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