'In The Loop' Conference, University of Southampton/Winchester School of Art
15th-17th July, 2008.

A very interesting conference - the general consensus seemed to be that it was excellent - and we had all gone away with a lot to digest.

The difficulties of holding a meeting on a Saturday in June resulted in 20 apologies, these were generally supportive and encouraging. There had been three withdrawals.

The Knitting reference library was open throughout the conference. It is an excellent collection of knitting books and periodicals, and other books that mention knitting - novels, some social history. The library’s holdings are available on the internet, as part of Southampton University Library catalogue and are clearly marked as Knitting Reference Library copies. It has now closed for the summer to be moved to another part of the campus, so check before visiting. In recent years it has been open on Thursday, and on Wednesdays only by appointment, but this may change - again, check before visiting.

The Winchester Gallery, below the conference lecture theatre showed Rachel Beth Engelhoefer’s LOOP exhibition, looking at knitting codes, and actions that make loops. It also included the results of a workshop held with a local primary school. In the foyer was an exhibition by a second year student, Bethany Mitchell.

The papers presented:

Several of these are due to be published in various journals, including TEXT, so my notes are very brief. The papers were excellent and fascinating.

Linda Newington - Inspiring collectors and collecting
Covered how the knitting collections had been acquired and their strengths. Montse’s collection is very wide and diverse, including knitted items and ephemera. Richard Rutt’s collection includes 19th century knitting books and a complete run of Stitchcraft. Jane Waller’s collection is a very wide range of patterns. The aim of the Knitting Reference Library is to keep alive what Montse, Richard and Jane were / are doing; and it has an ongoing programme of purchases of new books etc.
Linda completed her MA in 2007 with a dissertation on the image and status of knitting.

Jessica Hemmings - Inspiring education and research
The use of the collections. Students, especially graphics and textile ones work with the collection, to inspire and develop their own work. (There was a display of some of the students’s work stimulated by vintage patterns in the collection.)

Martin Polley - Sportsmen and their sweaters: knitting patterns as historical sources
Used sports knitting patterns in the Knitting Reference Library dated between the 1920s and 1960s to explore the cultural contexts of the history of sport, linking it into the increasing use of visual material to help understand sports history.

Jennie Atkinson - Unravelling the knitting pattern: its use in the early 20th century
The developments, in fashion and social history, which led to the first knitting pattern leaflet being produced in 1908.

Sabrina Gschwandtner - Narratives of knitting
Discussed different narratives in knitting - participation, community, writing and gift; and how her work had involved these.

Jo Turney - Deadly yarns and knitted fictions
A comparison of knitting in Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple novels and the recent knitting murder mysteries eg. by Maggie Sefton and Monica Ferris.

Mary Brooks - Knitting into the back of the stitch: a contrary view
Discussed negative images of knitting in books and pictures - eg. as done by inferior and dependent women.

Clio Padovani - Twists, loops and gaps: knitting as an imaginary construct
Discussed the use of images of knitting, particularly in the work of modern artists; and how these can be used to challenge perceptions.

Jeanette Sendler - Seven minutes of explosion
Discussed her recent exhibition in Shetland of knitted items, collaborating with Barbara Ridland, inspired by a quarry in Shetland - and the sources of inspiration from their different pasts, hers in East Germany and Barbara’s in Shetland.

Rachel Engelhoefer - Negotiating the space between: tracking knitting and translating code
Links between technology and textiles. Discussed the different images in her exhibition LOOP, which was in the Winchester Gallery during the conference.

Barbara Burman - Inside the Montse Stanley collection
Gave an overview of the collection, before focusing on a small group of misers purses and pence jugs in it, putting them in their historical and social contexts; and also what had been learned from a reconstruction.

Lesley O’Connell Edwards - An unrecognised workforce? Hand knitters as wage earners in England from the 16th to the 19th centuries
An overview of the work and training of home hand knitters in these centuries, working for a minimal wage; including details of ages, circumstances and possible earnings, and how and why they may have learnt to knit.

Helen Bonney - Polka knitting
The development of the polka, a knitted ©jacket© in the 1840s, including the many patterns for them; and also their portrayal in paintings of the period.

Naomi Tarrant - Mrs Jane Gaugain
Presented her ongoing research into Mrs Gaugain’s work and life in Edinburgh. Mrs Gaugain was one of the earliest publishers of knitting books, in the 1840s, and a very prolific one.

Ingrid Murnane - Just an instructional leaflet? The familial narrative of a handknitting pattern
A micro-study of just one pattern, and the history of its use and consequences in a particular family.

Sandy Black - In the loop: knitting technology comes full circle
A tour through knitting from the first items made to the Shima seiki machines, which can knit completely in the round with no sewing up.

Annie Shaw - Whole garment knitwear - new ways of making clothes
Discussed her PhD research, adding value to mass produced items, inspired by gansies.

Lisa Burn-Hunter - Cookie cutter
Her development as a knitter through to her current production Cookie cutter.

Cilla Mann - Designaknit builds bridges
Uses of the Designaknit programme as away of teaching computer skills to knitters and non-knitters.

Caterina Radvan - Inclusive design for fashion through advanced knitting technology
Discussed her PhD research on designing fashionable clothing for both disabled and able bodied.

Freddie Robbins - The perfect...
Discussed her past projects, and also her latest research to use the Shima sieki machine to create a whole body with no seaming.

Liz Collins - Knitting nation
Discussed her internship in a Peruvian knitting factory developing a collection for a designer colleague, and the other work of the factory; before talking about her knitting nation projects, producing large-scale installations with the aim of asking questions and sharing dialogue.

Lacey Jane Roberts - Craft, queerness and guerrilla tactics
Discussed her work as a maker, using knitting as a guerrilla tactic.

Rachel Matthews - Dancing in loops: knitting after dark through the ages
Talked about the history of Cast-off, and showed some of the video footage for their kits; also talked about historic knitting in Cumbria including some of the songs sung at gatherings.

Kirsty Roberts - Entanglement: knitting, networks and activism
Discussed the history of craft activism, especially knitting in recent years.

The poster sessions were running over lunch time on the Wednesday and Thursday, and included one on part of a 17th century knitted silk jacket found in a Copenhagen rubbish dump by Maj Ringaard. Marilyn Wills produced an introduction to a study of a family stitch pattern - the paper is due to be published soon in the Textile Journal (I think). Judith Hubbard presented one on conservation techniques for knitted items.

Lesley O’Connell Edwards.

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