Barbara G. Walker

Barbara Goodwin Walker (née Jones; July 2, 1930 – December 21, 2025) was an American author and feminist. She was a knitting expert and the author of over ten encyclopedic knitting references, despite "not taking to it at all" when she first learned in college. Other topics she wrote about included religion, New Age, the occult, spirituality, and mythology.

Knitting In the 1960s and 1970s, Walker authored several volumes of knitting references which have become landmarks for their comprehensiveness and clarity. Her Knitting Treasury series documents over a thousand different knitting stitches. Other books considered mosaic knitting, for producing multicolored designs while knitting only one color per row, and constructing knitted garments from the top down rather than the usual bottom-up method used in Western knitting tradition. Most of Walker's best-known knitting books have been reprinted, and starting in the mid-1990s, she published new knitting books.

Feminism and skepticism Walker wrote about the problems with mainstream religion and how these problems have contributed to patriarchal societies and sexism. She studied journalism at the University of Pennsylvania, then worked for the Washington Star in Washington, D.C. While serving on a local hotline helping abused women and pregnant teenage girls in the mid-1970s, she became interested in feminism. Walker continued a personal study of comparative religions and feminist issues after she graduated Walker described herself as an atheist.

Awards and recognition The American Humanist Association named her "Humanist Heroine" in 1993, and in 1995, she received the "Women Making Herstory" award from the New Jersey NOW. Restoring the Goddess: Equal Rites for Modern Women (2000) The Essential Handbook of Women's Spirituality and Ritual (2001) Man Made God: A Collection of Essays (2010) Belief and Unbelief (2014)

Novels and short stories Amazon: A Novel (1992) Feminist Fairy Tales (1996)

Other works Barbara Walker Tarot Deck (Misc. Supplies) (1986) I Ching of the Goddess: Divination Kit (Boxed Set with Cards) (2001) Women And Religion: Sexism In The Christian Tradition (1997) - Freethought Today, January/February 1998.