Knitting History Forum Conference 2020

The 2020 conference was hosted online using Zoom due to the covid pandemic. This was the first online conference. The conference was previously hosted in person at the London College of Fashion, John Prince’s Street, London.

Conference report

Knitting History Forum 2020 Conference Report

Programme

Breakout groups

11.30–12.30pm Show and Tell open session – Bring along something to show and discuss. Including “What I made during lockdown” – kicked off by Susan North’s crochet toys.

11.30–1.00pm Research student presentations

11.30 Michelle Hanks – Knitting as an interpretive tool – artefacts made in response to knitters interviews

Break

1.20pm Conference welcome by Sandy Black

1.30-2pm The Collection of the Textile Research Centre Leiden, with some knitted highlights. (The TRC mounted the Texel Stocking Exhibition and hosted the KHF AGM in 2019.) Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, Director of the TRC Leiden, The Netherlands.

2.00-2.15pm From Fleece to Fashion: researching the history of knitted textiles in Scotland. Lynn Abrams, University of Glasgow.

2.15-2.45pm Knitting for Money: homework in Glasgow and beyond in the 1980s. Jade Halbert, University of Huddersfield

2.45-3.10pm On being a knitwear designer in the 1980s. Sandy Black, London College of Fashion, UAL

Break

3.30-4.00pm Holy Hands: studies of knitted liturgical gloves. Lesley O’Connell Edwards and Angharad Thomas

4.00-4.30pm Two pairs of 18thC Abbess’s gloves from Prague. Sylvie Odstrčilová, Czech Republic

4.30-5.00pm Made in Germantown: Analysis of an Early American Frame Knitting Industry. Emily Whitted, PhD candidate, University of Massachusetts, USA