Festival of Contemporary Art

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contemporary art - ideas for everyone

13 July - 26 August 2007

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Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre and the Australian National University School of Art Gallery present Festival of Contemporary Art (FOCA). A spectacle of current art practices with artists cannily portraying today's world by responding to the theme IN PUBLIC. The festival expounds on cyberspace knitted constructions, parallels of war and sport, and the unfiltered and inspired moments of the private realms.

As part of the 2007 Festival of Contemporary Art Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre presented Knit1 Blog1, an exhibition exposing the social phenomena of knitting and blogging. Knit1 Blog1 delved into the wacky world of blogging, existing in cyberspace but having its virtual roots twined into knitting enthusiast's daily lives.

KNIT1 BLOG1

Olivia Sherwood / Dreaming all the time / www.olma.blogspot.com

I've dabbled in knitting at various times in my life, my mother and both grandmothers having taught and re-taught me as a kid, but it's really taken off for me over the last few years. There are so many amazing creative people sharing their work online, not just the finished products but techniques, patterns, pitfalls, failed experiments, advice and encouragement. This broad community and these resources have made it possible for me and many others to try new things and broaden our skills.

I started my blog at www.olma.blogspot.com in 2003 as a way to publish short pieces of writing. Slowly it has come to be more and more focused on the things I make, particularly knitting and felting.

I've been felting my knitting (this technique is more properly called fulling) for quite some time but feel I've only just scratched the surface in terms of the possibilities. I started out making small protective cases for cameras and ipods. Then I made bowls (both crocheted and knitted). These days I continue to experiment with various shapes of vessels, and options for embellishment.

Many people prefer to use a washing machine for felting, but I prefer hand-felting - seeing and feeling the transformation as it happens. The technique I use combines hot soapy water and agitation to open up the scales of the wool and make them shrink and cling together, with intermittent rinses in very cold water to 'shock' the wool into shrinking more. Under 'Felting resources' in the sidebar of my blog, there are links to several articles about felting and fulling.

Helen Gladman / Bells Knits / www.bellsknits.blogspot.com

I used to write novels. In 2004 I made the decision to give that up and found myself feeling a bit lost without a strong creative outlet. I picked up knitting needles for the first time in more than a decade and within a year I was obsessed but fairly isolated.

Online searches led me to blogs and to information about Canberra knitters who met regularly. Eventually, I got the courage to show up. Soon after, feeling left out of the blogging fun, I started Bellsknits. Sometimes I think blogging is almost as fun as knitting and it's opened up a world of new friends to me.

Jenny Sutherland / Othlon's Demon Knits / www.othlon.blogspot.com

My mum taught me how to knit when I was young, but I started knitting obsessively when I was 14. I knit everywhere - on the bus to school, in class, at home. Recently I got a spinning wheel - well, actually, two spinning wheels. So now I can knit with yarn I've spun myself.

In 2005 Mum and I started going to Stitch'n Bitch, and I met my Yarn Sisters! I started my Blog in January 2006. I don't update it that much, but I like to put up my drawings of kittens and yarn, and photos of my current projects. I like having a record online of what I've done, and getting comments and help from my friends even if I can't see them.

Denise Sutherland / Jejune / www.jejunesplace.blogspot.com

Two years ago a dear friend encouraged me back into knitting, after a twenty year hiatus. She showed me Knitty.com. She took me to Stitch'n Bitch - and suddenly something just clicked on inside. I was utterly hooked, and it shows no sign of abating! In the past two years I have become involved in the most wonderful group of women of all ages, and reconnected with the whole tradition of craft and female companionship (not that we don't welcome men!). I find knitting relaxing, creative, challenging, and endlessly fascinating.

Part of this community has developed through my Blog, which I started because my friend started one, and she started hers because a friend had one… and so it goes. I didn't really know what I'd say at first, but I've found it to be a great place to let my friends know what I'm up to, record my achievements, keep track of what projects I'm working on, ask for help, make friends, share knitting patterns, tips, recipes - a place to have a bit of fun, and forget daily hassles.

The Alene Camisole used to be a bright pink girl's cotton jumper that I bought at an op shop for $3. I unravelled it, skeined it, washed it, then dyed it purple. The pattern was downloaded from a web site.

