Dreaming In Colour: Kaffe Fassett at the V&A

Kaffe Fassett is a very busy man, with an exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum in March 2013 and two new books on the way. This is how Kaffe Fassett was introduced at the beginning of a very entertaining interview with Paul Allen at the V&A on Friday 14th December, based on his autobiography, Dreaming in Colour.

Kaffe moved to the UK from Big Sur, California, in 1964. Although already a successful artist, he had always been intrigued by textiles. His discovery of hand knitting began when visiting a mill with the designer Bill Gibb. By chance, Kaffe discovered beautifully coloured hand knitting yarns at the mill that captured the essence of the landscape he had just been travelling through. He immediately bought 20 different shades of yarn and then had a 20 minute lesson in hand knitting with a lady he met on the train on the way back to London. From then on, everything he encountered became a knitting possibility!

Working very quickly, with great focus has been key to Kaffe's colour developments. If a swatch is not turning out as expected, he keeps knitting and corrects as he goes, constantly looking at what he has knitted and changing what needs to be changed to balance the colours. He describes the process as making a painting in yarn.

From Christmas packaging for M&S developed from a needlepoint of brilliant, vibrant flowers, to a beautiful hollyhock mosaic at the front door of his studio made from (deliberately!) broken crockery, Kaffe has always been inspired by flowers and gardens. It was therefore very appropriate that the interview ended with this photograph of a fabulous rose, which Brandon Mably has arranged to have named 'Kaffe Fasset'. A dramatic, bold and colourful finish to an excellent interview!

Kaffe Fassett and Paul Allen in conversation at the V&A

Kaffe Fassett and Colour Inspiration

There is one week to go until the Kaffe Fassett talk at the V&A, when he will talk about 'his career, recent projects and his passion for colour'. Kaffe Fassett has always used colour creatively throughout his designs and across many different art and craft disciplines. Thinking about his clever colour combinations, I looked through his many patterns in my Rowan Magazines and other pattern books for colour inspiration. I then got out my Kaffe Fassett 'sweater in a box' kit by Rowan yarns, which is made with 23 stunning colours.

Section of Bright Diagonal Box Stripe Sweater (1989) by Kaffe Fassett and Zoe Hunt
Knitted by Emma Vining

As well as the multicoloured little 'boxes', the knitted diagonals in this sweater have additional colour changes within them and are never just one solid colour. These small details make you look twice and are typical of Kaffe Fassett's approach to colour. The only downside is the number of ends to weave in!
Kaffe Fassett's new autobiography 'Dreaming in Colour' is on my Christmas list and I'm looking forward to being even more inspired by next week's talk.

Free Form Crochet Inspiration

A stunning crochet dress from the 1967 film, Camelot is a wonderful inspiration for freeform crochet. Worn by Vanessa Redgrave as Guinevere, the dress is on show as part of the Hollywood Costume Exhibition at the V&A. Looking closely at the dress, you can see why designer John Truscott won the 1967 Academy Award for best costume design.

Vanessa Redgrave as Queen Guinivere, Camelot, 1967

Described as being made from wool, silk and pumpkin seeds, most of the dress is made of 'finely crocheted woollen spider webs' that are laid over silk. At the centre of some of the 'webs' are tiny shells and behind them are hints of metallic crochet. Pumpkin seeds were dried then stitched to the silk train of the dress.

Pumpkin seed detail on Guinevere Dress

Crochet detail on Guinevere Dress

Crochet samples based on Guinevere Dress

Knitting: Fashion, Industry, Craft

Introducing her new book, Knitting: Fashion, Industry, Craft, in a lecture at the V&A on Thursday 15th November 2012, Professor Sandy Black began by asking the question, 'What is knitting?'

Using the four sections of her book to answer the question, Sandy showed us how she had been inspired by the V&A Collections. Here are some of my highlights.

Part One: The Origins of Knitting, 3rd Century to late 19th Century. 

Knitting can be said to have begun with heads, hands and feet! Sandy showed us several examples including Coptic socks found in Egypt , Tudor caps from London and ornate silk stockings for men, before moving on to a stunning 17th Century boucle jacket. The highlight of this section for me was an 18th Century item, the 'Dutch Petticoat'. The origins of the mechanisation of knitting began with William Lee's knitting frame in 1589.

Coptic Socks (source: V&A)

18th Century Dutch Petticoat (source: V&A)

Part Two: Livelihood and Industry in Hand and Machine Knitting, 17th - 21st Century. 

