Library treasure I

By: Jantiene van Elk

In the library of the Textile museum lots of beautiful old pattern book are kept. Actually, craft isn´t in our collection profile, but many people donate these beautiful books to us and luckily some were accepted in the past. I love to see what intricate designs women could make, what styles were in fashion and how the patterns are presented.

These pictures are from Beyers Handwerkboeken / serie H No. 62 : Kunstbreiwerk. Kunstbreiwerk translates as Art knitwork. Art knitwork could be used as rims and borders on lingerie, as you see on the picture. The book is undated. The patterns are on a seperate sheet.


The book is available in the library (only on show, not for lending). Library openings hours: tuesday till friday, 10:00 till 13:00.

Kunstbreiwerk / Otto Beyer. -Zeist : Van Wees & Weiss, [s.a.]. (Beyers Handwerkboeken / serie H No. 62)

Human identity, or how we see ourselves, forms a central theme in Chrystl Rijkeboer’s work.

By: Chrystl Rijkeboer

I am trained as an autonomous visual artist. Techniques are subordinate to the work. I try to learn skills, which I need to give my work the expressiveness it needs.
Ive been working with the material 'human hair' for many years. With this material I learned crafts like: felting, spinning, crocheting and knitting. Each time I try to find the limits in possibilities between the material and my ‘story’.

Striking is after years of incomprehension about my way of work, nowadays my work and craft-work in generally is very contemporary. I do believe that by our Western consumer society, products which are made with love, attention and craft skills, are highly appreciated.

The 3 dimensional works, which I spin, knit or crochet, are also processed into photographic- or video works and performances. I feel that works are "finished" after they are linked to the human again. For me it is of great importance to reunite the work on the human level again.

Foto’s: ‘She only wanted a boy’ & Twins_brown’

KNIT KNIT : profiles + projects from knitting´s new wave

By: Jantiene van Elk

All over North America and Europe, a brand-new generation has taken up knitting - and is transforming the venerable needlecraft by blurring the boundary between craft and art. (...)

Five years ago, Sabina Gschwandter founded a zine to tackle the blurry edge between craft and fine art to chroncile the trend. Now, her book KnitKnit brings together profiles of 27 of the most talented artist-crafters knitting today. But KnitKnit does more than just document their ingenious creations. Each of the profiled knitters has contributed a project - a kimono-style sweater, a pair of high-heeled boots, a hobo-style shoulder bag, geodesic-patterned cap, even a teddy bear knit from fiberglass insulation - meant to inspire you and follow your creative path (text from book jacket)

The weblog we-make-money-not-art wrote a review.

Knit knit : profiles + projects from knitting´s new wave / Sabina Gschwandtner. - New York : Craft / a Melanie Falick Book, 2007. 173 p. : ill.
ISBN: 978-1-58479-631-2

Opening KNITTED WORLDS

By Suzan Rüsseler, curator KNITTED WORLDS

Friday, 13th of March to me was a very lucky day. More than a year of work with several colleagues culminated in the opening of the exhibition KNITTED WORLDS. The first two weeks of March we set up the exhibition with our technical staff, the graphic designers Annemarie van den Berg en Cecilia Hendrikx and some artists who came to install their work. One of them was Désirée de Baar who built a construction for her Fragment of a building # 1 (see her post in this blog) which she covered with knitted pieces, connecting them stitch by stitch. A work of passion and patience. The same is true for two knitted pieces by Norwegian artist Heidi Kennedy Skjerve. Her husband Stein Rønning and their daughter Magnhild installed Kennedy Skjerve´s two monochrome knittings of several square meters directly on the wall with amazing concentration and precision. - Subtle works with a very strong physical presence.

Friday, 13th. Approximately 200 visitors were present at the opening. Unfortunately it was so crowded we couldn´t offer a seat to everybody. For those who couldn´t attend the opening I review what happened. After words of welcome by our director Ton Wagemakers, I gave a short introduction to the themes of the exhibition, followed by a splendid and humorous speech by British artist Kelly Jenkins (soon to be read on this blog), who came over from London. Kelly is one of the participants of the exhibition and also took the chance to work in the Textile Lab.

Part of the opening was the start-up of a participation project by Anne Reijse, titled Game On. Visitors of the exhibition are invited to knit several objects inspired by computer games. Of course during the opening much attention has been drawn to the exhibited works but I´m sure Game On will grow very soon.

People I spoke during the opening were very positive about the exhibition but of course I´m the curator, so critical comments maybe not reach me so easily. However I love criticism, so feel free to react in this blog.

Photos: Joep Vogels

“GAME ON”

By Anne Reijse, artist



The knitting project “GAME ON” started!

Visitors are knitting the elements of a set, that finally will end up in a knitted computergame.

Do you remember the computer heroes from a while ago…..Pacman, Donkey Kong, Space invader an Mario? These heroes have to be knit before you can play the game.

There is a lot of work to be done…. Everyone is welcome to knit the game. The more is knitted the sooner you can play the GAME. We need all hands, even when you have never knitted in your live before…this project gives you an opportunity to be a great knitter!! If you are already a knitter, you are also very welcome to enjoy this knitting project! When all the pieces of the project are knitted you can start playing the GAME.

The hole set up of this project consists of four different games children (or adults) can play. Imagine playing with a knitted Maria hero in a computergame!!

Let the GAME start to grow!!

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

Desiree de Baar - Fragment of a building #1

By Desiree de Baar, participant KNITTED WORLDS exhibition, written the week before the opening

The work is nearly finished, I just have to sew the hinges on. I’m quite thrilled. The size and monumental character of the work is a new step in my work. It was hard work.

This new work is a mockup of the building where I have my studio. It is in an old school from the beginning of the last century in Rotterdam. According to Wikipedia a mockup is a “full-size non-functional model of a structure or device, used for teaching, demonstration, testing a design and promotion”. I did it the other way around. I made it as a reconstruction of an everyday-life site. These three doors used to enclose toilets. Now two of them serve as closets. I love the repetition of the form by the three doors. By isolating them into one image, I put the emphasis on the sculptural qualities of my daily environment. The monochrome colour and material amplify this.

A fragment of a hallway, that I have passed through so many times. Often without paying thís much attention. Instead of using a method like casting, I reconstructed it by knitting. It is a slow and intense technique. This technique, with its repetitive movements, fits the way I want to pay attention to ordinary things. To make a pattern for the knitting I have to measure every detail and listel and calculate the stitches. I like this mathematical aspect of the knitting. Through the knitting and the process involved I put the focus on the details, showing a poetic site of ordinary things.

You are most welcome to visit me on my website to see more of my work and earlier installations involving knitting-work.