Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
Published by MQ Publications
Reviewed by: Lisa Wigham
Having ventured no further than the creation of a pair of leg warmers for My Little Pony (a few decades back), I encountered this book with the hope it could persuade me to get knitting and guide me towards turning out some beautiful unique garments for my wardrobe.
The book has a revivalist and adventurous view towards crafting “fabulous non-essentials³ knitted decorations” and “glamorous things to wear”. As I delved into the informative and instructional sections on making, maintaining and understanding processes, I became intrigued by the possibilities that, due to the clear instructions, seemed within reach. Designs are promoted by an eye-catching 1950s graphic and advertising style, and real-life knitters gesture to demonstrating the products themselves. The book seems to successfully combine the playful and practical.
On reading the book, I recalled my amusement at a group of young public knitters in a shop window in Toronto, a few Halloween nights ago. The city was teeming with revellers, floating around in costume, fervently off to find drunken fun. In this public context I wondered if the knitting was a guerrilla activity, or just another party embracing something odd-ball. I found the knitters quietly subversive in their adopting of a skill expected of an older generation and, as with the choice of soft sculptural objects in ‘Knitorama’, there is a rebellious streak – especially in the woollen handgrenade for throwing at bad TV programmes. This promotes great escapism.
The book encourages the reader to form a bond with their ‘project’. On choosing a yarn, we are invited to feel for texture, colour, something that feels good, and suits our mood, or “someone you have on your mind”. It’s a reminder that this activity is a tactile experience; it can be stimulating and therapeutic.
Recently, knitting has become a high-profile hobby, and this has reflected on niche markets. Unique or handmade items have been incorporated into vintage clothing racks, becoming precious on thrift store hunting grounds. If moths haven’t got there first, professional scouts have marked up good quality vintage woollens and shifted them to trendsetters willing to pay high prices.
There’s an allegory to garments: they are made more understandable and meaningful by stories shared about dropped stitches and the chain of events that made them so. ‘Knitorama’ encourages pride in work and good finishing, although it supports creative use of mistakes or deviation from a pattern. This makes it a clever book, but also very inviting. It is also a reminder of the craft’s heritage and its development, with an enlivening sense of humour.
Writer detail:
Lisa Wigham is an artist.
Venue detail:
MQ Publications Ltd (Publishers)
Unit 12, The Ivories, 6-8 Northampton Street, LONDON N1 2HY
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