The Branching Out Scarf was my first lace project. The pattern is from Knitty.com, and the alpaca/silk yarn is the most luxurious fibre I've used (so far!).

In October last year my sheep puppet Lulu leapt from the needles, and I could tell from the start that she was a naughty creature. Her adventures are told on my Blog - the general havoc that ensues when she's around, her romance with BB, her recent foray into jewellery theft… where will it end?!

Antoinette Buchanan / Unravelled / www.need2knit.blogspot.com

Knitting is my natural resting state. It is always the same and ever changing. It challenges my creativity and feeds my soul.

Knitting has always been part of my life. My Mother and maternal Grandmother showed their love with the work of their hands. They are equally skilled knitters, sewers and embroiderers.

Knitting connects me these generations of other women.

Until joining out Stitch 'n' Bitch group, knitting was a solitary and often ill-regarded pursuit. Stitch 'n' Bitch and my blog brings into contact with other fibre freaks and textile terrors. It provides a community of acceptance- in the knitting blogsphere I'm not that weird.

Fiona Donovan / Missyfee / www.missyfee.blogspot.com

My Nonna taught me to knit when I was about 7. I started with knitted items for toys including a jumper for my favourite teddy.

As a teenager I tackled a complex Aran sweater for myself- but I had not grasped the notion of gauge swatch at this stage so the jumper was more suitable for a child than me. I did the same with an emerald green jumper in beehive stitch - of which only a small square remains. I have only just realised the importance of the gauge watch after spending 6 months on a 4ply lace cardie which was then too small.

In 2000 I was working in Melbourne for 6 months and not knowing many people started knitting again. I knitted a long Dr Who inspired scarf in pink, green, orange and yellow, then a multi coloured jumper for my godson. Two years later back in Melbourne again- over winter I found myself at Sunspun in Canterbury. The amazing textures and colours seduced me into knitting with a passion. It was about this time I discovered Knitty.com and started browsing the web for ideas and inspiration.

I toyed with the idea of a blog for at least two years. My knitting community in both the groups I participate with and on the web inspired me to start blogging earlier this year. I was working on the Gold Coast. I need to feel connected with my community and share my knitting frustrations and elations with more than my poor workmates. Kris at web-goddess.org has encouraged me from the start and inspires both my blogging and knitting.

Dad's rug was a project that I started for Dad when he was diagnosed with Motor Neuron Disease. I picked the colours he liked and felt that this was something that I could do for him. I could think about him with every stich I made. It was his mother who had taught me to knit. Dad only used the rug for about 4 months before he passed away and I was happy that he had all my stitches with him for some time at least.

Knitting is for me a meditation process. I enjoy planning what to knit, the colour and texture. Researching and discovering new techniques and patterns, then the actual process of knitting is very meditative. I definitely need to knit everyday. And at the end there is a finished item.

Justine is not my first design but one where I combined the rhythm of a lace pattern with a simple garment. I wanted a simple lace pattern that knitted up to a rhythm, one easy to memorise and knit. I was inspired by a children's song, Watermelon written by Justine Clarke and the languid nature of summer.

Ireene Johnson / Saffron Knits / www.saffronknits.net

I love being creative. Ever since I was a small child, I've done many things to express myself creatively but knitting came as a big surprise. I started knitting in January 2006. This was my fourth time attempt. Any previous attempt was an exercise of frustration. But this time I had the internet at my fingertips… literally and that made the difference. And thanks to free instructional videos KnittingHelp.com, I learned long-tail cast on and continental knitting. But, even with these tools at my disposal, I still managed to find my own style of knitting, which I discovered later, could be called Combination (or Combined) knitting. And the rest… as they say is history,

I'm not sure why I started my knitting blog but I'm finding that I enjoy it. I'm very much a solitary knitter, so the blog give me a chance to share the joys and frustrations of knitting and commiserate with people who understand. To communicate about this highly challenging (and expensive) hopp with other people is very cool.

I've discovered the therapeutic effects of knitting, discovered a love of fibre, challenge myself in many different ways and met some very nice people in the knitblogging world. Its been quite the journey, this last year and a half …and I know It's just begun …so stayed tuned!

Anna-Maria C Sviatko / The Shopping Sherpa / www.TheShoppingSherpa.blogspot.com

Anna-Maria has been knitting on and off since she was a child. She rediscovered the knitting obsession in January 2006 after a 10 year break. Her obsession with craft blogs started soon after when she stumbled across an article about Loobylu in an old Wired magazine.

