AustLit

'The Woman Who Knitted Herself a Child' follows a woman scientist as she does an extraordinary thing: she is knitting herself a child. The piece explores the reveries of a woman as she tries to make sense of a changing and highly technological world of new genetic futures.

Working at the 'coalface' of genetic research, cloning transgenic organisms, she explores the possibilities she is creating through her work and the miraculous futures promised by cloning, IVF, stem cell technology and dolly the sheep. In her inner world, the mitochondrial/ subconscious space, she knits together the ancient knit and purl stitches, and the constantly evolving strands of DNA double helix. Throughout the play, memories of her past emerge, as a child and as a pregnant teenager making a decision on her reproductive future, and finally the growing wish for her own child.

(Source: ABC Radio website, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/airplay/s1241396.htm)