Knitting as Art: Sounds

For me, one of the pleasures of knitting is listening to the quiet click of the needles. It’s a very soothing sound, probably because of childhood memories of lying in bed at night, hearing my mom’s needles clicking away in the living room. This afternoon, an article on the net from the Washington Post caught my eye. Entitled Weaving a Tapestry of Sound, it tells about a Baltimore artist, Laure (pronounced Laura) Drogoul, who also has positive associations with the sounds of knitting.

A few years ago, she became curious about what it would sound like to amplify those sounds, and devised a method to do so. Laure was so pleased with the result that she presented an activity at a music fest, inviting up to 10 knitters at a time to provide what she titled “Orchestral Knitting.”

Fascinating. Here’s the article:

Weaving a Tapestry of Sound - washingtonpost.com

Who woulda thought?

Knitting as Art: Wooly Wierdness

In case you’re bored with sweaters, scarves, and hats…..

Henkel Advertising, photos by Vincent Fournier

Knitting as Art: A Garden

January 2004. Using only knitting needles and the occasional crochet hook, Tatyana Yanishevsky began to grow her own garden out of yarn. Human sized and touchable, every flower confronts you with it’s unique set of alien features.

Each knit sculpture uses a variety of fibers, colors, and stitches to describe each organ of a real plant. Many include other materials which support or oppose the yarn form to enrich and deepen the flower’s character.

One of the exhibits:

Brown University List Art Center
Providence, Rhode Island
February 2005

The Knit Garden: a Collection of Anatomically Correct Plants.
Using live plants, botanical drawing and plant textbooks as information, these knit objects depict real and recognizable floral forms. The process of knitting, stitch by stitch, mimics the growth of an actual plant, cell by cell.

To see more of Tanya’s amazing work, go to the link below:

http://www.knitplants.com/installBrown.php

Optical Illusion Knitting

I was just surfing around randomly this evening and hit upon this ingenious 3 dimensional pattern, which in reality is a simple dishcloth. The pattern reminds me of the magnificent marble floors in the grand Italian churches, which in reality are flat but convey the illusion that each block is a step beneath your feet. Link to pattern: http://knittingonthenet.com/patterns/clothillusion.htm

Oldest Western knitting image

Most representations of knitting in art have been produced from the 18th century on. This painting, by Meister Bertram von Minden, Germany, was done near the end of the 14th century. Titled “The Madonna Knitting Christ’s Seamless Garment”, it represents the Virgin Mary making a tunic in the round, using 4 needles. The tradition of the seamless garment describes a scene at the crucifixtion, when the Roman soldiers cast lots to win possession of it, not wishing to tear up such a valuable

item of clothing. Two churches, the cathedral at Trier and the parish church of Argenteuil, claim to have possession of the actual garment. Trier claims that it was brought to them by the Empress Saint Helena, who also is supposed to have found the True Cross. The French believe that theirs was brought there by Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Emperor. Both claims date from the 1100’s.

Most probably, Christ’s clothing was woven, not knitted. But it’s a lovely painting and a lovely thought.