Les Tricoteuses de la guillotine - The knitting women of the French Revolution

Knitting is innately peaceful. Or is it? Not when there's a revolution in the wind...

Tricot is a plain, fine, warp-knitted fabric, either natural or man-made. A Tricoteuse is French for a 'knitting woman', both a nickname and a specific term to describe the women who sat beside Paris' deadly guillotine while people were publicly executed, calmly knitting. They apparently carried on knitting right through the executions, and knitted all sorts of items including the infamous liberty cap, also known as the Phrygian bonnet, a conical cap whose top bends forwards, worn in ancient times and not dissimilar to the Roman cap of Liberty, a 'pileus'.

Knitting can be political - When the market women marched on Versailles

One of the earliest signs of rebellion was the famous market Women's March on Versailles, which took place in early October 1789, intended to rail against rocketing food prices and chronic shortages. Thousands of poor women from the markets of Paris spontaneously marched to the Palace of Versailles to protest, and their efforts gained them a great deal of respect. King Louis XVI met their demands and was even forced to abandon Versailles and return to Paris, to rule from the nation's spiritual home.

The march wasn't expected to be a success. Louis was egotistical and edgy, and many predicted revenge-fuelled carnage. But the market women fast gained an almost magical status and soon became famous in their own right. They didn't have a leader as such. But their powerful group identity, and the way they took the moral high ground with ease was celebrated far and wide. The so-called Mothers of the Nation were the celebrities of the time, and their opinions were widely sought by politicians for years afterwards.

Sadly the women's ongoing straight talking, rebelliousness and disrespect for those in power eventually made them a political liability, and the increasingly authoritarian revolutionary government became totally fed up with them. In 1793 the revolution began in earnest and the market women, by that time seen as dangerously unpredictable, were not made welcome. In May the same year they found themselves excluded from their seats in the spectator galleries of the National Convention. A few days after that they were prohibited from joining any political gathering, of any kind, and their voices were finally silenced.

The veterans of the march and their supporters didn't go quietly, though. They met at the guillotine in the Place de la Révolution, these days the Place de la Concorde, and performed the role of disapproving onlookers as people's heads rolled. The knitting they did while they sat there led to them being named Les Tricoteuses, the knitting-women.

Next time you pick up your needles and yarn, remember that knitting isn't always the peaceful pastime we imagine it to be. It can affect politics, change lives, and drive cultural and social change.