Emma Vining Hand Knitting: March 2014

Sunday, 30 March 2014

Angela Missoni in Conversation at the V&A Museum

Angela Missoni was in conversation with Gianluca Longo at the V&A on Friday 28th March. This was the first event of a series linked to the new exhibition, The Glamour of Italian Fashion, which opens at the V&A on Saturday 5th April. The curator of the exhibition assured the audience that Missoni designs feature prominently!

Angela and Rosita Missoni with Gianluca Longo
Photo by Emma Vining

Angela Missoni is such a creative, warm and generous person and this showed throughout her conversation with Gianluca Longo. A series of wonderful images projected onto the screen behind them illustrated how the company has developed and grown over time.

The start of the conversation with Angela Missoni and Gianluca Longo.
Photo of Rosita and Ottavio Missoni displayed behind them.

To the delight of the audience, the conversation became three way, as Angela's mother, Rosita joined in too! Between them, we heard about key moments in the history of Missoni. Beginning with Rosita and Ottavio meeting in Picadilly under the statue of Eros, the story is very much one of the family. Ottavio saw the potential for colour in the multi-yarn knitting machines that had previously only made back shawls for widows in the south of Italy. From this innovation, the distinctive Missoni stripes were born. Rosita's talent for fashion and her idea to cut the knitted cloth as fabric was the next step.

Angela Missoni and Gianluca Longo in conversation
with Rosita Missoni's first Missoni stripe designs behind them.

Angela Missoni recalls one of the first shows in a swimming pool in Milan.
Moments later the inflatable couch collapsed and the models fell into the water!

Design by Ottavio Missoni, part of the 'Put Together' Look, 1970.

A stunning example of Missoni jacquard knit.

Illustration of designs has always been key in projecting the Missoni image. These slides show a few of the different styles by some of the Missoni family's favourite illustrators.

The look and feel of sportswear is important to Missoni designs.

Missoni costume created for La Scala, 1983.

Discussion of the long association of Missoni with Joan Burstein, founder of Browns, brought a fourth person into the conversation, Mrs B herself. Mrs Burstein eloquently closed the evening with a plea for creators of beautiful garments to be cherished and for their designs and garments to be looked after and held onto in these times of fast fashion.

Garments from the Missoni collections were on display in the lecture theatre and it was a delight to get up close and look at the detail.

Missoni Garment

Detail of Missoni Garment

Missoni Garments on display in the lecture theatre

Tuesday, 25 March 2014

Knitting & Crochet Guild London Meeting

The Knitting and Crochet Guild London Meeting was very well attended on Saturday 22nd March. A highlight of the meeting was seeing this stunning crochet jacket from the K&C Guild Collection. The jacket was recently featured in the Rowan Magazine (Number 55, Spring/ Summer 14). There is also an excellent related blog post on images of Irish Crochet in the Guild Collection by Barbara Smith.

The guest speaker at the meeting was Lindy Zubairy who brought along her amazing crochet designs. How inspiring! Lindy explained how this beautiful piece is made in one, beginning at the centre and picking up points on previous rounds to make the joins as you go.

Her gorgeous Tunisian crochet sweater is featured in Inside Crochet Magazine.

While Lindy Zubairy taught the more experienced group how to make chevrons and an almond stitch, Linde Merrick stepped in at short notice to teach the less experienced group, including me. I am quite rusty with my crochet skills and needed lots of reminders! Linde gently led our table through the basic steps.

Having completed a small sampler including double crochet, treble crochet and half treble crochet stitches, we then moved on to granny squares. After some trial and error we made it! Thank you so much to Linde for her patience and sharing her knowledge. We all really appreciated it.

Linde also showed me how to complete my square with a treble crochet border.

I'm already looking forward to the next meeting in 3 months time!

Wednesday, 19 March 2014

Tudor Merchant's Knitted Cap

On Saturday 15th March, I was part of a Knitting History Forum workshop at the London College of Fashion, where I learned how to make a Tudor Merchant's Cap. I have been a member of the Knitting History Forum for several years and have learned a lot about the history of knitting through the excellent Annual Conferences (see my earlier blog posts here and here). The Merchant's Cap workshop was run by Gary Hayton from Bournemouth University. Gary is an extremely creative knitter who uses precisely calculated shaping and felting to form the caps. His knitted sculpture work is currently on show at Mompesson House near Salisbury.

Tudor Merchant's Cap by Gary Hayton

The day began with choosing a ball of gorgeous JC Rennie yarn that Gary had pre-wound for us. My selection was this green and pink combination. We started off straight away by casting on the required stitches and I could feel the lanolin from the wool making my hands soft after the first couple of rounds!

