Yarn Shop Day! Come see us! Saturday 2nd May!

Following the success of last year’s event, Fabrications is pleased to announce that we will be participating in the national ‘Love Your Yarn Shop’ campaign, initiated by Let's Knit Magazine which aims to raise the profile of the value that bricks and mortar yarn stores bring to the local community. Part of the campaign includes ‘Yarn Shop Day’ taking place on Saturday 2^nd May.

On ‘Yarn Shop Day’, Fabrications will be hosting a ‘Close-Knit Community Knit-Tea Party’ open to all ages (from 7+) and all levels of crafter from 1:30-5:30pm. 

Flowers, leaves, and garlands will make up the creations for the day, which can be knitted or crocheted in detail with small needles and hooks or large on their unique MACRO knitting needles and French knitting wheels. All of the items created will be added to a flourishing knitted trellis installation on Fabrications shop front, so that everyone can admire them! 

Special Goody Bags are set to be available for the first 25 customers of the day to start off the event. Everything will be provided, from the materials to the food, with Fabrications lovely teachers on hand to help, so all you need to bring is you! Everyone is welcome to this free event, but space is limited, so be sure to book your spot NOW!. 

Participating in this exciting day is just the beginning of the celebration to mark Fabrications 15th birthday! 

Yarn Shop Day

Fabrications is proud to be a part of the 'Love your yarn shop' campaign. Initiated by Let's Knit and their sister magazine 'Let's get Crafting' the aim of the National campaign is to raise the profile of  bricks and mortar yarn stores, encouraging Crafter's to support their local yarn store and celebrate the value we offer beyond just selling wool! including personalised advice, ideas, expert recommendations, classes, socials, SOS (save our stitches!) and much more!

The campaign culminates with 'Yarn Shop Day' on Saturday 3rd May, when customers and local yarn stores all around the UK will join forces to spin a yarn and share their yarny love. Different shops will be hosting free workshops, promotions and inviting in knitting & crochet 'Ambassadors'.

How will Fabrications be celebrating Yarn Shop Day?

We will have an open house, offering free taster workshops in MACRO knitting, continental knitting and projects advice / SOS in our beautiful and welcoming Imaginerium craftspace. In conjunction with Stylecraft we are also offering Goody Bags - cotton bags containing yarns, haberdashery, knitting patterns to the first 40 Yarn Shop Day customers! Look out for our special window display too, which is going to spill out into the street!

Which Ambassadors will be with us on the day?

- Fabrications own Barley Massey will be sharing tips on MACRO knitting and making your own upcycled yarns
- Jill Bulgan, a regular adviser at our fortnightly Craft Club and teaches the 'progressing your knitting skills' classes will be available to offer some help with your projects and knitting dilemmas.
- Luise Roberts, author of numerous knitting and crochet books including 'First Knits' published by Collins & Brown (and on sale in our shop!) who informs me she loves to demo continental knitting as her party trick and is generously providing a free pattern of her Marilyn Monroe finger puppet for the goody bags!

Do I need to book?

Although it is free and drop in style, we'd be grateful if you could book in so we can accommodate you and ensure we have brewed enough tea and cake and prepared enough materials (for example you can make a MACRO knitted scarf) You can do this HERE!

Knitting - a space for creation and destruction

This month Fabrications' blog has a special contribution from Jonathan Faiers, reader in fashion and textile theory at Winchester School of Art. Part of this text has been previously published in the essay by Jonathan ‘From Rei Kawakubo to Mark Fast: The Void in Knitting, Or How Formlessness Shaped Up’, in Unravel: Knitwear in Fashion, MOMU, Antwerp, 2011
Jonathan has also published a few books and last month launched his latest book "Dressing Dangerously" - Dysfynctional Fashion in Film (published by Yale University Press ) at Hackney's 'Trampery'.

