I have been busy - but today, the last day of Spring Break, I finally found some time to post these images from our recent 4- person Faculty Show, Oddly Wound Up at the Lawton gallery earlier this semester. These works are a continuation of the bathing suits, of which I've posted a couple here previously. This is a set of 5 knitted bikinis designed to follow specific locational knitting traditions; maps and ephemeral research materials are displayed on bulletin boards behind the suits, so people can see where the traditions came from, and get a sense of what the weather might be like in a place where knitting would become a really solid part of the cultural identity - and how global warming could threaten the production of material culture.
If you're from a really small remote place yourself, you'll probably enjoy the fact that Fair Isle is a tiny place in the middle of the North Sea, but their knitting traditions are still prominently represented in fashion today.
Cowichan bikini, "The Dude" based upon native interpretations of Fair Isle knitting brought over from Europe by the Sisters of St. Anne in 1860.
Aran, Guernsey Gansey and Fair Isle 'kinis.
Aran installed next to Cowichan, with maps mounted behind each.
Guernsey Gansey Tankini with Fair Isle string and Nordkini in background.
Guernsey Gansey Tankini and Fair Isle share a map.
Nordkini.
Map and Nordkini.
Highlighting the Fair Isle String, inspired by Elizabeth Zimmermann, and the Guernsey Gansey Tankini, instructions and visuals from "Knitting the Old Way."
Aran and Cowichan.
Map dots, ephemera highlighted.
Just showing off the skirt on the Fair Isle string - Okay, I'm pretty proud of that one. And it was fun to make!
