The Knit Democracy Together project grows out of my background as a lawyer. I served as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Vermont from 1990-2018 where I specialized in election law litigation. I represented the State at trial and appellate levels in Randall v. Sorrell, an important campaign finance law case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2006. (It will be familiar to the election law nerds reading this.)

While I had been making art for many years in my spare time, I decided to focus on artmaking and leave the formal practice of law in 2018. That’s when I began to telling stories about democracy through my artwork. It was a short jump to using art to engage the public in learning about democracy.

“Why knitting?” you might ask. Because yarn is an unassuming and approachable medium. The comforting associations of knitting draw the viewer in to look at serious issues more closely.

 I have written a chapter about the Knit Democracy Together project for the forthcoming book Global Craftivism: Handcraft Responses to Violence, War, Illness and Isolation (Rowman & Littlefield, forthcoming 2025), edited by Hinda Mandell. In 2021, I was named a Creative Community Fellow: New England by National Arts Strategies and the Barr Foundation.

I hold a B.A. with honors in History from Swarthmore College and a J.D. from the University of Chicago. I live in Montpelier, the capital of Vermont.

You can see more of my knitted sculptures at evejacobs-carnahan.com.