Knitting Icon Barbara G. Walker Dead at 95

I got the news over the weekend that Barbara G. Walker, an icon of knitting and feminism, died on December 21, 2025, at the age of 95. She had abdominal cancer and had been in hospice. 

Every knitter has been influenced by Walker’s work even if they don’t know her name. She invented the slip, slip knit decrease. Before that innovation knitters used slip 1, knit 1, pass the slipped stitch over as a mirror to the knit 2 together, but it doesn’t look as good as the ssk. 

In addition she popularized top down circular knitting of garments when most people were knitting in pieces and/or from the bottom up. Her knitting stitch dictionaries spread to four volumes, chronicling knitting stitches well known and obscure. One of the books featured charted knitting patterns that led to the development and popularization of mosaic knitting, which eventually had its own book. 

Walker was known for her inquisitive mind and sense of humor. She was a staunch atheist and, in addition to her knitting books, wrote many books debunking religion and uncovering women’s spirituality, myths and goddess energy. She wrote about tarot and I-ching and produced card decks of both. And all of that still feels like just scratching the surface of this remarkable woman. 

When I started writing about knitting professionally, the first book I read was Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitting without Tears, which says of the ssk:

Barbara Walker has, in masterly fashion, transmuted sl 1, K1, psso into SSK (slip, slip, knit), which presents an infinitely neater appearance, as well as being easier to execute, once you get the hang of it. It is also quicker to work and easier on the tongue and teeth; try it. 

From that introduction I quickly bought most of Walker’s knitting books and still use the knitting pattern books as a reference regularly. The top down raglan I knit from her instructions in Knitting from the Top remains one of my favorites. 

Walker’s legacy will live on in the countless knitters she’s taught, inspired and shared her gifts with, as well as her son, who has shared a diary of her last days on his website. You can learn more about her works on her website, which offers this in way of obituary:

Barbara passed in December of 2025, of metastatic abdominal cancer.  She was 95.  Her son was with her in Florida all the way to the end, and had kept a running “diary” of sorts through the entire experience, from learning of the illness onward.  Barbara will be remembered for many talents and knowledge via her authorship, artistry and academia across many fields — knitting and graphic / fashion design, paintings and detailed guides for two card decks, feminism and womens’ studies, debunking organized religion, mineralogy, her autobiographical notes, and more.  Not to mention the task of motherhood along with most of it!  She kept painstakingly precise notes and records of all her projects, which led to her books being so well-organized.  The majority of her prolific writing was done on a manual typewriter or the IBM Selectric she had later; only very recent material was done on a computer — quite a bit after everyone else was already using word processors.

[Photo: Walker modeling one of her mosaic knit jackets, from her website]