Posts tagged knitting
Exhibition: The Homemade Revolution
All the links in this post are to German language homepages, sorry! But I’m sure that google translate does a good enough job for you to get the gist of a page.
The Frankfurt Museum of Communication in Germany will be opening a special exhibition on the 25th August about the DIY revolution. The exhibition will look at the rise and relevance of the amateur crafters and why and to what end people have become involved. The exhibition producers also also have a blog which links to lots website, both in German and English.
The exhibition includes examples from KnitHerStory, a yarnbombing project I was involved in for International Women’s Day in March this year in Vienna. 100 women knitted or crocheted objects that would decorate the route of the march (photos here). Unlike other yarnbombing projects undertaken by the same group, this time a license was sought and granted from the Vienna City Council, to ensure that the works wouldn’t be removed before the march took place. We received approval to decorate trees, street lamps etc to line the “Ring”, a road which circles Vienna’s First District and is often the site of organised protests, as many of the most important municipal buildings line it (Parliament, City Hall, University of Vienna’s main building, several major museums, theaters and the former Imperial Palace). The approval ran from the Saturday morning of the march until the following Saturday. We were warned after the approval ran out, if the works were still there they would be removed.
However, during the night following the day of the march the MA48 (responsible for street-cleaning and rubbish disposal) were seen cutting down the wool with gardening shears. One of the women who had been involved in the project saw what was happening and protested to the men that they were allowed to hang there for another week. She was able to salvage some of the pieces, but that didn’t stop the MA48 from removing most of the items.
Following the controversy that followed and the debate about attitudes towards craft and women’s art work , the Frankfurt Museum of Communication contacted KnitHerStory and asked whether they could borrow some items for the exhibition. Mine - the patchwork-style rainbow flag - wasn’t saved, so I can’t pretend to be an internationally exhibited knitting artist, but it did hang veeeery close the the Vienna art history museum for almost 24 hours. Does that count?
The Knitted Mile, by Robyn Love (2008):
Ninety knitters from around North America contributed pieces of TKM. Photographs of each knitter working on their section were included as part of the piece when it was removed from the road and installed in the gallery, Grey Matter.
TKM also was exhibited at PS.122 as part of the exhibition Yarn Theory, curated by Martha Lewis.
Yarn for TKM was generously donated by Lion Brand Yarn.
Museums Now blogs about her museum collaboration experience, from the public side rather than her usual professional side.
Quick question… has anyone else noticed this museum people/knitting correlation? Why do so many museos handcraft and knit?
Revamped “Who Am I?” exhibition at the Science Museum. The website has some nice audio descriptions of items, ranging from a set used by Eugenicists to determine whether people were considered intelligent enough to be allowed to reproduce, to the simply (and effectively) labeled “Obese Mouse”.
Conference on knitting to be held at museum
Shetland Museum is to host an international conference on knitting in collaboration with the University of Southampton.
In the loop 2 will give a focus for the many facets of knitting, ranging from academic research to contemporary art practice. Another hope is that it will foster study and promote the revival of the craft.
Conference details available at the University of Southampton’s website
clegg, finger knit style. tee hee via
Pardon me (I didn’t knit that for you)
From the Huffington Post via CRAFT:
A round up of some mad cross stitch - Chuck Norris? Check. Expletives? Check. Cats at keyboards? Check.
It's knitting, but not as we know it...
Guardian link:
The best photographs from a new book charting the work of some brilliant contemporary textile designers
Setting yourself up as a knitter… on the cheap
The thing is, starting up in any craft is expensive. Even knitting - there’s the needles, the wool, the patterns, the time learning it, various ‘notions’ etc, etc. But when you start on the path towards jewelery making, t-shirt screening, sewing with a machine and even cookery the starting up costs seem to pile up quickly enough.
I appreciate that most people have a set budget for hobbies. This is sadly not the case for me. I am a poor, starving student who pays the bills doing guided tours around an art museum and babysitting, with the occasional (and much more lucrative) translation work as and when it’s available. It feels often that I spend that much time going from job to job that I don’t have enough time left over to actually study!
So, here are some tips for setting yourself up as a knitter cheaply.
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Ask around and make it know that you are a knitter. As soon as I ‘came out’ as a knitter people were falling over themselves to give me wool and accessories! My grandma taught me to knit and purl in about a hour and was so enthused that someone took an interest she threw in the needles and some wool to get me started. A couple of other people had needles, or wool at home that they had intended to knit up into something lovely but never quite found the time, or decided knitting wasn’t for them, etc etc. I got the wool for the quick knit slippers that way and knitted them up and gave them as a present to the donator. She got a lovely pair of handmade slippers and I got some practice, the leftover wool and a warm fuzzy feeling of giving a handmade gift. I also ‘inherited’ a whole load of wool, needles and patterns from my boyfriend’s grandma because no one else was interested (see picture of fabulous knitting and crochet magazines from 50s and 70s Austria.)
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Cheap everything emporiums - you know those shops that sell everything from tupperware to toasters and mops to scented candles. Well, the almost always have haberdashery section - a fab place to pick up needles and crochet hooks. Ok, they aren’t the best ever quality, the wool doesn’t glide from them like a pair of worn in bamboos, but I get new needles for about 2 euros, meaning I can experiment with different wool on different needles. Often too they will sell super cheap ‘wool’, acrylic yarns that comes in at about 1 euro for 50g. Not nice to wear, but great for starting out and doing little projects like mobile phone socks and trying out new stuff.
Join Ravelry.com - It’s like the facebook of knitters and crocheters. The possibilities are endless. Patterns are available for free and to buy, searchable according to type, difficulty level and the wool you have. You can also see how many people have knitted that item, look at their end products too and see how they customised the pattern or suggestions for making things easier. On top of that is the fab notebook feature where you can store all the wonderful pattern ideas you find (both from ravelry and the wider web) and queue them up for when you have time/money/inclination, make a note of what wool and needles you have and proudly display your finished products for all to see. On top of that little lot, join groups according to where you live, what you like to knit, designers you like and sundry things totally unrelated to knitting (football teams, crushes, Dr Who, it’s all there!).
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Read blogs - this is a great way to pick up inspiration and find crazy little projects you wouldn’t think to search for. The enthusiasm of some knitting blogs is contagious and it is so easy to skip from blog to blog as bloggers recommend their favourite people, or link through to interesting projects. Sign up free for Google reader and you can add ‘stars’ so you don’t lose your favourite posts and tags so you can search through them quick as you like.
- Not everyone has the internet and no one has access at all times. Invest in a good beginner’s book, or ask for one for Christmas or birthdays. So when travelling be it abroad or on a train home you can double check how to decrease to the left, or refresh your memory with what to do whenyou drop a stitch. Couple of books that come highly recommended include: Knit Aid (handbag sized book), Stitch ‘n’ Bitch (inclusive of patterns and history of knitting). If you have an iPod or some such fancypants phone or video device then download some tutorial videos from iTunes or online, take it with you that way.
Truckers taking up quilting and knitting in America
Who said crafts were for Grannies? Let them say it to their faces!
I love this kind of clever graffiti where the original thing isn’t harmed in any way. I remember once seeing that some May Day protesters in London had put a slice of turf on the statue of Winston Churchill to give him a green mohican. I shows a degree of respect for the original and modification that makes a point or raises a smile without ruining anything.
Mama said knock you out! via maskerade