During this time period, whole families knitted to supplement incomes. Knitting was taught in schools and workhouses to 'keep idle hands busy'. Detailed instruction manuals containing tiny examples of knitting were used at this time. During the early 20th Century Fair Isle knits became a fashion classic when worn by the Prince of Wales and Dr Jaeger began his business with 'hygienic' socks featuring separate toes. Couture knitting in the postwar period was illustrated by the Maria Lick Szanto designs (a review of Sandy's talk on the Szanto designs appears in an earlier post).

Instruction Book (source:V&A)

Part Three: Knitting in the Home from the 18th Century to present. 

Knitting patterns gradually became more widespread and Sandy showed us some lovely examples from Welsons in the 1890s, Woolcraft in the 1920s and Patrons & Baldwins in the 1930s. The radical changes in home knitting were shown by examples from sportswear, WWII knitting, 1950s glamour knitting, home machine knitting through to Freddie Robbins' Odd Gloves. 

1940s Knitting Pattern (source:V&A)

Part Four: Classics to Couture 1900 to Now. 

Over this period, knitting has constantly moved in and out of fashion, from the Polka jackets of the mid 19th Century, Chanel and Schiaparelli designs of the 1920s through Bill Gibb and Kaffe Fassett to Biba and Missoni and on to Kenzo, Sonya Rykiel, Mark Fast and Peter Pillotto to name only a few. Using these examples and more, Sandy took us on a rapid journey through the engineering possibilities of knitting.

Missoni Knitted Dress (Source: EV photo)

So, was the opening question, 'What is knitting?' answered? It certainly was and in such detail and in so many interesting ways that I cant wait to read even more in the book itself!

Twined Knitting in the Knitter Magazine

Lise Warburg examined the geographical spread of twined knitting in her talk at the Knitting History Forum. Although I had heard of twined knitting, I knew little about it and Lise's talk certainly made me curious. I was very pleased to find an article in this month's Knitter Magazine by The Dutch Knitters, which also takes a look at this traditional technique. There are photos of knitted examples, a brief history of twined knitting and descriptions of yarn and technique. A pattern for mitts that uses twined knitting, Annika, is also in the magazine with helpful, step by step picture instructions for getting to grips with the complicated parts!

The Knitter Issue 51 with Annika Mitts shown

Maria Luck Szanto Designs at the V&A

Having enjoyed Sandy Black's talk about Maria Luck Szanto at the Knitting History Forum, I realised that I had been lucky enough to see a Barbara dress during a visit to the V&A stores a few years ago. Although the dress appears seamless, Sandy explained that many of the Szanto designs were hand knitted in several pieces, sometimes by different knitters, then expertly grafted together in the workshop. I was very taken with this dress and would gladly have worn it straight away! My photos are of the dress lying flat, but this link to the V&A collections shows the dress on a model.

Barbara Dress cross over back

Barbara Dress front panel

Knitting History Forum

Making a link between a complex traditional knitting technique and the route of the Viking explorations was one of the fascinating ideas presented yesterday at the Knitting History Forum Conference, held at the London College of Fashion.
Lise Warburg, an independent scholar from Denmark, presented a paper entitled 'Knitting With Both Ends of the Ball - the Geography of Twined Knitting'. Using specific examples of garments and knitted fragments from her detailed research, Lise established geographic locations of the twined knitting technique and plotted this on a map of the Viking Journeys (800-1200AD).

Examples of Modern Gloves and Mittens with Twined Knitting at cuffs.

Example of Traditional Mittens made with Twined Knitting

Edwina Ehrman, Lead Curator of the Clothworker's Centre at the V&A, Blythe House, showed us the new storage, research and conservation facilities that have been built during the £3.5million redevelopment of Blythe House, Olympia. Around 47,000 textile and fashion objects are in the process of being moved from the old storage rooms at South Kensington to this new, purpose-built facility which will be available for booked visits from October 2013.
Jane Malcolm-Davies, from the Tudor Tailor, discussed the advantages of research through a multi path, multi contributor working group. She used this approach to develop and create knitting instructions for 16th Century Children's clothes for her new book, the Tudor Child (to be published in early 2013).

