Catching Up!

I, too, am "catching up"! I have made a piece for the Connections challenge, titled "Knitted. Together." Even though I wasn't a member of this group when it was due, I thought it would be fun to participate retroactively.

Some of the ideas I considered for Connections included neurons and a map of the London underground. In the end, I thought about how knitting stitches are connections, and about how knitting has connected at least four generations of women in my family. My grandmother taught me to knit, and I know my mother was accomplished in knitting, embroidery and dressmaking. I have stored away baby sweaters that she knit for my sister and me. Now I have taught my daughter to knit. So there has been a transmission of skill that connects us, as well as many expressions of love, in the form of scarves, slippers, sweaters, ponchos, and goofy hats.

The photos of the four women were all taken at roughly the same age, late teens or early twenties. I included transfers of knitting instructions, photos of baby sweaters from patterns, buttons and a corded yarn edging. The background of the piece was a monoprint. I knit up a square of roughly 14" with string and big needles. It was pinned to a cardboard, dabbed with paint, and used to print on hand-dyed cotton. I actually made four of these prints, and it's a good thing too, because much experimentation followed.

I tried to use some of the techniques from my collage workshop, which worked so well with wood and paint. The clear contact paper doesn't lend itself to fabric, though the matte version might have some possibilities. The rice paper also could be helpful for future projects. In the end, it was TAP that worked best, either printed onto a light grey cotton, or directly onto the monoprint base. Ink-jet printed organza was another option, but it yields a more faded, indistinct image. I added tints of colour to the sweater transfers with acrylic paint, mixed with lots of matte medium to make it transparent.

So now it's onto "Reflections." Hmmm….