted with the environment. Along the way she determined she would start a new profession: knitwear designer.

The tone of the book is serious and thorough. For example, Davies' chapter "Raised" takes us through her experience and epiphany being assisted with the Etac turner, a non-motorized piece of equipment for transferring someone that leverages the weight of each person. She does so in explicit detail: its construction; each choreographed movement as the technician secures a brake, stabilizes the turner; each of Davies' own movements in response; and her elation at the realization her own body participates in the entire process, never surrendering to the complete trust of another person's physical effort.

She dissects why that is, and begins to look at designed objects with new eyes. She says "I now think of the habit of attentiveness I began to develop during the time I spent on the neurology ward as a form of material engagement. Material engagement is both reflective and participatory. . . After my stroke, I came to understand that, in the processes of their making and their potential for creative accomplishment, tools and objects possessed a wisdom that was far greater than my individual mind and body."

But Handywoman is not all about the physical and social experience of brain injury. There are plenty of fascinating stories about her interactions with textile making communities. My favorite was her journey to the Shetland Islands and developing a deep connection and relationship with the woman and culture of knitting there.

I'll probably read this one again because her thoughtfulness about the dailyness of life is inspiring. Meanwhile, I've decided which of Kate Davies' designs is on my project list: the Carbeth Cardigan. Davies is well known and beloved: over 1,800 people on Ravelry have made, or want to make, this sweater, too.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of essays written by one of the world's foremost knitwear designers tells the story of how her hobby became her main income following a brain injury that rendered her paralysed on the left side at age 36. The essays delve into what it means to go from being abled to being dis-abled in the space of minutes, how she is treated as a result and how she is supported and continues to choose the positive to this day.
Some parts of this were not easy reading for me having worked in and around stroke "victims" in my career as a healthcare professional. I heard some of the trite words she tells as being less than helpful come from my lips and those around me in that arena. My views have changed having read this and I didn't think I was one of "those" people.
I loved the section on design that she included around the Etac turner which gave her back some of her lost independence in being transferred from bed to chair to wherever. Her view is that design for the disabled is not design for a minority as we will all in some way benefit as we age or if we become affected by something that removes an ability we have taken for granted. I am coming to terms with this due to the arthritis that has seemingly invaded most of my joints - at least all the ones I used to use to walk, run, knit, etc.
I defy anyone, abled or disabled to not find something in this book that speaks to them. You should read it.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing on so many levels. Davies is beyond smart coupled with reflective, making for a powerful collection of essays ostensibly on her experience of stroke and recovery, but really more truly about what it means to be alive, to live in these limited bodies of ours with purpose and intention, and to interact with the community and environment around us. It was one of the books I wanted to just keep reading because it was so phenomenal while also being one that I wanted to consume slowly and thoughtfully. Anybody who can take a chapter on braiding hair from the details of how our hands work to create such a masterpiece to the role of hair in our identities while going through the history of the braid in art, religion, and society is simply beyond words...and all of her chapters are like that - far-reaching and all-encompassing with an academic undertone while still being completely grounded in a present experience. A book to savor, again and again.

[Dearbhla She-Her · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so thankful for this book.

[Laura Watt · Rating 4 out of 5]

really interesting explorations of knitwear designer Kate Davies' experience of having and learning to live the with effects of a stroke at age 36 -- shifting from a toiling academic (like I used to be) into an incredibly successful designer and entrepreneur in the process. I'm giving this book to a friend who also had a stroke at a fairly young age (and of course had to read it before giving!), but I think there's a lot of useful insight for those of us lucky enough to still be able-bodied.

[Gill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is described as follows:-

"Paralysed by a stroke at the age of 36, Kate Davies’ world turned upside-down. Forced to change direction, Kate took a radical new creative path. Handywoman tells this story.
This is not a book about Kate’s triumph over adversity. Rather, it is her account of the ordinary activities and everyday objects that stroke and disability made her see differently. From braiding hair for the first time to learning how to knit again; from the lessons of a working-class creative childhood to the support of the contemporary knitting community; from the transformative effects of good design to developing a new identity as a disabled walker; in this engaging series of essays, Kate describes how the experience of brain injury allowed her to build a new kind of handmade life. Part memoir, part personal celebration of the power of making, in Handywoman Kate reclaims disability as in itself a form of practical creativity."

Handywoman is not just a book about what happened to Kate and her recovery, although her story as a patient in our healthcare system is compelling and one that needs to be told. When describing the painstaking task of relearning the numerous activities of daily living which had previously been taken for granted, she explains how one well designed piece of equipment, the Etac turner had a huge impact. She eventually goes to Sweden to meet the designers and manufacturers of the product and reflects on the interface between humans and the tools we use. I noticed that in one review her book was recommended as required reading for Occupational Therapists and can understand why.

Kate pays tribute the knitting community and her travels to Shetland to increase her knowledge of Fairisle knitting and the women she met there helped her embarked upon a new career as a knitwear designer and writer. Although Kate has made a new life as a knitwear designer and successful businesswoman this is not just a book about knitting, but knitters will love how she analyses, captures and the physical nature of knitting on the written page. Handywoman is, above all, about making.

We could all learn much from her chapter Interdependence in which she explains the difference between independence and interdependence ie the changed nature of her relationship with Tom and how the acquisition of Bruce, the black labrador changed her relationship with her neighbourhood and neighbours.

This is a remarkably well written book about a remarkable woman!

