Nicole Pohl – Literary Historian

We are chuffed to bits to have Nicole joining us for our MOW celebrations! Click this link to attend her Mill Open Weekend talk on zoom at 1:30pm Friday. 

Nicole is an eighteenth century literary historian at Oxford Brookes University, currently working on a book with designer Kate Davies which celebrates the lives and work of the important group of intellectual women – known as the “bluestockings”. The book will explore the contribution of these women to the material and literary culture of the eighteenth century through seven different sock and stocking patterns.

In her talk Nicole will introduce the history of handknitting in the eighteenth century particularly looking at stockings and socks. We will look at how the famous salon The Bluestockings got its name, what the significance of the blue stockings was and how important knitting and other fibre arts were at the time.

Kate’s new Bluestocking knitting book will be published in the autumn and we are thrilled to say she has chosen to use our Exmoor Sock yarn for all the featured designs.