Many Squares

These are the squares from my Knit a Square Project. I currently have 160 and more are arriving! This shows people are knitting, love to knit and want to knit! I am going to use these knits to put together the blankets/garments as part of my project and look at donating them to charity.

Within my project I am exploring the concept of Knit as a living art, and researching how this skill is passed down through generations. I have set my own knit a square project and initially had the outcome as charity blankets. Through looking into square patterns this idea has been generated. Looking at a traditionally patterned garment. This sample has been made using sqaures of Yorkshire pattern. Taken from a book about Ganseys and how local areas are represented through the use of pattern. I would like to explore this concept further and develop my own version of pattern.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

A bit of outdoor research, sculpture and sunshine at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Just a couple of knit samples, these are taken from the traditional patterns of the Yorkshire seaside ganseys. The patterns are symbolic representations of the area such as the nets and the sand. The different combinations of these patterns are representations of specific places such as Flamborough, Scarborough and Filey. This process was used as a method of identification for fishermen lost at sea so it was possible to find out where they were from.

Above is an image of some nice hand spun wool. Some is from a fleece that I have washes and prepared and some from a selection of different fibres. The intention is to knit this into some sort of representation of Yorkshire. I have been exploring the gansey patterns of the Yorkshire coastal towns and villages and want to incorporate this element of meaning into the knitted outcomes.

Thankyou

Thank you to everyone who has sent in knitted squares for this project. I intend to get some pictures up soon. I have started a blog to update about how the project is going enjoy,

http://knitasquare.blogspot.com/

Good Day

Welcome to the blog of The Past the Future. The purpose of creating this blog is to maintain a record of the progression of the project. Showing any developments and inspirations and how these are fulfilled into the final outcome. The project became after I began my MA studies in Design. I knew I wanted to explore the concept of sustainable textiles and this developed into an interest in cooperative practice and how community can benefit from this social interaction. My focus lies within traditional textile techniques such as knit, crochet and embroidery. At the moment knit is the exploration with the Knit a Square project. Getting people to knit a square and attach a label with information about their knit experiences. I hope to create an update of what I have completed so far and what I hope to achieve in the future. I welcome any comments, ideas or if you would just like to get in touch your more than welcome.