Making meaning material: A textile politics of autistic interests

Authors

Abstract

Disability offers important considerations for participatory crafting projects that seek to foreground diverse forms of knowledge-making. As a case study in ‘disability craft’, this ethnographic knitting project uses collaborative knitting pattern design to explore autistic adults’ interests in the context of the autistic self-advocacy movement in the United States. Colloquially known as ‘special interests’, these interests challenge ableist stereotypes about what it means to be autistic. Crucially, this project was informed by the autistic author’s own special interest of knitting, making special interests both the object and method of research. Knitting is used to explore what counts as meaningful knowledge and who can create it. Through themes of identity, well-being and communication, special interests are shown to be intensely meaningful. The final knitted objects from this project materialize knowledge about how autistic people navigate the world and show how craft can support autistic activism against epistemic injustice.

1. Beth Pentney (2008). Feminism, Activism, and Knitting: Are the Fibre Arts a Viable Mode for Feminist Political Action? Thirdspace, 8(1).

   Type: Article OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W1570189102

   Crossref OpenAlex
2. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders . Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders.

   Type: Other

   Crossref
3. Monique Botha *Autistic author. Learn more… , Bridget Dibb , David M. Frost (2022). ‘It’s being a part of a grand tradition, a grand counter-culture which involves communities’: A qualitative investigation of autistic community connectedness . Autism, 26(8), 2151-2164. SAGE Publications.

   Type: Article DOI: 10.1177/13623613221080248 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4221109625

   AutiHub · Autistic Scholars Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
4. Damian Milton *Autistic author. Learn more… (2014). Autistic expertise: A critical reflection on the production of knowledge in autism studies . Autism, 18(7), 794-802. SAGE Publications.

   Type: Article DOI: 10.1177/1362361314525281 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2122352988

   AutiHub · Autistic Scholars AutiHub · Documentation center Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
5. Autistic Self Advocacy Network (n.d.), ‘What we believe’, Autistic Self Advocacy Network, https://autisticadvocacy.org/about-asan/what-we-believe/ . Accessed 21 February 2016.

   Type: Other

   Crossref
6. Justine Egner (2022). #ActuallyAutistic: Using Twitter to Construct Individual and Collective Identity Narratives . Studies in Social Justice, 16(2), 349-369. Brock University Library.

   Type: Article DOI: 10.26522/ssj.v16i2.2675 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4220776396

   Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
7. Elizabeth Pellicano , Adam Dinsmore , Tony Charman (2014). What should autism research focus upon? Community views and priorities from the United Kingdom . Autism, 18(7), 756-770. SAGE Publications.

   Type: Article DOI: 10.1177/1362361314529627 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2155427676

   AutiHub · Documentation center Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
8. (2012). Quiet hands . Loud Hands: Autistic People, Speaking, 177.

   Type: Other

   Crossref
9. Betsan Corkhill , Jessica Hemmings , Angela Maddock , Jill Riley (2014). Knitting and Well-being . TEXTILE, 12(1), 34-57. Informa UK Limited.

   Type: Article DOI: 10.2752/175183514x13916051793433 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2198657457

   Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
10. Monique Botha *Autistic author. Learn more… (2021). Academic, Activist, or Advocate? Angry, Entangled, and Emerging: A Critical Reflection on Autism Knowledge Production . Frontiers in Psychology, 12(6), 727542-727542. Frontiers Media SA.

    Type: Article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.727542 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W3203087437

    AutiHub · Autistic Scholars AutiHub · Documentation center Crossref OpenAlex
11. Emma Shercliff , Amy Twigger Holroyd (2020). Stitching together: Ethical dimensions and innovative approaches to participatory textile making . Journal of Arts & Communities, 11(1), 3-11. Intellect.

    Type: Article DOI: 10.1386/jaac_00011_1 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W3127847361

    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
12. Lacey Jane Roberts (2011). Put Your Thing Down, Flip It, and Reverse It . In Extra/Ordinary: Craft and Contemporary Art (pp. 243-259). Duke University Press.

    Type: Book chapter DOI: 10.1215/9780822392873-018 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2479997024

    Crossref OpenAlex
13. Joyce Davidson , Michael Orsini (2013). Participatory Research with Autistic Communities . In Worlds of Autism: Across the Spectrum of Neurological Difference (pp. 169-188). University of Minnesota Press.

    Type: Book chapter DOI: 10.5749/minnesota/9780816688883.003.0008 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2482967799

    AutiHub · Documentation center Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
14. (2022). The Autism Industrial Complex: How Branding, Marketing, and Capital Investment Turned Autism into Big Business . The Autism Industrial Complex: How Branding, Marketing, and Capital Investment Turned Autism into Big Business.

    Type: Other

    Crossref
15. Elizabeth Chin (2020). Needlework . Feminist Anthropology, 1(1), 7-13. Wiley.

    Type: Article DOI: 10.1002/fea2.12009 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4248196297

    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
16. Kirsty Robertson (2011). Rebellious Doilies and Subversive Stitches . In Extra/Ordinary (pp. 184-203). Duke University Press.

    Type: Book chapter DOI: 10.1215/9780822392873-014 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2483033126

    OpenAlex
17. (2017). Fray: Art and Textile Politics . Fray: Art and Textile Politics.

    Type: Other

    Crossref
18. Katherine Townsend , Juliana Sissons , Ania Sadkowska (2017). Emotional Fit: Developing a new fashion methodology with older women . Clothing Cultures, 4(3), 235-251. Intellect.

