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Knitting is sometimes dismissed as a gentle domestic activity, but this ancient craft has always been entwined with activism.

Loretta Napoleoni is an Italo-American economist who usually writes about the financing of terrorism. She is also an avid knitter and in her latest book, The Power of Knitting, she looks at how it became a tool for women to fight discrimination and promote social change - from the spinning bees of the American Revolution to Phyllis Latour Doyle, the knitting spy of WWII.

More unexpected facts and stories about knitting on The Conversation's podcast: /programmes/w3cszj4b

Produced by Alice Gioia.

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Author Loretta Napoleoni with her knitting needles. Credit Roberto Vettorato.