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ATH + Jayfor
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
It’s been a while since my last post… so much going on, it has left little time for reflection and communication. Anyway, to make amends, here is the story of the making of a new stitch-hacking piece.
Update: see images of the finished piece here
ATH + Jayfor is on display at an exhibition titled WOW: wonder of wool and the art of knit and stitch, at Rheged in Penrith until 15 April. Also on display is my Knitted Engine, and work by a stellar lineup of contributors, including Deirdre Nelson, Freddie Robins, Rachael Matthews, Annie Shaw, Celia Pym and many others. The exhibition is curated by Trevor Pitt of Pod Projects.
Here’s the blurb about the piece that I wrote for the exhibition:
Title: ATH + Jayfor
Materials: Found wool/nylon jumper, nylon yarn
Stitch-hacking involves the laddering and re-forming of stitches in existing knitted fabric. This technique has been developed by Amy and allows her to create structural patterns within found knitted garments. For this piece, she has taken the text from the label of an old jumper and transposed it to the body of the garment, ‘embossing’ it into the structure of the plain knitting. Amy has also recorded herself within the work, through the inclusion of swiss-darned text.
This work plays with questions of authorship and ownership. The original manufacturer made the stitches, and their information has been made dominant on the garment. However, Amy has physically made the piece her own through the attention and painstaking practical work of her intervention. Through pieces such as this, Amy wants to celebrate the craft of knitting in all its forms – industrial and domestic – and to encourage others to tinker with mass-produced objects, which we often see as ‘closed’.
COMMENTS FROM ORIGINAL BLOG POSTING:
learningwithproblems
Muy interesante su obra!
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14GB
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Let’s have another story in pictures – this time showing the stitch-hacking of my most recent piece, ’14GB’.
Update: see images of the finished piece here
14GB is on display in the Made in the Middle exhibition, along with three other stitch-hacked pieces and my pattern-blagged Shetland lace shawl (more info about those pieces here). Here’s some information about the exhibition:
Made in the Middle is an open exhibition originated by Craftspace and selected by an expert panel. Previously showing contemporary craft from the West Midlands, this year the exhibition has been expanded to include the East Midlands and celebrate creative practice across the whole region. This exhibition brings together 35 makers whose diverse practice reflects the wealth of high quality work produced across the region and the talent nurtured in the Midlands.
The exhibition is at mac in Birmingham until 15 April, then it will tour the region for another fifteen months (further information on each venue can be found via the exhibition website):
The National Centre for Craft & Design, Sleaford, Lincolnshire 28th April – 1st July 2012
Shire Hall Gallery, Stafford 15th September 2012 – 27th October 2012
Rugby Art Gallery and Museum 15th January – 9th March 2013
Bilston Craft Gallery 23rd March 2013 – 11th May 2013
Northampton Museum and Art Gallery 25th May 2013 – 6th July 2013
At the preview of the exhibition at mac, I was delighted to be awarded the prize for ‘Best Overall Exhibit’. All those hours spent hacking and blagging were worth it…
COMMENTS FROM ORIGINAL BLOG POSTING:
Lois Parker
so clever
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Printmaking
Monday, October 31, 2011
I’ve just spent a lovely weekend at Llanthony Art in the Black Mountains of Wales, doing a fantastic woodcut printmaking workshop taught by painter/printmaker Veronica Gibson. I’ve wanted to try woodcut printmaking for ages – there’s something about the quality of the images that really appeals to me.
I’m definitely going to do more woodcuts, having done this star as a first attempt – but the surprise of the weekend was collagraph printing. Whilst playing I created this series of images, using knit and crochet samples and the printing press.
I love the simple collagraphs, which show off the structure of the fabric so well. And exciting things were starting to happen with embossing the fabric textures into the paper, especially with further woodcut prints on top, which really brought out the structure.
Can’t wait to do more, could someone arrange some more hours in the day please?!
COMMENTS FROM ORIGINAL BLOG POSTING:
Gemma Latham
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Stitch-hacking and pattern-blagging at Prick Your Finger
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Tomorrow I’m off to set up a exhibition of my work at London knitting mecca Prick Your Finger. I’m focusing on stitch-hacking and pattern-blagging, two techniques that I’ve developed over the last couple of years:
Stitch-Hacking the laddering and reconfiguration of stitches in an existing knitted garment
Pattern-Blagging the modification of an existing knitting or crochet pattern to create a personalised item
The techniques are used to adapt existing garments and patterns to include personalised content. On a conceptual level, these pieces explore authorship and ownership; on a personal level, they allow me to put something of myself into my wardrobe.
