Keep & Share

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 | 10 October, 2011 at 11:58 am

  1. Amy, thank you so much for the workshop, I really enjoyed learning new skills. I hope to be able to post a hacked garment soon!

    Amy | 26 October, 2011 at 9:56 am

  2. Lovely post from the Prick Your Finger blog about the exhibition, private view and workshop: click here

    Tom – thanks for coming, it was great to meet you and I can’t wait to see what you hack!!

  3. Amy | 26 October, 2011 at 9:58 am

    And another post about the stitch-hacking work, from the Folksy blog: click here

    fitterknitter.com | 5 January, 2012 at 3:06 pm

  4. This is so cool. Can’t wait to try it.

 

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h.Art open studios

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

I’ve thrown the doors of the studio open this week as part of h.Art – the open studios art week in Herefordshire.

I’m showing the current Keep & Share range of knitwear, kits and yarn along with information about workshops and samples of some of the more conceptual knitting projects I’ve been doing in the past year. I’m joined in the studio for the open studios event by Marissa Harmon, who (apart from helping me with Keep & Share knitting and workshops) creates her own range of lovely vintage inspired knits.

We’ll be open every day from 11am to 5pm until Sunday 18th September – for more information check out our page on the h.Art website. Give us a ring on 01432 851162 if you need directions – hope to see you there!

Lots of visitors have commented on the lovely view from the studio, so here it is for you all to enjoy…

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Fashion Diggers at Making Futures

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Leaving our open studios in the capable hands of Marissa, I’m off tonight to the Making Futures conference at Dartington Hall in Devon. In the words of the organisers, the purpose of the Making Futures project is to improve understanding of the ways in which the contemporary crafts are practiced in relation to significant and new developing agendas relating to global environmental and sustainability issues.

I’ll be presenting a paper based on my PhD research so far, entitled ‘Fashion Diggers: transgressive making for personal benefit’. Here’s a link to the abstract - and above is a word cloud of the paper, giving you a taste of its contents (I’ll post a link to the full paper when it’s online).

There are lots of other presentations that I’m looking forward to (particularly the keynote by Kate Soper) and I’m hoping to meet craft friends old and new….

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