Adventures in Irish Crochet

flowermotif beads

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. Clonescloseup

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 nettle lacework 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.

Irish Lizards

IMG_1269I’ve been busy researching a new artcle about Irish crochet lace for Rowan and was excited to be invited along to the photo shoot. Having spent a month or so pouring over ancient library books it was astonishing to see the detail of work for real.IMG_1389 This is one of the books that I was permitted to look at in the V&A reading library. (The ‘snake’ at the base of the photo is the weight that holds the pages open without damaging the bindingIMG_1381.)
The pictures don’t prepare you for the sheer awesomeness of the real thing. Here is the model at the shoot wearing a wedding dress. She can’t sit down for fear of damaging the dress, so the make-up artist has to improvise! These precious garments are on loan from the Knitting & Crochet Guild’s archive collection at Lee Mills, near Holmfirth, Yorkshire.
This is Marie Wallin, Head Designer at Rowan, putting the finishing touches to this exquisite ‘Lizard’ Jacket. You can see why is it called the “Lizard” by the close-up. This is a pattern from Album de Guipure d’Irlande by Madame Hardouin (1905). Also on this jacket are delicate baubles stitched along the netting at the sleeves and on the bodice.IMG_1378

These crocheted baubles look so contemporary, but the thread that they have been worked in is as fine as sewing cotton. I’m not sure that I even have a hook that small…

Article on Senegal

74602_10151733493701670_2030376149_nIn 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

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

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.

 

Blaenavon

Half term break in South Wales, and we visited the Blaenavon Ironworks. Going around what is now a visitor ‘attraction’ was fascinating, depressing and inspiring all at once. Now part of the post-industrial landscape, the Ironworks are derelict and part of the new tourist industry. However, if Mary Portas did interpretation she would have a field day here (though to be fair, some of the spaces were closed for re-jigging.)
The cottages, that would have been home to some of the workers, were cramped. Nevertheless the colours were astonishing. This hazy purple, acid yellow and rust painted interior doesn’t translate too well here, but the combination was enough to get me excited. Sometimes inspiration is in the oddest of places.IMG_1121