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Jo Bennie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is near impossible to say what Handywoman is. ON one level it is an autobiography, of Davies' life from a childhood in a highly creative household to the fast-paced life of academic research. Which all crashes down when she suffers a stroke and loses all functioning on her left side.
There are so many isn'ts. This isn't an inspiring heartwarming narrative of recovery. This isn't a mediation on the fuzzy bliss of mindfulness. This is something much more raw, full of the terror of helplessness and the power of the act of knitting to teach the brain to function again, contrary to the narrative of knitting as genteel craft and women's work. It is brutal in its refutation of cliche, of narratives of recovery and bravery, of acceptance of limitations as lessons painfully purchased. A deeply generous act of love, finding the words to honestly speak her truth.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read Kate Davies' blog and knitted her patterns, so being given this as a present by an equally knitty sister was logical but surprising as I didn't know it existed. Kate Davies suggests that you dip in and out of the chapters but I chose to read it through from beginning to end. The structure of the book works well, with it being reasonably chronological yet each chapter broadening out in a specific topic. One chapter read like an academic essay, but most were deeply personal with the highs and lows laid bare. It seems wrong to say it's an enjoyable book when what it is talking about is so much pain and struggle, but it is a deeply hopeful book. There's a lot to relate to in the struggle to rebalance a life after serious illness, and an underlying fight and optimism that resonates.

[Betty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing and well-written memoir of a Scottish woman's journey from a stroke at 36, through rehabilitation, to a new life as a knit designer. Kate describes her childhood learning to knit from her grandmother. She entered university and became an academic, a career which was at once, rewarding and very stressful. Then one day she fell. A stroke took away her ability to walk which was one of her most loved activities. Her left side was not working. This is the story of how she taught herself new ways of doing things, knitting was at the heart of her brain retrain. She had help from some innovative young people from Sweden who had built a device that helped her on her way. With the help of her partner, Tom and a dog named Bruce, she found a whole new life. Loved, loved, loved this book.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

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!

[Sofie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book and I think it has a wider appeal even to those who are not knitters. The book is a memoir of sorts, a collection of essays telling stories about Davies and the stroke she had at 36, rehabilitation, finding another life and the importance of creativity. The book feels very personal and it is clear that Davies has thought a lot about the issues surrounding rehabilitation and disability. A very interesting book.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sort of book that sparks ideas, I kept having to set it down and start up conversations with anyone around.

I've read a lot of books related to knitting lately that have broken the mould of the old lady knitter and this is no exception. Kate Davies is a fierce and talented woman and that is clear in every chapter and incredibly inspiring. One to read particularly if you have an interest in design.

[Allie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just: wow. I took ages to read this book and really savor it. Davies’s academic background is put to excellent use here as she weaves together research, theory, interviews, and personal reflection to consider her experience of stroke and disability. It really speaks to me on so many levels, and I am incredibly appreciative of her insight.

[Eimear · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting read and a fascinating insight into the impact a stroke has. It definitely increased my already present respect and admiration for the author.
I did find it a little wordy at times and struggled to keep concentration as some of the points were reiterated. However, this may have been due to my own mindset at the time of reading.

[Susanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unexpected Little Free Library find, and not something I would normally have chosen, this book left me with a lot to think about. Its style bears the clear mark of years in academia, but its subject matter is the very embodied nature of lived experience.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[NormaCenva · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Tonya Vickery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Davies writes as if she is sitting down and talking with you. The narrative is full of insights which afford a better understanding of what post-stroke life is like.

[Diella · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. So interesting. She is an inspirational person!

[Sadie Slater · Rating 4 out of 5]

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...

[Aly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book fascinating and thought it was really well written. I was interested to read about Kate's childhood and how that influenced her desire to create but what really kept me hooked were her descriptions of how she dealt with the after effects of her stroke. As someone who came down with a chronic illness in my mid-thirties, I could identify with with many of the difficulties she has had to face and with being forced to find ways of coping with disability. As I have developed an interest in Buddhism over the past couple of years, I also really identified with the themes of interdependence, community and contemplating all the different people whose efforts contributed to the everyday objects we take for granted.

As a non-knitter, my attention was lost a little at some of the descriptions of her craft and I thought there was too much detail about the Swedish transfer device company. However, the book's introduction is very useful. Kate describes the content of each chapter and advises that you can dip in and out of the book, not necessarily reading the chapters in order, and missing out any that might not interest you.

[Snorki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kate was a fit and active 36 year old when she had a stroke, and in an instant was transformed into a “disabled” person who no longer felt that she recognised parts of her own body. This book is her story of her journey of recovery and acceptance. She writes well (having been an academic before the stroke), and brings insight and light as she examines how she was treated (initially mis-diagnosed as some kind of mental problem), how her experience with day to day objects and activities changed the way she felt about things, and the wonder of well designed tools to help her. She talks of people and relationships, and her experiences throughout with making - post-stroke, she has established herself as a successful small business owner, writing knitting patterns and books and selling yarn and products. It’s a very interesting analysis of her experiences, good and bad, and a different take on some of the classic ways people talk about disability and recovery.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the first chapter and the chapter about the knitting community. I found some of the postmodernist jargon in the other chapters distracting. While Kate gave a good insight into what it means to be (and become) disabled, the polemical tone started to annoy me. My son has a disability, too, but I don't expect the world to be fully adjusted to him, much as I would wish for that to be the case. He needs to accept that and learn to work around it. Of course, Kate herself has done an amazing job doing just that, and it was very inspiring to read about that. On that note, I also found her account of what the brain is capable of very inspiring.