Knitting – For Women Only?

By: Jana Walliser

At first glance, knitting appears to be something only women do. When you think about knitting, you might have that picture of an elderly woman in her rocking chair in your mind, surrounded by her grandchildren wearing nothing but knitted clothes from head to toe.

Today, many young people do not know how to knit. Their hands are used to operating a computer mouse, to typing on a keyboard or to pressing keys. Holding two knitting needles as well as the wool in your hands feels like visiting an Asian restaurant for the first time. Starving and looking at a plate full of rice, you'll have to try and eat your food just using those two chopsticks. Too bad if you are really hungry! There are many people who do not know how to knit. Beginners, in particular, need a lot of time to create their first masterpiece. Stitch by stitch, row by row. You have got to have the right feeling, patience and concentration for this.

But where does all that knitwear which you cannot even tell it was knitted come from? A closer look reveals that there must by high-tech knitting machines capable of knitting even the most complicated patterns in no time. And that's where you find the men! They operate these giant knitters and they see to it that thousands of jumpers and gloves leave their machines ready to be sold. You see, knitting is not for women only and it is not necessarily about handcraft, either, though you might not have guessed that at first.

Kala, the cable lamp which is displayed at the exhibition KNITTED WORLDS, is surrounded by a 5 meter long, knitted tube composed of thousands of meshes. Impossible to knit all of these knitted tubes manually. It is hard to believe in what way those knitting machines are capable of knitting even the smallest meshes – that is simply fascinating!
Kala is available now in the TextielShop of the Textielmuseum.

The Art of Knitting : inspirational stitches, textures and surfaces

By: Jantiene van Elk

Francoise Tellier Loumagne has taught textile and knit design for more than thirty years. With this experience, she made a series of beautiful The Art of textile books. The books are an inspiration to professional textile designers and students and to anyone working with or with an interest in textiles.

About the The Art of Knitting :

"(...) I decided to create a book that will try to change the way in which knitted textiles are perceived, and so encourage readers to personally express themselves. I hope it will be a work that builds a bridge between technicians and vice versa, and that makes communication more 'objective' and more creative; a clear source of information that allows new pathways of innovation to be discovered." (from the Introduction by Francoise Tellier-Loumagne)

In the book you can find patterns for industrial and domestic knitting machines, and for hand knitting. The techniques for each are explained. Simple knits, jacquards, fine jersey knits, interlock, open work and many other fabric types are explained. Inspiration for the author is the natural world and one´s personal surroundings. The sources of inspiration and the fabrics are presented next to each other.

The Art of Knitting : inspirational stitches, textures and surfaces / Francoise Tellier-Loumagne. - London : Thames & Hudson, 2005.

Francoise Tellier-Loumagne´s other books (The Art of Embroidery and The Art of Felt) are also available in the Textile Museum´s library.

Knitted Worlds in the TextileShop

By: Suzan Russeler

Christien Meindertsma is one of the designers whose knitted products are sold in the TextileShop of our museum. Her well-known stool, called Urchin Pouf, is knitted from thick felted woolen yarn. This oversized, stuffed stool can be used as soft seating or object to play with. Meindertsma also developed a special do-it-yourself-knitting-set with naturally dyed yarns.

Another interior product is the KaLaKabellampe by young German designer Jana Walliser. Walliser combines craftsmanship and industrial production ´hiding´ the power cord in a plastic tube of jointed elements and a knitted cover. The flexible tube plays the main part in the design. You can bend it in every shape you want. A knitted tube Walliser also used for a set of necklaces, available in different measurements and colours.

From knitting designer Petra Vonk beautiful, light scarfs from cotton or mohair combined with lace are available.

Do you feel inspired to knit yourself? In the shop you´ll find selected yarns like bamboo yarn, glow-in-the-dark-yarn or knitted linen ribbon.

Photo: Urchin Pouf and craft product by Christien Meindertsma, KaLaKabelLampe by Jana Walliser

Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting

By: Jantiene van Elk

In 2007 the exhibition Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting was held in the Museum of arts & Design in New York. It was curated by David Revere McFadden. Now, it´s a travelling exhibition (currently not on show). On the website of the exhibition you can find more information.

The exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue, which you can find in the textile museum´s library.

Photo: www.amazon.com

Stitch versus Pixel - Digital knitting projects

By Lise Lefebvre, product developper TextielLab

When using digital knitting machines, each knitted stitch takes the same shape as pixel to create the pattern or motif. A lot of designers have been working with this parallel in their textile work, with examples ranging from Lendorff-Kaywa’s scarves with a scannable QR code embeded in them to entire music videos made frame by frame with hundreds of jacquard knitting, from the aptly named band Tricot Machine ( Machine knitting in French), which you can watch here:






Ebru Kurbak and Mahir Yavuz’project Newsknitter goes a step further, using not only pixel, but the constant flow of incoming digital headlines from around the world, to create “snapshot sweaters” of a particular day or portion of the day.




And finally a project I really like that combines knitting and blogging: Threadbared.com is a great and hilarious collection of vintage knitting patterns and garments from various knitting magazines, with witty comments to describe them. From the bizarre to the scary, with a lot of strange or unfortunate layouts, who knew the knitting world was so entertaining?

Images: from websites designers