Within 6 weeks The Shopping Sherpa (the blog) was born and had been demanding to be fed ever since.

Janette Mana / Knitting on the Avenue / www.knitavenue.blogspot.com

Blogging is a dairy of sorts, but once words are placed in a blog, it is no longer private, personal or secret as it would be in a diary, though some write as if it is - you are sharing with the world and they read it and comment …and so it is that I blog about my passion- hand knitting.

I stumbled into blogging two years ago and discovered a plethora of people who are as passionate about this ancient craft as I am. I cannot remember when I began… I've been knitting from an early age and always enjoyed the process, and it is a process. With an end result that always amazes. Stich by stich, row by row, hour by hour, but exciting at the same time…The completed piece is usually something you cannot purchase, a one off… something that is uniquely you!

Blogging is the same - uniquely you, but in words and pictures. As any blogger knows, once you read one knitting blog, it inevitably leads to another and another. Before you know it, hours fly by in seconds…stich by stich, word by word.

I'm a designer/ knitter living in Sydney, with a library that would rival most book stores and a stash that has now become embarrassing.

In 2003 I wrote and published a knitting book - an exciting time in my life.

At home in my studio is where dreams and designs originate.

My secret life only knitters understand and acknowledge. We meet and laugh, nibble, sip and knit, review and discuss patterns and yarn, model each knit as it is completed…… exciting, inspiring, rewarding… it is friendship… it is a world I will never tire of.

My non-blogging/knitting friends and family know nothing of this life.

Justine Kruz / Asia Adventure / www.asiaadventure.blogspot.com

I learned to knit as a small child and then as many do, cast it aside for other activities. In university I came back to the art and relearned the skill, my hand never really forgot but my mind needed a little coaching. When I was living in Asia I began a blog to keep in tough with my family and friends. Through that blog I discovered the wonderful world of knitting bloggers. Over the years my blog has evolved into a place to showcase my knitting, gripe about life, share events and perhaps most surprisingly a way of keeping in touch with the community of virtual friends that has developed.

Caren Florance / Ampersand Duck / www.ampersandduck.blogspot.com

The blog-friend who made these cats, Kate, has never met me (mainly because she lives in Perth and I am in Canberra), but we know a lot about each other from our blogs. She has a dog she loves and I have two cats, I love books and she loves writing. She wrote and excellent post one day about Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy the vampire Slayer. I just happened to have picked up a Buffy comic at the Lifeline Book Fair, and decided, on a whim, to send it to her. She responds by knitting these cats for me. They are knitted versions of my own black cats, Mr Pooter and Mr Padge, whom I blog about regularly. I think I got the better half of the exchange!

Michelle Law / Quilting Mick / www.quiltingmick.blogspot.com

My mother taught me to knit and crotchet when I was 8. The knitting didn't stick, but the crochet did. Growing up in the tropics, woollen items of clothing weren't often needed, but my mother usually knitted me a beautiful jumper to wear to the Townsville Show every July. Crochet was reserved for lacy tablecloths, dollies and the ever practical ripple rug. My own crochet skills were limited to dressing my Sindy and baby Alive dolls.

Fast forward to 1991 when I moved to Canberra. Mum sent be down here with my own ripple rug, but the loneliness and the need to be creative led me to crochet my own granny square afghan rug. Then I discovered sewing and quilting, a crotchet was once again put on the back burner.

A couple of years ago I took up the knitting needles again, but my frustration at not being able to "get it" was still there even though countless garter stitch scarves rolled off the needles that year. Then I found my crochet hooks and felt right at home again, crocheting scarves and hats and ripple rugs, tackling other designers' patterns and creating my own designs.

My blog was created originally in 2004 to document my quilting and stitching, and it still does that. Currently my crocheting has taken over the blog - winter 2007 seems to have invigorated me to create extra warmth with my hooks and I am taking great delight in acquainting myself with different yarns and learning how crotchet stitches and different yarns will work together to create something truly amazing.

• Penny Hadobas / Beatlewear / www.happyspider6.blogspot.com
• Jacqui Kempton – no blog no story
• Bronwen Sandland – no blog no story