Ashleigh-ellan Kavanagh

Hands up if you got a provisional book deal today, and now you’re gonna write the world most punk knitting history book? 🙋🏻‍♀️

/5 thought he had done it to himself to avoid the war! So not only was he massively ill but disgraced on top of it.
This is a literal interpretation of using art to hurt the enemy, but our creativity is our power.

(This is a story about Charles Dick, and this fact is courtesy of my lovely fiance.)

/4 Officer isn't seen again, tattooist assumes it's due to an infection.
IT TURNS OUT that the officer who got the tattoo had been shipped out to the Eastern front, because that was his punishment for suspected self-injury, as his superiors 🧵

/3 tattooist assumes that his plan worked, until he sees the officer who comes back for another piece of work. Once again, the tattooist sabotages the needle but with even grosser stuff this time (imaginations, please!) and then tattoos the officer. 🧵

/2 Prisoner agrees but rakes the already-used needles through the mud first, with the intent of causing infection. A few days go by, and tattooist doesn't see the officer. 🧵

Not quite a knitting fact of the day but another needle, and art as rebellion...
There's a story of a gentleman in a concentration camp who would tattoo by trade, but designs on other prisoners. One day, a Nazi officer gets wind that this guy does great work, and asks the prisoner to tattoo him. 🧵

Ashleigh-ellan Kavanagh – Medium Read writing from Ashleigh-ellan Kavanagh on Medium. Every day, Ashleigh-ellan Kavanagh and thousands of other voices read, write, and share important stories on Medium.

Pop over to my Medium and give a follow would you? I'm going to update it with the process of book writing and adventure having, through both my work (feminism and knitting) and my partners work (tattoo art as real art) over the year!

medium.com/@ashleighell...

Knot magic is a great example, and knitters still stitch positive wishes into their work today. Some documents even alleged that women used their knitting needles as make-shift wands to stir up the universe! 🧵

witchcraft for offering to ‘heal those with illness and suffering using natural remedies and black arts’.
Knitting has been used as a form of rebellion (in this case, the rebellious act of women having an income?!) for centuries the world over, and has been linked to witchcraft for almost as long. 🧵

Knitting Fact of the Day!
Oh, intense pressure on Denmark to give up Greenland?
Denmark is part of Scandinavia, which means "Dangerous Island". Lisbet Pedersdatter, in 1634, was a nomad who knitted stockings to earn money for food and clothing but who was accused of 🧵