Category Archives: doing

Taking imagination seriously

KNS London-250

Knitting and Stitching Show, London 2012

There’s something marvellous about those events where you can meet up with other like-minded folk. Crafters often work in isolation, so like moles coming out into the daylight, we all bump into each other and get over-stimulated. Oft maligned as the haunt of ‘women of a certain age’ and dismissed as full of hobbyists by ‘serious crafters’, these shows are in fact democratic, slightly chaotic and full of the germs of imagination that are being nutured. The Knitting and Stitching Shows have always been a good version of their type, and encourage creative as well as commercial ventures to thrive.
This is a review of last year’s K&S show at Alexandra Palace for the Surface Design Journal.In Review Knitting Stitching

Also in the Surface Design Journal is an article about Janet Ehelman’s knotted structures. She is inspired by the craft of knotting fishing nets and Lithuanian lace knitting and has evolved these into giant installations requiring high-tech materials and engineering. Shown above is the installation for the Amsterdam Light Festival, 2012-13. She has just been commissioned to make a new structure for the TED conference 2014. Her Ted talk from 2011 is worth a listen and she is now being taken seriously.

 

The Wool House

pink sheepIt was always going to be a challenge to fill the whole of the West Wing (of Somerset House that is, not the White House). The space has been beautifully designed by the the Campaign for Wool and highlights the many commercial applications for wool. It’s said that farmers find it more expensive to have their sheep shorn (is that a verb?) than the price they can get for the fleece, so anything that can be done to encourage use of this queen of yarns has to be a good thing.
Wool is shown here being used for some technologically advanced reflective cloth from Dashing Tweeds , with a matching pair of Converse trainers, for cycling.Glow in the dark tweeds

 

Apart from a little tailoring most of the rooms were given over to high-end interior design. The elegantly proportioned rooms of Somerset House being dressed by big names like Ashley Hicks and Fox Linton Associates. The room by Kit Kemp featured an upholstered sofa with delightful blanket stitch details and Donna Wilson produced an effortlessly whimsical nursery.Kit Kemp

Josephine RyanA highlight is the more contemporary room by Josephine Ryan. This room includes a montage of sheep paintings by artists in residence at the Irish Cill Rialaig Project as well as some rare antiques and a settle fit to settle down on.
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SpinnersThe Campaign for Wool has excelled itself in keeping the artisan side of the project lively. The day I visited there were two spinners demonstrating from the Lewes branch of the Guild of Weavers, Spinners and dyers. Plenty of lovely yarns

were on display, though it wasn’t clear if these were just for show, or if punters were allowed to have a go. Similarly the weaver Jason Collingwood was practicing his craft next door. Demonstrations are great, though many of us have seen other people doing these things before. The real thing is to get people to have a go themselves and get their hands on the material itself. There is full list of events for the short time that the show is up, so hopefully plenty of scope for a little hands-on experience. It’s through getting stuck-in that people will begin to appreciate the nature of wool and what it can do, turning them into better informed customers for the industry.  For more info visit www.campaignforwool.org/wool-house

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Tapestry humming birds designed by Alexander McQueen for The Rug Company

A life in Colour

Blue Pots Fire Screen NPKaffe Fassett has an exhibition coming up at the Fashion and Textiles MuseumStripy-Sue this March. It’s curated by Sue Timney, she of the black and white textile designs. Should be an interesting mix. You can read my piece in Crafts Magazine.

Kaffe Fassett – A Life in Colour is at the Fashion and Textile Museum, Bermondsey SE1 3XF (020) 7407 8664, from 22 March – 29 June 2013

Powerful Women

So it’s official, the most powerful woman in the UK is the Queen: well according to the Women’s Hour panel anyway. In fact 3 out of the top 5 women had inherited their position rather than working their way up the ladder. Chaired by Eve Pollard, the panel had the tricky task of deciding what constitutes ‘power’: money, control or influence. Oona King pointed out that Britain may talk a lot about multiculturalism but is still a monoculture at heart. Heather Rabbatts said that rather than quotas, what we need is to support people by putting in ‘floors not ceilings’. Her mum was her best champion telling her that she would ‘always need her own knicker money’.IMG_0842 Good advice.

There were no knitters on the list. I was saddened and surprised to have my knitting confiscated and sealed in a plastic bag. For the 2 hours that we were sat in the audience I could have done a lot of rows. Perhaps they think knitting is powerful after all?