April’s Close Knit will take place this Saturday, 27th April at the Gallery of Costume, Platt Hall at 2-4pm. Please come along!

Bathing Elegance 
Need a little pampering with a touch of luxury every now and again? If a spa retreat isn’t on the cards, treat yourself to a unique designer (that’s you!) 100% pure cotton flannel. Guaranteed to bring a little extra pleasure to every bath-time! Using simple knit and purl stitches to develop ‘gansey’ style patterns, Lucy Burscough will guide you through the process with tips and advice for absolute beginners and challenges for the experts.

We were honoured to be surrounded by such inspirational art but managed to make ourselves at home to such an extent that many visitors found our group almost as interesting an exhibit as the paintings and sculptures! Some examples of fine Victorian knitting were on display for us to marvel at such intricate work.

Bev made up some excellent information sheets with interesting articles about Victorian patterns and Christmas traditions, and festive patterns were provided by Rachel of Art Yarn. They can all be downloaded via the links below.

Links to download the info sheets:

Cose Knit dec handout

Victorian knitting patterns

Christmas Traditions

Many thanks to all those of you who, over the last year, have made Close Knit Manchester such a dynamic, friendly and educational group! We have all learnt a lot, polished up our skills and enjoyed each other’s company. Looking forward to seeing you at  Gallery of Costume, Platt Hall at 2-4pm on the last Saturday of the month in 2013. Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year one and all!

The theme of the session was designer knitwear  and Kate kicked off the session by introducing us to some of the knitted pieces from the collection which will be part of next year’s knitwear exhibition at the gallery. We went on to look at some inspirational designers and their knitwear pieces for the Autumn/Winter season 2012. I don’t know about you but I want to knit a jumper with a gap like the one we saw from Acne. Gorgeous!

Artist Sarah Marsh came along to say hello. She was keen to enlist some of our knitters to help with a knitted installation artwork for the gallery that she is working on with another group. If anyone would be interested in knitting some string or wire pieces for Sarah, they can be handed in for Kate Day, at Platt Hall reception or Manchester Art Gallery.

In the  practical knitting part of the session, we took our lead from the designers use of snoods and headbands this season, and tackled working in the round.

We tried lots of techniques, using double pointed and circular needles, with many of the group trying out the ‘magic loop’ method for the first time.  Even the tricky but interesting technique that allows one to knit a tube on a pair of standard needles was attempted. Our group is not afraid of a challenge!  There was something to stretch everyone’s skills from intrepid experts to absolute beginners, and cake too. Knitting aside, one thing is for sure, and we are all expert knatterers! Well done all!

Click to view slideshow.

December’s session is earlier in the month than usual. It is at Manchester Art Gallery on Saturday the 8th, same time 2-4pm. See you there!

Anna Bunney curator of public programmes started the session and welcomed everyone to the museum. She talked a little bit about the museum’s collection which were on display for the purpose of the workshop and about making yarn from natural materials such as nettles. The collection display included showed the 10 stages from raw wool to yarn, woven camel hair and natural fibres including hemp all used for making textiles.

The session began properly with Jude beckett talking to the group about the wonders of spinning. She explained the process from beginning to end advising on the best type of sheep wool to use, sourcing raw wool from farms or EBay and about washing the coat. Jude had brought with her a number of different examples of hand spun wool in a variety of colours and types as well as different things she had made.

The demonstration started with carding which aligns all the fibres in one direction and fluffs them to make drafting easier. Jude’s friend Belinda had a hand-cranker with which she transferred the raw wool into fibres which Jude could begin spinning with.

Using a lot of hand, eye and foot coordination Jude fed these fibres into the spinning wheel creating even, smooth yarn. She made it look very easy and everyone at the workshop was very envious.

After the demonstration Jude invited some people to try out her wheel while other sat down and got on with some knitting.

There was a wide mix of abilities at the session form expert knitters to beginners including a 6 year old boy who came with his Mum and managed to knit a whole line. There were a variety of patterns available, including slugs, acorns and leaves for Ordsall Hall and older sock patterns from the Gallery of Costume.

Everyone had a great time and Jude inspired a new group of spinners.

For more information about spinning take a look at this spinning magazine:

http://www.yarnmaker.co.uk/

Local groups include the Stockport Spinners who meet at The Plough in Heaton Moor on the first Tuesday night of each Month:

http://www.wonderofwoollies.co.uk/index.html

Can you feel a nip in the air? All you ‘foul-weather’ knitters, it’s time to come out of your summer hibernation and pick up your needles again! And don’t forget, this Saturday is October’s Close Knit at The Manchester Museum. See you there!

The knitting part of the session looked at the handy gadgets, or notions, that knitters love to have around to help us out, whether it be to help us remember where we’re up to, keep us from loosing or needles or stop the cat ending up in the middle of a ball of wool!  We looked at some beautiful pieces from the collection that we all coveted for our own knitting bags, and then had a go at making some rather daft ones of our own! I’ll let the pictures speak a thousand words….

