New Open Access Paper on Structuring Reconstructions

The journal ‘Heritage Science‘ has published an article on establishing a framework for reconstruction in scholarly research. Using textiles and dress as a template, “Structuring reconstructions: recognising the advantages of interdisciplinary data in methodical research” by Jane Malcolm-Davies also discusses interdisciplinary collaboration, demonstrating the value of integrating methodology from arts and humanities with those of natural sciences, involving scholars, scientists, makers and other specialists to promote more accurate understanding. One of the case studies includes details of a research project which is applying multiple methodologies to shed new light on the making and historical context of a seventeenth century knitted waistcoat. ‘Heritage Science’ is peer-reviewed and open access and the paper may be read or downloaded here: https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.1186/s40494-023-00982-9

Unravelling The History Of Knitting On BBC World Service

Listeners of radio and podcasts may like to know BBC World Service flagship discussion series ‘The Forum’ recently broadcast an episode ‘Unravelling the history of knitting’. The 40-minute programme examines the global history of knitting from its origins to the recent craft revival, including distinctive traditions that have developed around the world. Three guests share their insights in discussion with presenter Bridget Kendall: Professor Sandy Black, KHF Chair and author of ‘Knitting: Fashion, Industry, Craft’; Annemor Sundbø, Norwegian textile designer and author of ‘Everyday Knitting: Treasures From A Ragpile’ and Cynthia LeCount Samaké, specialist in indigenous textiles and author of ‘Andean Folk Knitting: Traditions and Techniques from Peru and Bolivia’. (Further details of these books may be found in the Knitting History Reading List in our Resources section).

The programme ‘Unravelling the history of knitting’ can downloaded directly from the BBC website https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct1rl0 and will be available for over a year on BBC Sounds https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct1rl0. It is also available as a podcast and can be found by searching “BBC The Forum” in any podcast provider.

Karen Finch Centenary: 8th May 2021

It is nearly three years since Knitting History Forum sadly noted the passing of our much-admired Hon. President, Dr Karen Finch. Since then, however, her legacy continues, not only in the careers of her many students or the memories of those who knew her, but also through the Karen Finch Textiles website, led with sensitivity and care by Karen’s daughter, Katrina Finch.

Throughout her long and varied career, Karen amassed a considerable archive of papers, books, images, teaching materials, textiles and much more besides, some of which is now located in teaching institutions, libraries and museums but some of which remains with her family. The website serves as a finding aid for navigating the archive across many locations. Ongoing digitisation will make these holdings available as far as possible. The online forum hosts discussion of Karen and her work as well as information and ideas on textiles and conservation. Karen’s life is celebrated through biographical posts and the many relationships she fostered are honoured through contributions from family, friends and colleagues, providing personal insight and warmth sometimes missing from online archives.

8th May 2021 marks the centenary of Karen’s birth. The continuing global pandemic has made a memorial event impossible in person, but the Karen Finch Textiles website will be launching an interactive map showing the worldwide network created by Karen’s teaching, “sustained by her dedication to maintaining regular national and international correspondence and her fundamental commitment to knowledge without boundaries.” Another addition will be the introductory lecture given by Karen to teach the Masters course in Textile Conservation, dating back to when the Textile Conservation Centre (TCC) was based in the grace-and-favour apartments at Hampton Court Palace. In future it is intended to publish the remaining lectures with their accompanying illustrations. Contributions are also invited from those who knew Karen, which would be posted on the Karen Finch Textiles website in the coming weeks. KHF members interested in sharing their memories should email Katrina Finch directly at info@karenfinchtextiles.com.

Visit the Karen Finch Textile website to learn more: https://karenfinchtextiles.com/blog/karen-finchs-centenary-8th-may-2021/

Classic Knits of the 1980s by Sandy Black

Classic Knits of the 1980s by Sandy Black Three Cats design – click to enlarge

At the Knitting History Conference last year, Sandy Black mentioned her latest book, ‘Classic Knits of the 1980s’, which was published in January 2021.

Many of us know Sandy Black as Professor of Fashion and Textile Design and Technology at the London College of Fashion and Chair of Knitting History Forum, but prior to that she had a successful career as designer and director of the ‘Sandy Black Original Knits’ label from the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s.

Publisher Crowood Press notes how the book discusses “the principal fundamentals of knitwear design and features original, colourful, textural and fun knitting patterns that capture the fashion zeitgeist of the 1980s designer knitwear boom” and includes “a range of innovative designs from Sandy Black knitting kits, many published here for the first time.”

“Part 1 establishes the fashion and knitwear context of the period and its influence on the development of the designs, examining the entire creative process from inspiration to final pattern.

Lavishly illustrated with photographs, diagrams and charts, special features include patchwork (modular) designs and intarsia or colour-block knitting, with techniques and tips for pattern calculations, working from charts and handling several colours.”

“Part 2 then offers twenty-one original patterns and designs, grouped into themes of textural, graphic, heraldic and ornamental, plus the unique Siamese cat, leopard and tiger accessories. Contemporary photography, together with original images from the 1980s, illustrates the designs’ timeless appeal, with close-up images of intricate pattern details and suggested design variations to aid creative knitters.”

Some may consider the 1980s so recent as hardly to seem like history at all, yet then as now it was a time of revived interest in traditional knitting and intense creativity in new knitting design. Knitwear of the period is already receiving academic attention and one of Sandy’s designs, ‘Fairisle Fun’, with her kit and the jumper knitted from it (as seen to the right), are held in the collections of the V&A Museum https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O68250/knitting-kit-black-sandy/.
Well-illustrated and with technical information as well as patterns of Sandy’s fresh and ebullient
designs, ‘Classic Knits of the 1980s’ is a welcome
introduction to the work of a pioneer of modern fashion knitwear which will be of interest to
knitters and historians of knitting and dress alike.