Mary Hawkins told us about her search for Eric Passold's recreation of William Lee's knitting frame. She had tracked down his actual recreated frame to the Science Museum in London and after much correspondence, received photographs of the frame. These photographs raised a number of issues: what was the scale, which way was up and where was the actual frame itself? Although notes have been left on the file at the Science Museum, the search continues.....
Barbara Smith's research on 'The Invisible Knitting Pattern Designer', Elizabeth Forster illustrated that knitting patterns during this time period (1940s to 1980s) were rarely attributed to designers. Her recent discovery of a huge archive of Elizabeth Forster's work, including 200 sample garments, may mean that some of her designs can be matched to these unnamed and undated patterns.
The conference concluded with Professor Sandy Black's presentation on 'Couture Handknitting in the Postwar Period - Szanto Models'. At one point, Maria Luck Szanto had between 500 and 600 knitters all over the UK producing detailed and complex garments. Using images from her new book, Knitting and from the V&A archives, Sandy talked us through some of Szanto's amazing designs involving lace, beading, brocade, pleating and incredible attention to detail.

Hollywood Costume at the V&A

The Hollywood Costume Exhibition has already been described as the 'best ever' exhibition at the V&A! During her introductory talk to a packed lecture theatre, Professor Deborah Nadoolman Landis described the exhibition with passion and enthusiasm. As guest curator, she and assistant curator, Keith Lodwick, had spent 5 years working on the exhibition, bringing together the costumes and developing the amazing imagery and graphics. Many of the costumes were tracked down and borrowed from private collectors.

Stunning graphics, a multitude of screens and innovative tabletop projection techniques bring the process of costume design to life. A 'conversation' between Meryl Streep and Robert de Niro is a highlight. The actors discuss costume in detail 'seated' amongst some of their most famous outfits.

Professor Landis emphasised that all costume design begins with the screenplay and that the ideas for good design are often found in the script. Excerpts from the scripts are highlighted along side each costume in the first display room. For example, a detailed breakdown of Indiana Jones' iconic clothing (designed by Professor Landis) shows exactly why the design decisions had been made, even down to the depth of the brim on his hat!

The Hollywood Costume Exhibition runs until 27 January 2013, but the famous ruby slippers are only on show for the next 4 weeks..........

V&A Museum, London

I had an excellent day at the V&A today with my City and Guilds Tutor, Loraine McClean of Knit Design Online. Loraine had organised a meeting of her students so that we could discuss work and look at sources of inspiration together. It was great to catch up with everyone and see what some of the other students had been working on. We visited the Wrought Iron Gallery and almost any piece there could inspire knit design! Here are a few of my highlights.

There was also a display of 'Fashion and Armour' Garments by Juliana Sissons in the Wrought Iron Gallery. Juliana was a designer in residence at the V&A from July to December 2010. Her knitted garments combine clever techniques and different yarn types and were all inspired by armour from the V&A collections. I particularly liked the combination of wire and knitting. This made 3D form that could be manipulated and held in place by the wire part of the knitting.

The Knitting and Stitching Show

I have just got home from a great day at Alexandra Palace.
So many great exhibitors and lots to see and do.
I took part in an e textiles workshop and discovered how to make a circuit using conductive thread to light up some small leds. Our tutor, Rosie from Goldsmith's College, also showed us examples of applied circuits. These included bendy fabric keyboards, a solar powered backpack for charging devices and gloves with conductive material in the tips so that you can work you touchscreen devices without taking off your gloves. Fantastic!

A visit to John Allen's exhibition was very inspiring and his carpets based on landscape were beautiful.  We have been hearing about the development of the carpets in his Design Group and it was great to see the completed work. John talked to us about the 'cutting in' technique he used to highlight features on the carpets.

My button collection has grown again after a stop at the Textile Garden stand. Cant wait to design garments to put these buttons and fastenings on.

My last workshop was learning to make a wire crochet bracelet with beads. Although I found it fiddly at first, I was very happy with the results. Tutor Kath was very helpful and I found out how to add the fastenings too. All in an hour!

Happy Birthday to the Knitter Magazine

This is a great day to begin blogging and write my first post!
The Knitter Magazine is 50 issues old today and it has combined creativity with 'knitability' from the first issue. As well as enjoying an excellent issue with all sorts of ideas and inspirations, I am very excited, as my Autumn Garden Cowl and Wristwarmer pattern is in the magazine.
The photo of the cowl and the short wristwarmers is one of the little cover images and there is a three page spread inside. There is also a great picture of the bright pink version!
My pattern is also available to buy separately on the Knitter's sister website, The Making Spot.
For more information about the Knitter Magazine, click here for The Knitter Home Page.