'Dressing Dangerously' book cover Yale University Press

Since 1982 when Rei Kawakubo instructed her knitting machine operators to loosen some of the screws on their machines so that random holes would be knitted into her sweaters, the distressed or 'unravelled' has taken centre stage on the knitting runway. The radical approach adopted by Kawakubo and her contemporaries was simultaneously indebted to punk’s rejection of conventional formulations of body aesthetics as well as a philosophical exploration of the potential of the void or the 'formless'. Holes in knitting imply chaos and order, destruction and creation, and Kawakubo’s apparent random deployment of them suggested the limitlessness of space. This text will utilise Georges Bataille’s investigation of the term informe (formless), to consider Kawakubo’s ‘lace’ sweater as an operation or process that encourages a dialogue regarding notions of craft (knitting and lace), the complete and the partial, and the dysfunctional as an alternative way of understanding clothing and its relationship to the body.

Image sourced from KnitGrandeur

In the early 1980s the appearance on the European fashion stage of Rei Kawakubo’s work, including garments such as the ‘lace’ sweater, has been well documented. The confusion caused by her work as well as Yohji Yamamoto’s is succinctly expressed by Colin McDowell who notes that: “within one season, they gave French fashion an inferiority complex verging on a communal nervous breakdown; excited hopes and dreams in young British designers and students; panicked the Italians and totally bewildered the Americans.”[i] However, whilst the assessment of the so called Japanese revolution in fashion has naturally centred on the most spectacular/difficult/aesthetic/nihilistic collections (any number of adjectives have been deployed to describe their work according to the prevailing perspective of the commentator), it is perhaps a garment such as the ‘lace’ sweater which most effectively conveys Kawakubo’s approach to making clothes.

Knitting at its most fundamental level is an operation that makes something from nothing. The act of enclosing spaces or more precisely setting up temporary enclosures is after all what the practice of knitting consists of. The exploration of tension, both literally as in the tension of the particular knitting stitch and emotionally when conscious of knitting’s potential to unravel, seems in Kawakubo’s ‘lace’ sweater to be its primary function. Furthermore it can be argued that the demonstration of this tension and other states (which will be discussed shortly), takes precedence over its function as a garment. As a dysfunctional garment, however, the ‘lace’ sweater presents a number of opportunities to explore how knitting relates to other crafts, how it oscillates between fashion and non-fashion and how it intersects with the body. 
                               

Image from 'Unravel - knitwear in fashion' exhibition MOMU, Antwerp 2011

On examining the sweater in more detail it becomes apparent that it is a ‘formless’ garment structurally - it is full of holes that position it as a piece of clothing on the verge of imminent dispersal or collapse, and it is also formless in relation to how it might be worn – there is a superfluous ‘peplum’ hanging below the ribbing, the sleeves cover the hands if not folded back and the larger holes offer the possibility of multiple points of entry for the head and arms. Its holes also undermine one of the most commonly prized attributes of knitting, which is to provide warmth. As is well known mesh, or net-like fabrics (such as knitting) consisting of regular enclosures have an ability to trap air and therefore provide a layer of warmth when worn on the body (the string vest effect), Kawakubo’s sweater with its random larger holes disrupts this, negating its thermal properties and transforms it into a dysfunctional sweater. Of course as can be seen in the illustration the sweater was originally designed to be worn over another garment, which would go some way to restoring its heat generating properties; however it could also be argued that this transforms the sweater into a purely decorative garment divested of its chief function.

Image from StitchDiva's tutorial on how to purposefully drop stitches!

The apparent devaluing of the process of following a pattern, of not ‘dropping a stitch’ and finishing off the garment sought after in hand and machine knitting alike, coupled with the ‘betrayal’ of knitting’s function to keep us warm positions the sweater firmly as fashion rather than knitting. The bewilderment, and in some quarters, anger that garments such as the ‘lace’ sweater generated when first produced suggest that it presented a threat to accepted vestimentary codes, and in addition it exposed the intrinsic formlessness and impermanence that resides at the heart of the craft of knitting. But, as Bataille proposed when discussing Manet’s painting: “To break up the subject and re-establish it on a different basis is not to neglect the subject; so it is in a sacrifice, which takes liberties with the victim and even kills it, but cannot be said to neglect it” [ii] These “liberties” are presumably what the fashion establishment felt could not be taken, but as we have seen Kawakubo’s desire for the imperfect and the accidental that is found in the operation of formlessness has since become part of the language of fashion.

