I’m excited to see my first column published in Knitting Magazine. What a classy magazine it is too (but then I would say that wouldn’t I).
But it’s not all about me, really… There’s a piece by Diana Woolf about the lovely Julie Arkel and a an interetsting pattern that I have my eye on, Angela by Vibe Ulrik Sondergaard.
Ever since I started looking at Irish Crochet it has all been a bit academic, so time to have a go at doing it. I started off with some Linen from Nepal that I bought at Womad (in the Cotswolds, not in Nepal) and a motif pattern from The Harmony Guides (volume 7). It took a while to work out that the instructions were the US version, but got the hang of it.
Next to attempt a bauble as in the lovely Lizard Jacket from the knitting and crochet Guild’s collection. I tried these in Anchor linen threads, 10 and 20 with 1.5mm or 1mm hook, stuffing the balls with sheep’s wool harvested from a local fence (and then washed). I’ve even got best of the tricky Clones Knot (above) that is used in Irish Crochet as a filling stitch. 
To learn the Clones Knot I looked at Máire Treanor’s video here: http://youtu.be/PVGUMBZKR28 She is so softly spoken it’s a joy.
The rings in white are made by wrapping the thread around your finger 5 or 6 times, then stitching doubles around this. If you start and the top and 
work down one side, you naturally end up at the top again ready to make a small chain before starting the next one. (note to self: Don’t try this while blackberrying next time). This chain of loops is in Anchor thread 20.
The next experiment is made from nettle fibre, and counts as ‘nettle lace’. If that isn’t a thing, it is now.
In the latest issue of Selvedge Magazine is my article about Senegalese textiles. The focus of the piece is the Mandjak style of weaving that is done in Dakar particularly, though it is influenced by Portuguese colonialism.
Mandjak weaving on the street in Dakar
On the other side of town the boys on the street were no more than teenagers, and some of the younger ones working the complicated heddle sequences much younger than that. Known as Tissurands in Senegal, these boys were working on the pavement next to a busy road in Dakar with no basic comforts. Artisans working in the organised workshops were older and worked under an awning keeping off the worst of the sun. It takes two weavers per loom, one to throw the shuttles and one to lift the heddles, often an apprentice is performing this key part of the operation.
The looms are basic and are able to be dismantled so they can be left on the street, removing the key moving parts for safekeeping. A wooden heddle pulley is the main moving part while the warp is tied to a stone drag-weight on a wooden sledge that gradually slides towards the loom as the weaver works. Tradition has it that the loom is gateway between the spirits and this world with the secrets of weaving coming from a jinn spirit as detailed in the Juntel Jabali myth. It is said this is why the weavers use only bare feet on the loom, so as not to break the connection, while the cloth is supposed to protect the wearer from danger.
Symbolic of power and wealth, textiles carry symbolic messages and play an important role in daily life and ritual. Those used in ‘change of life’ ceremonies – weddings, births and funerals – become heirlooms holding great value. In West Africa these important fabrics are known as loincloths, wrappers, Seru njaago or rabal. They are considered to hold ‘the breath of life’: used to wrap new-borns along with the breath of the imam who names the child and also used as a burial shroud in death. Although Mandjak fabrics are considered part of the national heritage of Senegal, they may have more in common with neighbouring countries.
Find out more about Mandjak weaving in Senegal
Mai Diop, textile designer and collector from St Louis in northern Senegal, www.tesss.net
Ai?ssa Dione Tissus, www.aissadione.com
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.
It 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.
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.
A 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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The 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
Tapestry humming birds designed by Alexander McQueen for The Rug Company