Hope to see you next time!

Also, we’re excited to have two Indian artists joining us for the session. They are here for a residency project and their work will be displayed in the space where we hold the knitting workshop. Lokesh is more conceptual in his work and designs printed clothing, flags and other items. He’s been inspired by cotton related histories and collections in the NorthWest. The other artist, Shamji, is a weaver and again he works in cotton. Both artists are keen to meet local people to develop their practice and share their passion for craft. I’m sure it will be really interesting to meet them and see their work.

It was really enjoyable to knit with a new and unusual yarn and recycle some unplayable tapes-thanks Andrea! Now where did I put that Chorlton and the Wheelies video….?

One of Jane’s machine-knitted dresses is in our collection and we’re thinking of putting it on display at Gallery of Costume early next year.

Jane showed us a ‘non-woven’ fabric and talked about it’s environmental benefits as a product that can be washed and dried quickly and cheaply.  With these qualities in mind, Jane drew our attention to the kinds of fabrics we have all around us that we could re-use to make new functional items.

Jane told us about a new technique she is developing using old pairs of tights or stockings, cut in to strips, re-knitted and manipulated to created a whole new fabric.

Jane encouraged us to begin trying this technique and emphasised the importance of experimenting and exploring the limitations of the material.  Bev got some help remembering how to start knitting with an over-sized knitting dolly – we thought the result made the beginnings of a great grocery bag.

In her own work, Jane is looking to get to a point where the knitted material no longer resembles pairs of knitted tights.  Jane reminded us of the light-weight, quick-drying nature of the nylon to get us thinking about the useful things we might create from it – bag handles (Jane had a great Moroccan leather bag with a woven handle that was very popular), bath mats, shopping bags, all sorts.

Jane gave us these pointers for starting to knit hosiery:

• Keep it simple – start with small stitch samples.
• Cast on 25 stitches using small and then large needles, feel what the ‘yarn’ is doing.
• Experiment with creating your own yarn.
• You tights can be cut in long lengths from top to toe.  You can also cut in circles around the legs in varying widths.
• You can create! Don’t forget this!
• Use a medley of colour and mixture of textures.  You can fairisle and cable.

As usual we had great fun sharing our ideas, and Jane said speaking with so many talented knitters really helped her think about her work too:  ’ I really enjoyed the session with what was such a diversity of people, levels and interests – they were very enthusiastic!’

New-comer Geoffrey said he wasn’t a good knitter but got stuck in anyway with a bit of help from one of the more experienced regulars.  After the session he said ‘I was very proud of my achievement… all three inches of it!’

For more info and further reading take a look at Jane’s slideshow:  Knitting Hosiery and more by Jane Sarkar

Any of you who have taken part in Whitworth Art Gallery’s Crafternoon Teas or who have popped into the Craft Centre in Manchester lately may have met the brilliantly talented Andrea Lord. I met Andrea years ago as we worked together making Postman Pat-she is famous for knitting Ted Glen’s lovely fairisle jumpers on cocktail sticks! I’ve no idea what she has planned for Saturday’s session but you can bet it will be lots of fun! You can visit Andrea’s blog here

This project is suitable for knitters of all levels of ability, even if you are a beginner knitter, learn a few new techniques through taking part in this this project and improve your knitting skills.

ArtYarn have been creating knitted and crocheted installations since 2008 in both outdoor and gallery settings. ArtYarn encourage participation from local and international knitters and crocheters so if you feel you would like to share this project with our networks please feel free to do so.

ArtYarn have been teaching knitting and crochet to people of all levels of ability since 2009 and will be running a ‘How to Crochet’ and ‘Improve you corchet skills’ at the 2012 Preston Guild. More information on how you can take part in this workshop will become available very soon.

Please visit the ArtYarn website and blog for further informaiton on all commisisons, workshops and participatory projects, and add ArtYarn on Twitter:

www.artyarn.org
www.artyarn.blogspot.com
Twitter: @artyarn

Art Yarn’s Rachel lead the session.

We were inspired by the wonderful pieces in the gallery’s collection and by the world around us as we were surrounded by the huge glass walls in the Museum’s central atrium. I wonder if the lovely lady who celebrated her birthday by bringing in treats chose these particular biscuits to inspire us to texturise?!

Bobbley Biscuits!

The Birthday Girl!

A highlight of the session was the wonderful surprise that we got when Nazma, one of our regular knitters, presented Wendy Gallagher, the Arts for Health Co-ordinator from Whitworth Art Gallery, with this beautiful blanket that she had made for the patients that she works with. Many thanks Nazma for all your time and kindness!

Nazma’s Wonderful Gift For The Hospital

The next session will take place at the Gallery of Costume on the 28th of July. Hope to see you there!