There are a few ways people knit. One method is English knitting, where the yarn from a skein drapes over the right hand. In Continental knitting (which is also sometimes called German knitting or "picking" because of the way the right-hand needle picks up stitches) the skein string loops over left-handed fingers and the left hand holds the work as one makes new stitches. In this show Dr. Moss-Bouldin demonstrates Continental knitting as well as an alternative way to begin knitting with a crochet hook.
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"I always wanted to learn to knit but I didn't learn how until I was in graduate school. As a graduate student, I was looking for something creative that allowed me to relieve stress and I thought knitting would be a good skill to learn in order to relax. I asked one of my mother's friends to teach me how to knit and I have been obsessed ever since! She taught me how to knit English style but I now knit with the Continental method. Knitting has been such a stress reliever, especially during these uncertain times. I rarely knit for myself because I enjoy knitting for family and other loved ones."
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"In the picture (and the first video) is the shawl I am knitting for my mother from a cotton yarn, and in the second video demonstrating a crochet cast on, I am knitting with a bulky wool blend from Zen Garden.
I have been actively trying to support yarn companies during the pandemic because I want them to stay in business. It's important that we support our fiber companies in order to make sure they continue to exist. A lot of them have been very innovative while building community among knitters. I have participated in a knit-along and zoom parties with Zen Garden, the Vogue knitting marketplace where I discovered Handspun Hope, and other zoom conversations with designers, such as Jeanette Sloan. All of these events have helped heal my knitter's soul." |
Allison Rogers inspired and co-curated the first Knitting Show at The Little House Gallery in 2019. The show was so fun, so warm, and led us in so many new directions that she suggested we do it again,...and again and again!
Rogers came to knitting quite early, after 6th grade. While on a visit, Allison's aunt took her to meet a neighbor, and a quite professional knitter. While there, she learned some basic knitting from both her aunt and the neighbor. She recalls starting with a simple scarf, which turned into a large sock-like shape because she had not quite grasped the notion of letting stitches fall at the end of a row. |
Here Rogers exhibits four swatches, demonstrating different stitches and yarns. She also shows a complicated surface pattern in a cool green, purple, and off-white cowl design.
In high school Allison had the privilege of taking a sought-after Needle Arts class from Lee Juvan that has only ended as of spring 2020 though still much in demand. There she learned the ins and outs of preparing and finishing a project, how to read patterns, and more complicated color work. |
In her video Allison demonstrates a basic garter stitch that makes up her gray and pink swatch.
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Lindsay Johnson"My grandmother taught me to knit when I was about seven years old. I started out making simple scarves and hats, and in high school I decided to try making a sweater. Grandma helped me come up with a pattern, and when I finished knitting I had an extremely cozy sweater with sleeves that went down to my knees.
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Thankfully, I've improved since then and now knitting is like meditation for me - I love knitting to relax and unwind after a long day. I spend a lot of time knitting things both for myself and others. There's nothing like giving someone a perfect gift that you have made yourself. Now our roles are somewhat reversed and I teach Grandma knitting techniques, finding her patterns on the internet and showing her videos on YouTube. It's still a bond we share, and I'm so thankful she's passed on to me a skill I'll be using for the rest of my life."
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Vani Prasad participated in the first Knitting Show, along with her mother. When we began talking about doing a knitting show, Vani Prasad's daughter Madhuri brought out a large blanket knitted in her school colors to show us. We realized our knitting show had to incorporate her work.
"Knitting and crochet is my favorite hobby. It is a stress reliever and makes a wonderful personal gift for people I love."
Before I went to Mongolia, Prasad also knitted me a scarf as a gift that kept me warm at 4000 feet and -40 degrees. At the first Knitting Show, Prasad displayed functional purses, hats designed for wearers with ponytails, and her mother showed a circular work made from recycled sari fabrics.
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Wilson MabryWilson Mabry exemplifies a particularly sculptural take on crocheting for this show with an amigurumi.
Wilson's foray into crocheting began with an aunt who taught him how to make a chain of crocheted stitches and a few patterns for snowflakes he found in one of his mother's books. From there he imagined other ways to engineer what he wanted to make.
The Amigurumi (a quite modern Japanese practice of making small characters with knitting or more typically crocheting) displayed in this show begins entirely differently with his niece calling him "Bison" as a nickname. |
He started to figure out how to make her a bison toy when he couldn't find a satisfying one on the market. To practice, he began on a jigglypuff amigurumi for a friend, but "My first attempt was pretty bad, really loose, and I wasn’t confident that I’d be able to affix all the pieces in a nice manner, so I decided to make a sort of Frankenstein-version, where poorly-placed pieces would be fine, and I swapped the colors of the eyes and body." What resulted is inventive and tight, like the stitches he shows us in his video.
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