Image from 'Unravel - knitwear in fashion' exhibition MOMU, Antwerp 2011. Thanks to Shady Chronicles Blog

It is perhaps on the level of economy that Kawakubo’s ‘lace’ sweater diverges most significantly from Bataille’s notion of the informe, and provides new insight into the sweater’s titular reference to lace making. Lace, like knitting is a fabric that is constructed from the enclosure of small spaces, but this structural relationship aside, the two crafts differ significantly. Of course both are labour intensive activities, but hand-made lace far outstrips hand knitting in terms of the amount of time taken to produce an equal amount of fabric. This fundamental difference of course results in lace’s most commonly understood quality – its rarity and therefore value. As a result of its costliness the history of lace is both violent and strangely corporeal, littered with murders, and other more bizarre bodily contacts between fabric and flesh. The stories of lengths of lace bound around the body, of being secreted amongst corpses and even inserted underneath the skinned pelts of dogs, all in order to escape the heavy tax duties imposed on lace during the height of its popularity, suggest a discourse that juxtaposes the prized with the worthless similar to Bataille’s consideration of the “movement from refuse to ideal.”[iii]

But Kawakubo’s ‘lace’ sweater is far from refuse, even if it could be argued it is masquerading as such. Its classification as ‘fashion’ elevates it from its contingent knitting groups of the second-hand, the moth-eaten, and the thread-bare and passes from formless knitting to fully formed fashion. As Bataille warns: “In this way formless is not only an adjective having such and such a meaning, but a term serving to declassify, requiring in general that every thing should have a form. What it designates does not, in any sense whatever, possess rights, and everywhere gets crushed like a spider or an earthworm.”[iv] The economy of fashion is such that Kawakubo’s sweater can only survive fleetingly as ‘formless’, its larval stage as an indeterminate form somewhere between knitting and sculpture cannot be allowed and therefore lasts no longer than its initial showing and then is swiftly transformed into its mature form – fashion.                

 Image by Twisted Twee 'Moth patches'

So it would seem that within the fashion industry at least formlessness is never allowed to remain so for long. Rei Kawakubo's 'lace' sweater momentarily seemed to fulfill Bataille's promise of the informe being not only an adjective but also an operation, however her work was swiftly categorised as conceptual fashion, and has become fossilised as such. 'Formless' fashion it seems is not permissible and as Bataille declared: "…does not, in any sense whatever, possess rights, and everywhere gets crushed like a spider or an earthworm."[v] So perhaps it is fitting that the only true architect or designer of the formless in fashion knitting: "… is something akin to a spider of a gob of spittle." – the moth.[vi]

Jonathan's paper "Knitting and Catastrophe" will be published in Issue 12:1 of the Textile Journal of Cloth and Culture alongside a selection of paper from the 'In the Loop' conference. 

[i] Colin McDowell (2000) Fashion Today, p.134.

[ii] Bois & Krauss, p. 21.

[iii] A concept detailed in ‘The Big Toe’ in Allan Stoekl (ed.) (1985) Georges Bataille: Visions of Excess Selected Writings 1927-1939 , pp.20-3.

[iv] Georges Bataille ‘Formless’ in (1995) Encyclopaedia Acephalica, p.51.

OI! Your Knitted!!

 

Last weekend Sue Russell and I took our GIANT knitting workshop to the people of Enfield at their Town and Country show. It was a fun end to a busy summer of community crafting, events included - Newham Mayor's show, Stepney Green torch Relay and Lollibop.

Our activity was popular with the local community support officers.....

 

Children and adults alike.........

 

 

Olympian vegetables......CUT!

 

 

Couldn't resist showing you some of the prize vegetables on display!

 

 

KNITLYMPICS!

Just for fun! I'm hosting a KNITLYMPICS event at Fabrications this Saturday!
Locally, I'm aware that so many people missed out on getting tickets to the Olympics or could not afford some of the high ticket prices and now with the recent empty seats controversy, my suggestion is to KNIT YOUR OWN!!