Update: the original post included images and descriptions of the pieces in the exhibition. That information can now be found on each item's project page:
Who Made This? stitch-hacked cardigan
20.11.09 - 1976 pattern-blagged crochet smock
Amy 2010 stitch-hacked cardigan
St Michael - 12 - 40 stitch-hacked cardigan
1.12.2010 - 1.10.2011 pattern-blagged Shetland lace shawl
Want to have a go? I’m running a stitch-hacking workshop at Prick Your Finger on Saturday – enquiries/bookings to the shop on 020 8981 2560.
The exhibition will be on for 6 weeks or so – private view tomorrow from 6pm, all welcome so hope to see you there! (260 Globe Road, E2 0JD, nearest tube: Bethnal Green)
COMMENTS FROM ORIGINAL BLOG POSTING:
tomofholland
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This is so cool. Can’t wait to try it.
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Vincent and his little blanket
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Special occasions call for special knitwear, so to celebrate the birth of my new nephew Vincent, I made him a little personalised blanket in organic cotton with a crocheted trim.
It utilises my special ‘stitch-hacking’ technique, where I manually reverse stitches to create a design. Usually I do it on existing garments (more on this soon, as I’m going to be exhibiting some of these pieces at Prick Your Finger next month) but for Vincent’s piece I reworked the stitches while creating the fabric on the machine.
Here he is, clutching it and waving. What a good boy…
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Improvised knitting at Working Title
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Last week I worked in residence at Aspex Gallery in Portsmouth, as part of an exhibition called Working Title. The idea was to work with junk that had been donated by local people. There's more info about the exhibition in my previous post.
Update: the original blog post included descriptions and images of the pieces created at Working Title, taken from two guest posts I wrote for the Working Title blog, which can be found here and here. The full collection of work I created can now be found on this site in Projects, here.
All in all it was a great week at Aspex. The intensive week of experimentation sparked off lots of new ideas, which I’m looking forward to exploring further in future.
COMMENTS FROM ORIGINAL BLOG POSTING:
southseafoodgirl
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fabulous yarny artwork
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Love the chair – makes sense now i see the pictures. Also the bike wheel is pretty cool
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when i say pretty cool, I mean pretty and cool. sorry!
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Working Title at Aspex Gallery
Friday, August 5, 2011
I’m preparing to take up temporary residence in Portsmouth next week, as I’m going to be taking part in an exhibition entitled ‘Working Title’ at Aspex Gallery.
Here’s some information about it from the excellent Working Title blog:
’Sometimes things fall apart so that better things can fall together’ - Marilyn Monroe
“This summer aspex will undertake a rag and bone-style collection of unwanted domestic and small-scale industrial items within Portsmouth and Southsea. Selected artists will take these objects, which are no longer fit or have served their purpose and will turn them into something that is potentially beautiful and definitely different.
“aspex’s main gallery space will function as both workshop and exhibition space with artists working for fixed periods throughout the project. Visitors will be able to access the gallery, observe & talk to the artists while they transform cast-offs into new creations or incorporate them into performances. An auction will take place during the final weekend of the show where the artists’ work will be available to the highest bidder.”
It’s a totally new experience for me. I’m planning some knit and crochet-based fun, though what I come up with will depend on what I find. I’m taking my ‘Mon Tricot’ knitting dictionary (gifted by my grannie), and some trusty crochet books too – dependable sources of inspiration and information, whatever you’re working with!
COMMENTS FROM ORIGINAL BLOG POSTING:
southseafoodgirl
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The Knitted Engine, part 5
Friday, July 29, 2011
Here are some more images of the Knitted Engine in situ at BMW Plant Hams Hall. Thanks to BMW for organising the photos. The first image shows my favourite part, the crankshaft, with the con-rods and pistons shooting up towards the cylinders of the engine. If you look closely you can see the little twisted stitch detail I used to make a ridge down to centre of each crank web.