New Knitting History Events & Media

April may have been the cruellest month in T. S. Eliot’s eyes, but for many in the continuing COVID pandemic, January 2021 is far worse. Here is some good news to help KHF members keep going:

CURATORS’ COLLOQUIUM ON KNITTED TEXTILES

The University of Glasgow is hosting a free online colloquium on Friday 29th January 2021 from 13:30 to 16:00 GMT. This event will share knowledge and practice regarding the collection, conservation, preservation and interpretation of knitting collections. Knitting is often a hidden part of a national or local collection, yet given the importance of knitted textiles to Scotland and to so many very different nations and cultures, it is imperative to raise awareness and share information and knowledge so that garments which carry so much meaning are appreciated, preserved and interpreted. National collections may have specialist curators, but many other smaller museums and collections do not. The aim of the colloquium is to share knowledge and practices amongst curators and custodians. Speakers will include Carol Christiansen, Curator and Community Museums Officer at Shetland Museum and Archives; Jen Gordon and Federica Papiccio, Assistant Curators, Scottish Fisheries Museum, Anstruther, where they are responsible for the Scottish Gansey project; Frances Lennard, Professor of Textile Conservation at the University of Glasgow, who led the University’s Centre for Textile Conservation and Technical Art History until 2020; Lisa Mason, Assistant Curator in the Art & Design department at National Museums Scotland, Trustee of the Bernat Klein Foundation, and Membership Secretary of the Dress and Textile Specialists and Helen Wylde, Senior Curator of Historic Textiles at National Museums Scotland, responsible for European textiles and dress from the medieval period to 1850. Tickets and further information available here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/curators-colloquium-on-knitted-textiles-tickets-133065976919

KNIT BACK TO THE 1920S AND 1930S

The LSE Library is hosting this free online event on Thursday 4th February 2021 from 6:30pm to 7:30pm GMT. ‘For those who enjoy an interesting piece of knitting’, the talk explores knitting patterns in interwar women’s domestic magazines with Dr Ellie Reed, of the year-long project Time and Tide: Connections and Legacies’ at Nottingham Trent University, who will focus on publications in the Knitting & Crochet Guild’s collection. A booklet containing stitch patterns will be available to attendees and there will be a social media hashtag to share the efforts of those intrepid knitters who have a go! Further details and a link to book tickets available here https://www.timeandtidemagazine.org/for-those-who-enjoy-an-interesting-piece-of-knitting

INSIDE THE FACTORY

And finally, there’s still time to catch the BBC’s ‘Inside The Factory’ episode on commercial sock-knitting in the UK. The programme includes visits to a sock factory in Leicester, a cotton spinning factory in Manchester and looks at Kitchener stitch and the First World War, as well as featuring Joyce Meader of The Historic Knit. You may have missed the original transmission, but it’s still available to watch online by viewers in the UK until June 2021 on BBC iPlayer. More details and a link to the programme available here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000r03q

1930s Hand–Knitted Bathing Suits

Emmy Sale won the undergraduate student Design History Society Essay Prize with an essay based on her BA dissertation examining hand-knitted bathing suits in the 1930s, particularly how they were made and worn by young working women. She wrote a shorter essay, ‘The 1930s Hand-Knitted Bathing Suit: Cost, originality and adaptation’, based on the collection of Worthing Art Gallery and Museum, as part of their joint Objects Unwrapped research project with University of Brighton. A downloadable PDF is available on the Objects Unwrapped website https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/objectsunwrapped/essays/.

Emmy has also written a post for the Association of Dress Historians, discussing her research and showing images of knitted bathing suits in other British museum collections. ‘Homemade Garments in Museum Collections: 1930s Hand–Knitted Bathing Suits’ is available on the ADH website https://www.dresshistorians.org/single-post/2018/10/23/Homemade-Garments-in-Museum-Collections-1930s-Hand%E2%80%93Knitted-Bathing-Suits.

Early Knitted Waistcoats – An Overview

Following on from Jana Trepte’s presentation on Saturday, ‘Piecing the Bremen waistcoat together: an everyday knitted garment of the early 1600s’, Pat Poppy has pieced together her own helpful overview of knitted waistcoats and jackets of the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries. The post lists details of select recent scholarship on early knitted waistcoats and jackets, both ordinary and elite, with links to online records of several examples in museum collections. Pat is herself an historian as well as a long-standing member of Knitting History Forum and her post is a sound springboard for further research. Visit her blog to read more https://costumehistorian.blogspot.com/2018/11/early-modern-knitted-waistcoats-and.html.

“The women knit and share their secrets with one another”?

The Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change have made Remco Ensel’s article ‘Knitting at the beach: tourism and the photography of Dutch fabriculture‘ open access. The article discusses late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century representations of women and girls wearing regional Zeeland dress while knitting in the open air, examining the meanings of the images, their role in tourism marketing and their relation to reality. In addition to the title comment, French artist and photographer Ludovic-Georges Hamon gave his opinion on the region’s knitting, as seen on his trip in 1906 : “Reneetje is still busy knitting. In Holland, one does not knit with the fingertips, as in France. In their belt, the knitters have a sheath of carved wood; they put the needle in it and the wool is processed into knit stitches at an amazing speed, accompanied by a constant buzzing … Reneetje knits.” An absorbing piece of research, which may be read here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14766825.2017.1335733.