“Everything is connected” is one of the projects I was struggling a lot. The first thing that made me confused was the ability of things that can be done for such a open topic. I started my research from different nature structures, how is different forms of life connected on the earth, how people are connected… etc. I was looking for such a various topics, but could not find the one I can work with. Finally in about a week of thinking I came with one simple and not easy one. In a translation from English into Russian “Everything is connected” is “Vse sviazano”, this phrase also means that “Everything is knitted”. So I took this idea forward.
Knitting.
“Knitting is a method by which thread or yarn may be turned into cloth. Knitting consists of loops called stitches pulled through each other. The active stitches are held on a needle until another loop can be passed through them.”
I tried to compare our life with knitting and that has got some common rules. Knitting is about turning something not really interesting, like a thread into a masterpiece. The same things happens in life. Small coincidences forms people’s lives, and people lives are just small parts of the universe.
As I found out, knitted things are everywhere. And they could form there own knotted universe.
Knitted alphabet is the first evidence of the existing “knitted” universe. It has its own language, that means that its exists. In support of this, it also has its own life form. But mostly it is copping the human race. Here is n example of some chromosomes and humans organs.
Starting from the clothing details they progressed into knitted models of people and their surrounding elements.
The Giant Carpet.
This giant carpet was created by students of the German Bauhaus University (Weimar) Sebastian Shonheyt (Sebastian Schönheit). His creation he exhibited at the annual exhibition in Beijing.The exhibition was a 798 area arts and was called “Two blocks east and west” that was held from November 30, 2008.
Knitting carpet looks as if it originated somewhere in another world. The author wants to show not only the result of their work, but also the process of creating the original carpet, to recreate an old tradition of knitting.
Well, we can only find the spokes of a giant, a big coil of rope or cable, and stock up strength and patience to tie their unique interior item!
Knitted Food.
Tree Knitting.
While searching for an interesting knitting art, I came across some great works by Carol Hummel – she has created these amazing tree covers.
An overt sign that the growing crochet trend has been taken to new heights, literally, is artist Carol Hummel’s Tree Cozy. As part of a two-year exhibition of eight works by sculptors in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Hummel crocheted a cozy with brightly colored nylon and synthetic material for a tree in front of Cleveland Heights City Hall, which wouldn’t impede “the growth of the tree or [harm] wildlife.”
In her artist statement, Hummel refers to the tree cozy as “an emphatically handmade blanket representing femininity and comfort” which covers “a natural object representing masculinity and strength,” a piece that personifies the tree “keeping it cozy and colorful throughout the year, enhancing the beauty of nature,” and evokes “memories of bygone times and places when life was good,” as well as “softens the strong tree form while also emphasizing it.” She says, “The cozy covering the tree fluctuates between comforting blanket and suffocating cover-up; it conceals as much as it protects; it hides as much as it reveals.” Tree Cozy was on display from 2005 through 2008, and landed Hummel an award as the winner of the Heights Public Art Competition. There’s more to learn and see about this project, so read more.
Hummel has also “cozied” a companion tree in India to the one in Ohio, bound another tree in India with rope, was commissioned to crochet a tree in Orlando, Florida, macraméd a mountain in Utah, and has also been known to dress trees in underwear. Hummel’s Cleveland Heights Tree Cozy, which took her 500 hours and the use of a hydraulic lift, recently spawned a tree crochet movement in Yellow Springs, Ohio, which has become a community art project and conversation piece, “made up of panels of yarn knitted individually by residents and visitors alike.”
There is more to knitting than we think about it.
Although its history goes only back to the renascence, knitting is behold as an ancient craft. This is due to it’s history being roughly documented or maybe just because knitting is so simple. In fact that is the motive why, contrary to other crafts, the guilds could not hide knitting techniques for long. Knitting didn’t depend on specialized tools and knowledge, like glass blowing or metalwork, all you need is needles, yarn and two hands. The people learned it and took it home for their personal use. This easiness is also the reason why knitting is so popular and the most social of the crafts. No handicraft has spread so fast through the internet in the last years. A meeting site like meetup.com has it’s largest communities in knitting groups. Although, from what I could gather,Ravelry.com is the real new internet experience for knitters. It’s a knitting database and a social site. There you can find original patterns, contact the designers, show work but also find out who knitted what with this specific yarn.
Looking for new experiences and forms of expression, knitting goes to the streets covering statues and traffic signs. But is it still knitting or did it become a tool of urban art? This article from deputy-dog.com covers some of the guerrilla knitting projects out there but if you are really interested in knowing more about it, I recommend Rose White’s talk “The history of guerrilla knitting”, at the 24th Chaos Communication Congress.
Some works with “knitting”:
As an idea I still have the creation of a knitted universe or knitted world. What about knitted book of a knitted universe. The whole story of its creation and development? That idea could work….