    Type: Article DOI: 10.1386/cc.4.3.235_1 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2788188657

    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
19. Christina Nicolaidis , Dora M Raymaker *Autistic author. Learn more… , Steven K. Kapp *Autistic author. Learn more… , Amelia E.V. Baggs , Elesia Ashkenazy *Autistic author. Learn more… , Katherine McDonald et al. (2019). The AASPIRE practice-based guidelines for the inclusion of autistic adults in research as co-researchers and study participants . Autism, 23(8), 2007-2019. SAGE Publications.

    Type: Article DOI: 10.1177/1362361319830523 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2926826419

    AutiHub · Autistic Scholars AutiHub · Documentation center Crossref OpenAlex
20. Robin Roscigno (2019). Neuroqueerness as Fugitive Practice: Reading Against the Grain of Applied Behavioral Analysis Scholarship . Educational Studies, 55(4), 405-419. Informa UK Limited.

    Type: Article DOI: 10.1080/00131946.2019.1629929 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2955207674

    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
21. Alison Mayne (2020). Make/share: Textile making alone together in private and social media spaces . Journal of Arts & Communities, 10(1), 95-108. Intellect.

    Type: Article DOI: 10.1386/jaac_00008_1 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W3030260538

    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
22. Fountain, Daniel (2021), ‘Survival of the knittest: Craft and queer-feminist worldmaking’, MAI: Feminism & Visual Culture, 13 December, https://maifeminism.com/survival-of-the-knittest-craft-and-queer-feminist-worldmaking/ . Accessed 20 January 2023.

    Type: Other

    Crossref
23. Emma Shercliff , Amy Twigger Holroyd (2020). Stitching Together: Participatory textile making as an emerging methodological approach to research . Journal of Arts & Communities, 10(1), 5-18. Intellect.

    Type: Article DOI: 10.1386/jaac_00002_1 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W3031572349

    Crossref OpenAlex
24. (2023). Crafted with Pride: Queer Craft and Activism in Contemporary Britain . Crafted with Pride: Queer Craft and Activism in Contemporary Britain.

    Type: Other

    Crossref
25. (2018). Making Is Connecting: The Social Power of Creativity, from Craft and Knitting to Digital Everything . Making Is Connecting: The Social Power of Creativity, from Craft and Knitting to Digital Everything.

    Type: Other

    Crossref
26. Marsha MacDowell (2020). The ‘Teal Quilt Project’: Understanding a community participatory textile making project as a site of research . Journal of Arts & Communities, 11(1), 63-79. Intellect.

    Type: Article DOI: 10.1386/jaac_00015_1 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W3128009461

    Crossref OpenAlex
27. Taylor Gotfrid , Kelly Mack , Kathryn J Lum , Evelyn Yang , Jessica Hodgins , Scott E Hudson et al. (2021). Stitching Together the Experiences of Disabled Knitters . Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1-14. ACM.

    Type: Other DOI: 10.1145/3411764.3445521 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W3161931311

    Crossref OpenAlex
28. (2020). Autistic community and the neurodiversity movement: Stories from the frontline . Autistic community and the neurodiversity movement: Stories from the frontline.

    Type: Other

    Crossref
29. (2022). Security blanket: Neuroqueer knitting in pandemic times . Lateral, 11(2).

    Type: Other

    Crossref
30. Rebecca-Eli M. Long *Autistic author. Learn more… (2025). Access Points: Understanding Special Interests Through Autistic Narratives . Autism in Adulthood, 7(1), 100-111. SAGE Publications.

    Type: Article DOI: 10.1089/aut.2023.0157 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4392155402

    AutiHub · Autistic Scholars Crossref OpenAlex
31. (2016). War on Autism: On the Cultural Logic of Normative Violence . War on Autism: On the Cultural Logic of Normative Violence.

    Type: Other

    Crossref
32. D Fountain (21937520) (2021). Survival of the Knittest: Craft and Queer-Feminist Worldmaking . Figshare.

    Type: Article OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W7071912411

    OpenAlex
33. (2006). Crip Theory: Cultural Signs of Queerness and Disability . Crip Theory: Cultural Signs of Queerness and Disability.

    Type: Other

    Crossref
34. (2010). The future (and the past) of autism advocacy . Disability Studies Quarterly, 30(1).

    Type: Other

    Crossref
35. (1989). The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine . The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine.

    Type: Other

    Crossref
36. (2007). A Theory of Craft: Function and Aesthetic Expression . A Theory of Craft: Function and Aesthetic Expression.

    Type: Other

    Crossref
37. (2011). Rebellious doilies and subversive stitches . Extra/Ordinary: Craft and Contemporary Art, 184.

    Type: Other

    Crossref
38. (2012). Loud hands: I speak up with my fingers . Loud Hands: Autistic People, Speaking, 346.

    Type: Other

    Crossref
39. (2010). Disability Aesthetics . Disability Aesthetics.

    Type: Other

    Crossref
40. (2015). Feelings and fractals: Woolly ecologies of transgender matter . GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 21(2–3), 273.

    Type: Other

    Crossref
41. (2021). Neuroqueer heresies: Notes on the neurodiversity paradigm, autistic empowerment, and postnormal possibilities . Neuroqueer heresies: Notes on the neurodiversity paradigm, autistic empowerment, and postnormal possibilities.

    Type: Other

    Crossref
42. (2021). Six ways of looking at fractal mechanics . Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience, 7(2).

    Type: Other

    Crossref
43. (2018). Authoring Autism: On Rhetoric and Neurological Queerness . Authoring Autism: On Rhetoric and Neurological Queerness.

    Type: Other

    Crossref