Knitting!

On our last night of our class, looked back at the semester and reviewed briefly the various techniques (and thus underlying concepts) we have learned about in Introduction to Fiber.  We started the semester learning to create 'a line' or single filament by spinning. We learned about creating cloth by matting or enmeshing fibers together in felting.  We learned about building cloth using an interlocking of two sets of yarns or threads in weaving - 'filling' the warp with weft yarns in tapestry. Tonight, we looked at yet another way of building cloth by looping - in this case knitting (though crochet and lace would be included.) We built cloth using two pairs of needles and a single line. Following are a few images that relate to the history of knitting, as well as contemporary artists utilizing this technique:

Freddie Robinson Hand of God

Knit Knit Home Page

Ann Wilson's Topographies

Dave Cole's Knitting With Loaded Shotgun (Safeties Off) 2008

Freddie Robinson's I'm So Angry banner

Annet Messager, Boarders

Egyptian Socks, circa 300-500 AD

Danish artist Marianne Jørgensen created this pink tank cozy after she requested that knitters from all over the world send her knitted pink squares. She then filmed the process of stitching these squares together over the top of a WW1 tank as an artistic criticism of the Danes involvement in Iraq.

Body Count Mittens. For more info, and a pattern, visit: http://craftsanity.com/pdf/mittenpattern.pdf

A result of Cat Mazza's project MicroRevolt. Artist and activist Cat Mazza is the founder of microRevolt. This collective of "craftivists" develops projects which combine knitting with machines, and digital social networks to investigate and initiate discussion about sweatshop labour.