I've teamed up again with the brilliantly witty crafty publishers Collins & Brown to provide a once in a lifetime workshop to create your own KNIT TICKET (with lasting legacy long after the games!) Collins & Brown have kindly provided the pattern from their 'KNITLYMPICS' book, created by Carol Meldrum, currently on sale at Fabrications for £7.99

 The book is a lovely souvenir, which brings the characters (re create Usain Bolt for example) and sporting spirit to life in knit, accessible to both beginners and accomplished knitlympians.
All materials and refreshments provided and all attendees will receive a  special knit ticket pattern, so on your marks!! BOOK HERE

What's in the window? The Canine Games in knit!

The official 2012 'Canine Games' took place last Saturday in East London. To celebrate Fabrications teamed up with Collins & Brown publishers of the brilliant 'Best in Show' - knit your own dog book. We were there at the games to teach people how they could knit their own dog or a string of knitted sausages, support Battersa dogs home's  'Softer Staffie' campaign and get a copy of the book! Inside which you discover how to knit all kinds of breeds (in miniature) from a basset hound (my personal favourite) to a French bulldog (London Fields favourite)

These patterns are truly exquisite, the authors Sally Muir & Joanna Osborne (one of their claims to fame is a knitted jumper they designed was worn by Lady Di back in the 80's depicting rows of sheep) have really captured each breed through choice of yarn, colour combination and of course shaping of each type of dog's characteristics. The book contains 25 patterns which are easy to follow, you'll have a whole kennel club before you know it! and yes, Fabrications is well stocked up at £12.99 each. I foresee "knit my dog please!" being on dog lovers Christmas list!

I can say this as the current window display is been getting so much attention from passers by (walking their dogs!). There are 15 different knitted dogs 'performing' - jumping through embroidery hoops and posing with their winning medals on podiums!

Making is connecting

I've recently been reading a book called 'Making is Connecting' by David Gauntlet. It's a fascinating piece of research as the title aptly says about how making things with your hands connects you to yourself, other people and ultimately the world and opens up positive transformative possibilities! It's right up my street...

Meet the inspirational Lina and Linda. Lina lent me 'Making is Connecting' to read, she thought I'd appreciate the research behind it. She subsequently brought Linda round to meet me as Linda is a very interesting lady and an experienced knitter, she has been knitting most of her life. Recently her expertise has been sought and features in a number of knitting books including Susan Crawford's 'A stitch in time'  and Laren O'Farrell's 'Knit the City'.

Meet the talented film maker Adeline Royal, who brought Lina round to Fabrications so we could meet each other. I first met Adeline while she was making a film about knitting. She wanted to interview me about about running Fabrications and my thoughts on knitting, hand made, the British wool industry and my observations of the benefits that knitting can have on people that take up the craft.

The film took Adeline on quite a journey, she met and interviewed a number of notable people from the knitting / current UK craft industry including Katy Bevan from the Crafts Council, Professor and writer Sandy Black, a representative from the British wool marketing board, Lauren O'Farrell, initiator of London largest knitting group 'Stitch London' and Lina and Linda who you've already been introduced to and who run a community knitting group at the Barbican library every Monday 11am - 4pm

Anyway the aim of this post wasn't to produce a long line of name dropping but to show how Adeline's journey in making her film and beyond really demonstrates how the power of making can really activate and connect people! See her film about Knitting, connecting and sustainability on her Vimeo page HERE

This is another film that Adeline has created, a short promotional film all about the different strands that make up Fabrications, including how much we value making and believe in the 'transformative powers' it can bring, so we are a hive of industry in passing on textile skills and our beliefs values to others. I hope you enjoy it!

Knitters go wild in Hackney!

Our town hall square has been transformed overnight! On Saturday, I got the tip off in the shop that 'the woolly transformation' or 'yarn storm' would take place late on Sunday night. On Monday morning reporter Massey was at the scene! And what a beautiful and colourful scene it is! All 12 trees in Hackney's town hall square have been lovingly wrapped in knitted and crocheted patchwork covers, reminiscent of Freddie Robins tree cosies. I'm sure the trees are really happy with their new warm jackets! As are the passers by that I saw inspecting the trees, looking and smiling!

