Weaving in the Ends: Analyzing Fiber Art as a Subversive Symbol in Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse and The Years

Scholars have long overlooked the role of fiber arts in Virginia Woolf’s fiction, treating the artform as acts of ‘women’s work.’ In an attempt to fill this gap, I posit that fiber arts operate as subversion of the Victorian ‘Angel in the House’ trope within two of Woolf’s novels, To the Lighthouse and The Years. While scholarship on To the Lighthouse cites Mrs. Ramsay’s perpetual status within the home as proof of her role as an ‘Angel in the House,’ her preferred hobby of knitting actually sub