JC Rennie Yarn

There are three stages in the construction of the Cap. Firstly the brim, then increasing for the square and then finally decreasing for the crown.

Tudor Merchant's Cap by Gary Hayton

As we continued knitting, Gary explained the process of felting the Cap. The texture of the wool yarn we were using is ideal for this kind of project as the scales on the surface of the fibres fuse together during the felting process, in this case, in the washing machine after knitting. An important factor is the gauge of the knitting before felting. Seeing the multiple samples that Gary had made, showed how much thought and experimentation goes into his work. Through this experimentation, Gary showed that using bigger needles results in looser knitting. This looser knitting allows more movement in the fabric. More movement allows more fulling and more fulling results in a thicker fabric.

One of Gary's felting samples

As the day went on, the caps grew and grew and everyone got a good way into the project. Nicky very nearly completed the whole hat in the day! I got well into the increasing section and have been working hard since I brought the cap home and can now see the way the corners will form. I'm really looking forward to seeing completed caps at the Knitting History Forum AGM in November!

My work in progress!

For more information on Tudor Caps in British collections, there is an interesting overview that can be accessed through the Knitting History Forum Resources Page. Written by Dr Jane Malcolm-Davies of the Tudor Tailor, it is titled "He is of no account..... if he have not a velvet or taffeta hat': A survey of sixteenth century knitted caps".

Monday, 10 March 2014

Sensing Spaces at the Royal Academy

The Sensing Spaces Exhibition at the Royal Academy is a fascinating journey through installations created by seven architectural practices from six countries and four continents. Set within the traditional galleries and covering 23,000 square feet, these amazing large scale installations use scale, texture, light and colour to challenge all the senses.

Diebedo Francis Kere
Photo by Emma Vining

From the exhibition's central hexagonal room, with interactive information on each architect and the installations, I firstly went into the room with the installation by Chilean architects, Pezo von Ellrichshausen.

Pezo von Ellrichshausen
Photo by Emma Vining

This wooden structure dominates the traditional gallery and juts out overhead. Closer inspection reveals several ways to explore, including a 60m ramp and four spiral stairways. As well as an elegant structure in its own right, this installation also allows you to get up close to the fantastic traditional gallery ceiling.

Pezo von Ellrichshausen
Photo by Emma Vining

RA Ceiling decoration viewed through the Pezo von Ellrichshausen installation
Photo by Emma Vining

In two darkened rooms, beautiful and mesmerising structures are revealed as your eyes get used to the low light. I went in here several times as I loved the way the delicate bamboo structure emerges and changes as you walk around it. Japanese Architect, Kengo Kuma, has also included scent in the structures.

Kengo Kuma
Photo by Emma Vining

The bright colour and chaos of architect, Diebedo Francis Kere's creation is all part of the fun and interactive experience in his installation. His design narrows at one point to bring people together and make them interact within the space. There were a large number of people adding to the structure both from the inside and the outside!

Diebedo Francis Kere
Photo by Emma Vining

Moving around in a beautiful forest is the feeling produced in the installation by Chinese Architect, Li Xiaodong. Following the illuminated pathways leads to several small rooms and eventually to an impossibly huge room. Closer inspection reveals the clever use of huge mirrors. The effect is dramatic and freeing.

Li Xiaodong
Photo by Emma Vining

Grafton Architects from Ireland have chosen to work with light and have a dramatic installation in two rooms that uses light and dark to wonderful effect. On first entering the dark room, the structure felt heavy and oppressive, but as I spent some time in the room I particularly enjoyed the effect of silhouetted figures entering and leaving.

Grafton Architects
Photo by Emma Vining

Alvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura from Portugal have installations in the courtyard and around the arched doorways within the galleries. Outside in the courtyard is a consideration of the the traditional architecture with columns in various stages of deconstruction. Inside the galleries, casts of the interior arches change the perspective of the familiar doorways and elongate room entryways.

Eduardo Souto De Moura
Photo by Emma Vining

Alvaro Siza
Photo by Emma Vining

In the excellent film at the end of the exhibition, the architects themselves describe how creating installations can be an important part of their process when designing new buildings and structures.

My overwhelming feeling about this exhibition is a sense of wonder about the ability to change perception of a known space. I have been to many exhibitions at the RA in these galleries, but I have never seen their scale used and manipulated in such a creative way before. This is an excellent exhibition for all ages!