Richard puts his best foot forward

I've just received this photo in my inbox from Richard Walker, live and direct from India, who has been knitting these socks, using 4 ply King Cole merino blend, which he purchased from Fabrications before he left, combined with some 'man made at heels and toes' (source unknown!)
He informs me he may postpone the second sock and knit a little skull cap, the sun is so strong. Will Richard be hopping lots under that amazing blue sky, but at least his head will be protected.
I am so impressed with Richard's progress. He is one of Fabrications star pupils, having attending most of our classes here including our Beginners knitting class and Sue Russell's knitting socks class. Looking forward to seeing you on your return Richard! X

What goes around comes around....

Even if there is a few tens of years between!

On Saturday I was going through Fabrications collection of knitting patterns through the ages available to buy at 50P, when I noticed with delight this 2-ply feather stitch twin set pattern. It felt like I had been reunited with a much loved friend.

Here I am with my hand knitted 2-ply jumper purchased from Paul Goby's fantastic vintage clothing stall on Broadway Market a couple of years ago! I wonder who made it? I love their own take on the pattern too with the introduction of an extra stripe and a slight change of colour!

London Knit Crawl

I'm a couple of weeks late in getting this post up - but spurred on by Jackie and Leona's fun posts on Wednesday Knit's 1st birthday celebrations - a 'Knit Crawl' around some of London's unique independent yarn shops, I thought it's not too late to share their day and idea -


Jackie has been running the Wednesday Knit club for a year in West London and has now come East. As well as devising a novel way for members to celebrate and enjoy discounts along the route, Jackie informed me that she is also researching the possibility of producing a guide to encourage more people to wind their way around London's independent yarn shops and haunts - bring it on!

Fabrications was the first venue on the crawl for the Wednesday Knit troubadours - as well as Jackie, there was Leona who I'd met during her Lady Luck days, she has now launched a new venture - Thrift-Ola. I met Max who makes knitting inspired jewelry which I'd seen at the Bust Craftacular and Kali of lush and lovely.

Leona creating a toy owl which I overheard had been purchased from Kali's lush and Lovely stall in Brick Lane. What a close knit group they are!
Check out Leona's recommendations for the 'Purr-fect cat basket' after seeing Tommy luxuriating in a suitcase of scarves!

Knitted Concrete!

Yes you read correctly! I've just received images to share with you of Hazel Hewitt's innovative material explorations in knitted concrete! Over to Hazel....

"I was researching 3D knitting and attended Rachael Matthews 3D knitting course held in Fabrications shop in Broadway Market. It was a great short course learning from someone so enthusiastic and knowledgeable.

I was then able to put the skills learnt during that course to create my own concrete model concepts and ideas. I was busy researching how to use textile and surface techniques with concrete as part of my design and research work during MA Textile Futures at Central Saint Martins"

Hazel is really pushing the boundaries of what a textile can be. She has developed knitted concrete to be used in a variety of applications and has even invented stretchy concrete!

Her research is underpinned by a sense of exploring well being in the urban environment and specifically improving the aesthetic of concrete structures to create something beautiful and tactile. We wish Hazel all the best with her research and practise!

The iDo project

After valentine's day this week I thought it apt to share the iDo project with you, another example of stitching for love and resourceful in austere times.
The iDo project has been conceived by Laura as a way to afford a recession wedding, how?
To get her family and friends knitting iPhone cases of course! Read more about her story and meet the groom in this article by Peonies and Purls.

Here is Laura offering over the phone knitting guidance! Each iDo case is numbered and contains it's own story. Mine was knitted by Christene, the groom's auntie. Other friends are rallying round to help in other ways such as Claire Wrixon who took these photos.

Once the 400th case has found a home, Laura's army of knitters will put their needles down, have a rest and get ready for the big day! So come on down to Fabrications and show your support and keep your smart phone warm and stylishly protected for just £10.

Snap shot of Heals...

Following on from my last post, on Monday Knitty Gritty member Ros and I went to Heals to visit Cansu and the other selected Slade artists in residence.....

