TRC Leiden Mor Astrup Study Day

Knitting History Forum TRC Leiden Conference 2019 – View of Leiden at lunchtime, with the food market behind us, 02.11.19 – image 2019 by Christine Carnie

The Textile Research Centre is hosting a study day of knitting in the style of Mor Astrup on Saturday 6th November 2021. The Mor Astrup technique originated in Norway, developed by and named after Ebba Astrup (1863-1944), and produces a striking and very visual effect in a surprisingly short time by using a combination of garter stitch and slip stitch with different colours, usually a light and a dark. The study day will be led (in Dutch) by Hadewych van der Werff at the TRC in Leiden. More details are available at the TRC website.

In common with many other institutions and organisations during the pandemic, the TRC has not had access to its usual sources of funding. They are also recruiting volunteers within The Netherlands. Please see the TRC Leiden website for more information.

KCG Un-Convention 2020

Un-Convention 2020 is the Knitting & Crochet Guild’s first virtual convention. Running from this Wednesday 9th September to Tuesday 15th September 2020, the convention has a broad range of free events across the seven-day schedule, including speakers familiar from KHF conferences. Videos with closed captions (subtitles) will be available on Youtube and you can also join in on the Guild’s Facebook groupRavelry KCG or follow the hashtag #unconventionkcg on Instagram.  Visit the Un-convention 2020 website to see the exciting programme in full.

Darning Masterclass with Tom van Deijnen FULLY BOOKED

Reconstruction Knitted Sanquhar Glove courtesy of Kirstie Buckland. PLEASE DO NOT USE WITHOUT PERMISSION!

SORRY, THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT.

Exciting news : Knitting History Forum is pleased to announce Tom van Deijnen will be running a Darning Masterclass on the Friday before this year’s KHF Conference & AGM.

Darning Masterclass with Tom van Deijnen
Friday 16th November 2018 2-5 pm.
London College of Fashion, 20 John Princes St, London WC1 0BJ

Learn to darn with Tom van Deijnen, aka tomofholland. Best known for his Visible Mending Programme, he will teach you two darning techniques (Swiss darning and stocking darning). Tom will also bring along his darning showcase for plenty of inspiration, and talk about why darning and repairing clothes is important to him. You’ll take home a comprehensive hand-out, two darning needles, and the skills to tackle any holey sock or thinning elbow, and be able to wear a beautiful darn as a badge of honour. All practice materials provided.

Cost £40 payable in advance. Places are limited to 12 so please ensure that payment is made as soon as possible.

We are delighted to invite the wider craft community to join us for this absorbing afternoon masterclass.

Early Modern Stocking Study Day 2018

Ruth Gilbert speaking at the Knitting History Conference, 2017

Ruth Gilbert MPhil is holding an Early Modern Stocking Study Day on Saturday 24th March 2018, from 10am to 4pm. In this study day at the Loft Space, Britannia Mills, Slaithwaite, Huddersfield, Ruth will cover the evidence for early knitted stockings and its interpretation as well as knitting techniques, tools and yarn.

Materials and equipment will be provided but please bring your own if you prefer. The day costs £50 per person including tea and coffee.

A weaver and textile historian as well as a knitter, Ruth’s background is one of both hands-on experience and wide-ranging scholarship so this is a wonderful opportunity to learn from someone with evidence-based knowledge and practical expertise. Full information will be available when you book: contact Ruth by email, by phone or in person at the Loft Space.

Seventeenth Century Silk Stockings Research Project

Delegates at the recent Knitting History Forum Conference in London will remember Chrystel Bandenburgh of Leiden University mentioned a forthcoming knitting history initiative in the Netherlands on seventeenth century stocking-knitting. The Textile Research Centre (TRC) Leiden have now announced their exciting new research project. Starting from January 2018 they will lead an investigation into seventeenth century knitted silk stockings, focussing on the examples recovered in 2014 near the island of Texel, from a shipwreck believed to have sunk c.1640.

Textile Research Centre Leiden Seventeenth Century Silk Stocking Texel 2

he finely-knitted silk stockings have received initial conservation treatment and are the inspiration for the project, which seeks to discover more information, including how the stockings were originally constructed, if they were custom-made and how they were worn. Through a series of practical workshops and lectures at the TRC Leiden, participants will attempt to create reconstructions using very fine silk thread and knitting needles.

The TRC invite knitters to participate in this important project. The first workshop will be held in February 2018, led by Chrystel Brandenburgh and Lies van de Wege (TRC volunteer), and a second two-day workshop will be held in March, with regular progress meetings to follow. Materials and equipment will be supplied and while expertise in knitting stockings would be beneficial, it is not necessary, though with 1mm knitting needles this may not be a project for the faint-hearted! Interested knitters should email info@trc-leiden.nl directly describing their knitting skills. Further information is available on the Textile Research Centre Leiden website.

KEME Seminar – August 2017

Strickersvej – Knitters Way is hosting a seminar in August to discuss the KEME project and its findings. There will be speakers on topics ranging from early modern knitted stockings from burials in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, 3D modelling, the significance of the spin angle in knitted fabric, knitted items in the Design Museum, Eramus’s caps and comparing sheep fleece characteristics as well as workshops and broader discussions on the KEME project and citizen or crowd-sourced science.

The KEME Seminar will be held at the Centre for Textile Research in Copenhagen on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th August 2017. Further details are available from the Strickersvej – Knitters Way seminar page on Facebook.

Introduction to Historic Knitting

Click to download this leaflet for historian Ruth Gilbert’s one-day ‘Introduction to Historic Knitting’ at the Weald & Downland Museum in Sussex this September 2016.

“A brief practical history of knitting in Britain, looking at the products, techniques, and social history of knitting and knitters from the 16th to the 20th century. We shall be learning to ‘knit in the round’ and to use a knitting sheath, and trying out a number of different techniques. Pictures, samples and items from the Knitting and Crochet Guild Collection illustrate the wealth of resources. This is a course that we hope will inspire you to have the confidence to raid the past in your future knitting projects. Some previous knitting experience would be helpful on this course, but is not essential.”

Friday is already fully booked but Ruth agreed to run another on Thursday 1 September, 2016 as well. Spaces are filling up so hurry to book yours!