Join author, Nicole Nehrig, in an intimate exploration of how women have used textile work to create meaningful lives, from ancient mythology to our current moment.

Knitting, sewing, embroidery, quilting - throughout history, these and other forms of textile work have often been dismissed as merely “women’s work” and attached to ideas of domesticity and obedience. Yet, as psychologist and avid knitter Nicole Nehrig wonderfully explores in her captivating book, textile work has often been a way for women to exercise power. When their voices were silenced and other avenues were closed off to them, women used the tools they had - often a needle and thread - to seek freedom within the restrictive societies they lived in.

Spanning continents and centuries, With Her Own Hands brings together remarkable stories of women who have used textiles as a means of liberation, from an eighteenth-century Quaker boarding school that used embroidered samplers to teach girls math and geography to the Quechua weavers working to preserve and revive Incan traditions today, and from the Miao women of southern China who, in the absence of a written language, pass down their histories in elaborate “story cloths” to a midcentury British women’s postal art exchange. Textiles have been a way for women to explore their intellectual capacities, seek economic independence, create community, process traumas, and convey powerful messages of self-expression and political protest.

Heartfelt and deeply moving, With Her Own Hands is a celebration of women who have woven their own stories - and a testament to their resilience.

Date

Thursday, October 23rd, 2025

Time

5:00-6:30 pm ET

Location

Zoom, a link will be sent to participants before the event.

Cost

Tickets for this event are sold on a sliding scale with a suggested donation of $25, but if you wish to pay less or more than the suggested donation, you may select a different amount from the drop-down menu.

As always, we are grateful for your support, which ensures the continuation and preservation of textile knowledge. Thank you for making this series possible. 

Tatter Library is a registered 501(c)3. Our speaker series is part of our community programming and proceeds support the continued success of our talks with artists, scholars, and historians we admire. For this event, all ticket proceeds will go towards keeping this series alive. 

**This session will be recorded. A link to the recording will be emailed to all those who register following the live session and will be available to all who register for 1 month, until November 23rd.

Our Speaker

Nicole Nehrig is a clinical and research psychologist and a passionate knitter and textile crafter living in Brooklyn, New York. She holds a PhD in clinical psychology.