KnitKnit: Profiles + Projects from Knitting's New Wave
by Sabrina Gschwandtner
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Book Summary Information
Author: Sabrina GschwandtnerBrand: Abrams Publishing
Photographer: Kiriko Shirobayashi
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-09-01
ISBN: 1584796316
Number of pages: 176
Publisher: Stewart, Tabori and Chang
Product features:
- STC-96312
- 9781584796312
- Brand New Item / Unopened Product
- Abrams Publishing
Book Reviews of KnitKnit: Profiles + Projects from Knitting's New Wave
Book Review: Knitting as an Art Form
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an incredible book, a book that demonstrates how knitting has moved from craft to art. It is not a book to garner patterns from but a book to inspire, to look through over and over again and relish the beauty and creativity that is possible with the art of knitting. There are some patterns included but that is not the primary purpose of this book.
The book includes a compilation of individual artists with descriptions and photos of their particular interests and designs. I saw a show of knitting artists in New York City about three years ago at the Museum of Arts and Crafts on 59th St. and some of the artists in that show are in this book. One is Althea Merback and I remember being mesmerized by her work when I saw the show. She makes the tiniest of tiny objects, primarily mittens, gloves, boots, and sweaters. They are beautiful and fascinating. Imagine, she knits with needles using silk sewing thread!
You might be familiar with Joelle Hoverson if you have ever seen the beautiful ad for Purl Soho yarns. The ad intrigued me so much that I had to place a few orders to their store. They carry beautiful yarns and also fabrics. A replication of the ad and a description of how she came to open the store is included in this book.
Erika Knight's beautiful drawings with yarn and fabric samples is an example of crafter as artist. Art can be utilitarian, not just something just to look at, listen to or read. It can be worn, put on a table, or cover furniture.
Catherine Lowe seemed to me like the penultimate knitter's knitter. In her description it states that "A typical knitting pattern written by Catherine Lowe is about 35 pages long; it can be as many as seventy." Her patterns are designed so that there is no sewing. She "has developed ways to knit and shape in one gesture, wherein separate pieces are joined on the needles". She has been gracious enough to provide a pattern for a Japanese inspired Hippari Jacket that is only five pages long.
Bridget Marin once worked at the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles, she learned techniques for combining science and art. Some of her knitting creations show this connection. If you have never visited this museum in Los Angeles, do. It is an amazing place! I love Bridget's knitted dollhouse with people and landscape, sculpted people and gloves with painted red fingernails.
Cat Mazza is a designer of knitting software, in particular KnitPro. She is also the force behind the creation of a blanket that is to be presented to the Nike CEO requesting the company incorporate fair labor practices. This blanket incorporates knitting squares from people around the world. As she says, "I like to combine aesthetics with activism".
Mandy McIntosh's work and the still picture from her film Donkey Skin, "examines the symbolism in traditional Aran knitting". As many other artists in this book she has had a varied background in design and knitting. She is now a filmmaker that incorporates themes about knitting in her film.
I've been a fan of Debbie New for a long time. She is a creator of "garments, sculptures, vessels, even interpretations of scientific concepts..." Debbie invented "a speech reader for deaf babies. The device emitted a frequency range of colors in response to the frequency of sounds". She is currently working on ways to visualize sound and has invented an instrument to "interpret the touch of knitted fabric." "When knitters touch the fabric , their motions are interpreted into ethereal sound"
I could go on and on about the other artists included in this book. They all have one thing in common. They push the limits of knitting. They create art that is beyond the standard pattern. They may combine knitting and science, knitting and music, knitting and film or they may use they unique creativity to demonstrate knitting in a way we may never have imagined.
This beautiful book is amazing and inspiring. I recommend it for anyone who is a real lover of knitting.
Summary of KnitKnit: Profiles + Projects from Knitting's New Wave
Provides an intimate look at how 27 of today?s most innovative, inspiring, and groundbreaking knitters live and workCaptures the zeitgeist of the craft renaissance
KnitKnit, the highly collectible ?zine, has been featured in The New Yorker and on Style.com
All over North America and Europe, a brand-new generation has taken up knitting?and is transforming the venerable needlecraft by blurring the boundary between craft and art. In Copenhagen, Denmark, Isabel Berglund hand-knit an entire room. In New England, Dave Cole constructed an enormous ?knitting machine? (he used excavators and utility poles) that knit an 800-stitch, 35-by-20-foot American flag. But the projects aren?t all of a monumental scale. In Los Angeles, Bridget Marrin knits little dollhouses?complete with lawns, shrubbery, and smoke-filled chimneys, all made of yarn. Using surgical wire, Indiana-based knitter Althea Merback hand-knits sweaters smaller than a dime.
Five years ago, Sabrina Gschwandtner founded a ?zine to tackle the blurry edge between craft and fine art. Now, her book KnitKnit brings together profiles of 27 of the most talented artist-crafters knitting today. But KnitKnit does more than just document their ingenious creations. Each of the profiled knitters has contributed a project?a sweatshirt kimono, a mohair and metal belt, a pair of high-heeled boots, a geodesic-patterned cap, even a teddy bear knit from fiberglass insulation?meant to inspire you to find and follow your own creative path.
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