…of Muriel’s magnificent design that celebrates handed-ness in terms of stranded colourwork design, and also in terms of the different roles played by our hands in music.
Cover Versions: A Conversation with Kate Davies
…of the generative and transformative power of the cover song, and the form of the cover as a springboard to new and original creations.
Celebrating Shetland Wool Week hats and the knitters who make them
When I was writing about Bam & Pops’ visit to Shetland, I remembered that in 2019 – to commemorate the tenth year of Shetland Wool Week – I’d researched and written a piece for the Annual, celebrating Shetland Wool Week hats and the knitters who make them. I asked if it would be OK to […]
Square Share
Towards the end of last summer my friend Kate of KDD & Co. visited me here in Reading so we could plan a collaborative project. Our idea was to design something together which would speak to our shared interests in the creative possibilities of stranded colourwork, and the textures of womens’ lives, history, and creativity. […]
An Open Letter to the Shetland Islands Council
To The Shetland Islands Council, I write to express my dismay on learning of your decision to not renew Promote Shetland’s contract, which puts three people out of a job and imperils the inspiring work that they have done. From the outside, the decision appears deeply short-sighted. I am frankly at a loss as to […]
Shetland oo : wool , textiles , work
For some months now my friends Kate Davies and Tom Barr have been working together on an important book: Shetland oo : wool , textiles , work. Published by Kate Davies Designs, this book celebrates the people in Shetland who work with wool (or oo as it’s known there). It features essays by Kate paired […]
Thoughts on self-publishing and crowd-funding
Tomorrow I’m welcoming Karie Westermann to the KNITSONIK blog for a Q&A about her wondrous forthcoming book, This Thing of Paper. This Thing of Paper is to be a self-published collection of knitting patterns with accompanying essays and it takes its inspiration from Johannes Gutenberg and the invention of the printing press. This book project […]
KNITSONIK 09 – The Wonders of Electricity
Finally another episode of the KNITSONIK podcast – I didn’t mean to be away for so long but I’ve got a bad wrist; probably it is my old foe arthritis… so a long episode featuring lots of amazing sounds. You can listen below or through iTunes, or by downloading directly from internet archive here. Thanks […]
Adventures in Washing Up
You may remember that Kate Davies and I produced a tea towel together last year. The tea towel is back on sale in the KDD shop and it features Kate’s amazing knitwear designs illustrated by me. What you may not know is that back in 2008 I produced a radio feature about doing the washing […]
KNITSONIK 07 – Finding The Fabric of The Place (Part 2)
Welcome back! This is the second part of a bumper edition of the KNITSONIK podcast dedicated to “Finding The Fabric of The Place”. It shares work from the worlds of soundart and knitting which celebrate or explore our relationship to different places. As ever, find it on iTunes, play it through the player below, or […]