On the second one look out for the crocheted BMW badge and lettering hanging on the edge of the cylinder block, about halfway up the picture.
And on this one check out the spark plugs and camshafts at the top of the picture! One of the BMW associates pointed out that the timing (positioning of the cams in relation to each other) was off on my camshafts, but then was impressed to see I could fix the problem just by swivelling the cams round. Apparently you can’t do that on metal ones!
Update: there are 5 posts in total about the Knitted Engine, from initial sketches and workshops to photos of the finished piece. View them all here.
COMMENTS FROM ORIGINAL BLOG POSTING:
Carrie Gardner-Pett
A little bit behind on a blog-catch up but just wanted to say congrats on this Amy, it’s amazing. My hubby who works for Jaguar/Land Rover was seriously impressed and he never thinks knitting is cool! 
Hopefully see you soon for a workshop.
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The Knitted Engine, part 4
Sunday, July 10, 2011
It’s finished and installed! Hurrah!
I spent 8 hours in the BMW Hams Hall foyer installing the engine on Friday, which gave me plenty of opportunity to chat to passing employees about the project. I was particularly touched by several people who said ‘it’s a good job you’ve got those tags on, otherwise we’d take that [e.g. crankshaft] and put it in one of our engines!’
We’re moving the whole display to Lichfield Cathedral tomorrow where it’ll be on show to the public as part of Lichfield Festival until Sunday 17th July (free entry). These are just some quick snaps I took once it was up – I’ll add some nicer images soon.
While I’d like to lie in a darkened room for a week to recover from this mad but rewarding project, it’s onward and upward – we’re heading to Latitude with our knitting tent on Wednesday. I’ll report back about our festival shenanigans when we’re home again!
Update: there are 5 posts in total about the Knitted Engine, from initial sketches and workshops to photos of the finished piece. View them all here.
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The Knitted Engine, part 3
Friday, July 1, 2011
I’ve realised over the past few weeks that it’s difficult to blog about all the exciting projects you’re doing when you’re so busy doing them, there’s barely time to eat, let alone type.
Anyhow, work on the Knitted Engine is coming on a treat. Since my last post, I did two days at BMW Plant Hams Hall. I was able to quiz BMW associates about the intricacies of engine design (turns out I’d got most of the bits right on my last diagram, apart from a random belt assembly on the right hand side that I’d totally invented, and misplacing the clutch and flywheel). I also measured all the engine parts that I’d been trying to assess the size of via photos (much easier).
The main activity at BMW was running workshops with thirty year 6 pupils from Coleshill Primary School. They learned to knit, crochet, french knit and finger knit and I was so impressed with them! Four BMW apprentices joined in too. I don’t think they were really expecting knitting to be part of their training but they took to it with good grace.
I then went into school for two more days of workshops, using the children’s development samples to inform the design of the final components. It required loads of french knitting (on bobbins ranging from the traditional 4 pins in a wooden bobbin to a customised 25cm plantpot), hand knitting and crocheting round metal rings. They worked really hard and they were really positive about the experience of learning to knit, which was lovely to hear.
I’ve now got all the bits the kids made and I’m madly forming them into the final engine components! I made the exhaust yesterday, and now I’m onto the pistons which connect to the con-rods I’ve already made. Still lots of knitting and stitching to be done, but it’ll all be sorted by next Friday when I install at BMW for a few days before moving it to Lichfield Cathedral on Monday 11th July. Exciting!
Update: there are 5 posts in total about the Knitted Engine, from initial sketches and workshops to photos of the finished piece. View them all here.
COMMENTS FROM ORIGINAL BLOG POSTING:
Cath
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Who wouldn’t want an extra belt in their engine? I bet BMW are working a new prototype right now
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Well done Amy. I don’t know how you find the time.
Gail Goldstone -
Hi Amy – don’t know how you found the time to go to Woolfest too. The engine is looking incredible – that’s my kind of engineering!
Good luck with the installation.Monique Lee
They are looking great!! Hope to see it some day in real. Keep up the good work. Lots of love xx
They are beautiful, like little knit x-rays. Love the emboss effect.
Thanks Gemma! Yes, somehow they show off the structure of the fabric better than the piece itself, especially the x-ray ones!
Cool! Going to look up ‘collagraphs’ now.