It was quite a hive of activity within the windows with all types of techniques and ideas being explored. We watched one student bravely roll out bright violet ink onto Heals shop window in preparation for a large mono print. Spoke to another who was creating/destroying/reconstructing warped out Beswick style pottery, while our new friend Cansu calmly kept knitting her pillar covers.

Our favorite installation was Alex Springer's experimental pin hole cameras made from old kitchen utensils and storage jars. He invited us to select one of the cameras and record something in store. Once the image was captured the utensil was then handed over and placed in a small dark room, through which Alex removed the photographic paper and developed the image - quicker than snappy snaps!

Look who we captured via the sugar jar!! (In the pin hole camera of my mind!)
Those knitted bearded ladies get everywhere!

Purls + Pillars of Wisdom

Knitting newsflash! Last Saturday I met Hackney resident Jenny Lord, author of 'Purls of Wisdom' published by penguin. I had read a few reviews but it was great to have a good look through the book and appreciate quite how brilliant this book is, as Rachael Matthews reviewed "Jenny Lord is a kind knitting tutor. Her instructions and illustrations are clear, the projects charming, the styling cool, the graphics subtle, and even the paper has a lovely smell"

It's a good book if you are new to knitting or brushing up or re learning. There are some cool knitting patterns (especially good for small gifts) but a majority of the book has step by step guides to all the different elements of knitting from starting, to shaping, to fancy stitches, to sorting out your mistakes! There is also a really interesting section on the history of knitting and how knitting has regained it's popularity.
Thank you Jenny + Penguin for getting 'Purls of Wisdom' onto Fabrications shelves so efficiently!

If you are anywhere near Tottenham Court Road this coming week, please go and check out Heals, I know I will be after meeting Cansu Aladag, who is currently studying sculpture at the Slade. From Sunday 30th January to Sunday 6th February Cansu will be knitting the pillar's of Heals. See Cansu in action as part of 'Heal's Reveals' initiative alongside other selected student's in residence who will be bringing their workshops into Heals for the week - including a DIY camera and developing suite made from welded pots n pans!

Meet Cansu, with one of her purchases from a selection of 'Wool-n-Boat' giant knitting needles and yarns which she plans to use to create her installation.

NEW workshop programme

Fabrications is proud to announce new dates for our Sunday afternoon (2 - 4.30pm) classes for January - March. Firm favorites are back but we are also very excited about introducing some different sessions and also a couple of new teachers to the fold! For further details and information on how to book please visit the workshop and calender section of our website.

Katherine May's 'Textile Tokens' workshop draws inspiration from her favorite
exhibitions 'Quilts' at the V+ A and 'Threads of Feeling' at the foundling Museum

January Dates:
Sunday 16th: Beginners Knitting with Barley Massey, learn the basics and get started.
Sunday 23rd: Taste of Patchwork with Katherine May, create a mini quilt sample 'block' step by step from choosing fabrics to edging and finishing.
Sunday 30th: Beginners Crochet with Ayda Anlagan, how to hold the hook and yarn to create single, double and treble chain stitches.

Barley Massey 'Darn it!' workshop. Image taken by Clara Vuletich at Bricolage's
pop up shop in Brixton market, December 2009

February Dates:
Sunday 6th: Textile Tokens with Katherine May, make a personal fabric keep sake to give to someone special from embroidery stitches and patchwork.
Sunday 13th: Refresh your Wardrobe with Barley Massey, give your old garments a new look through darning, patching + customising.
Sunday 20th: DIY Couture - make your own cloak with DIY couture author Rosie Martin.
Sunday 27th: Beginners Knitting with Barley Massey, learn the basics and get started. If you attended the beginners knitting on the 16th January, then you can explore more!

This could be you! Images from Rosie Martin's 'DIY Couture' Make a cloak book, which is included with Rosie's session

March Dates:
Sunday 6th: Socks + Spinning with Sue Russell. From top to toe and step by step through the process.
Sunday 13th: Unravelling Knitting Patterns with Lisa Margreet. Aimed at beginners get confident reading patterns, increasing + decreasing and assembling + finishing techniques.

Hope to see you, meet you, teach you!