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How to Knit by Stitches and Hos, Illustration by Ben Javens
I have become increasingly fascinated with the myriad of techniques and styles that can be used to produce the 2 basic knitting stitches knit and purl. Hold your wool in your right or left hand? Wrap your wool around clockwise or anticlockwise? Where do these techniques and styles come from? Most, if not all of these techniques are not ‘visible’ in the knitting produced. Why is this? I understand that knitters are basically doing the same thing but why don’t these differences show? In other craft disciplines slight changes to technique are visible in the finished product.
What factors lead to a knitter using one technique or method over another? Are they geographical? Inherited? Stylistic? Historical?
Over the next few months I intend to look into these questions. The first thing I’m going to do is to film knitter’s hands whilst they knit to see the what differences there are in technique and style. I’ll also ask some questions about how and where they learnt to knit to see if can spot any patterns.
So if you see me at our next hootenanny wielding my smartphone at knitters hands you’ll know why.
Our next hootenanny is on Tuesday 28 May from 7:30pm at Hare and Hounds
Here are some pictures from our pompom party a couple of weeks ago.
All of the pompoms have now been installed as part of our Festive Knit Up in the back bar at Hare and Hounds
Make sure you go & take a closer peek over the holidays.
I’m very pleased to announce our next project here at Stitches and Hos ‘Festive Knit Up’.
We will be decorating Stitches and Hos HQ the back bar of Hare and Hounds pub for the festive season. As ever I am looking for people to help with the knitting. You will need to be able to follow a pattern and knit to a given size and gauge. All wool will be provided. If you are interested in taking part please get in touch info@stitchesandhos.co.uk
We will also be holding a pompom party at our next monthly hootenanny on Tuesday 27 November. There’s a Facebook event thingy here and I’ll put up the details in the next blog post.
Right then, back to my knitting
Last week Stitches and Hos created a window installation as part of Unique in Birmingham, a project designed to improve the street scene around the city centre’s shopping area. 9 finalists have been selected and each one given an empty shop unit window to create an installation on the theme Unique in Birmingham.
Our window ‘A Knitted Harvest’, is a celebration of the Birmingham Bull Ring Markets. The markets are a fantastic resource for makers and keen cooks like myself or for those just looking for a retail experience outside of the high street.
Our window is located in Burlington Arcade off New Street and will be in place until the end of the year. You can also walk the trail and visit all 9 windows by downloading a map here
A big thanks to Helen, Lilith and Venetia for helping to knit and crochet all of the items. Another big thanks to Lauren for fabricating the market stall and to the ever wonderful Katja Ogrin for taking photos. Here are some images of the finished piece.
Well we’ve had a really busy summer here at Stitches and Hos. Our Olympic knit graffiti project K2TOG saw the columns of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery covered in six colours to celebrate the arrival and stay of the Jamaican and American Olympic teams to Birmingham.
The project was a huge success with over 400 people knitting panels which were then sewn together to cover the museum.
At the moment we are preparing for our next project A Knitted Harvest. We are producing a knitted market stall for the Unique in Birmingham project. More details on that soon.
In the meantime don’t forget that it’s our monthly knitting hootenanny this Tuesday (30th October). So why not come get your stitch on from 7:30pm, back bar, Hare and Hounds, Birmingham
We have some leftover wool from K2TOG for sale. If you are interested get in touch via email.
Artesano Aran in Strathy (cream/white) 50% wool 50% alpaca
5 x 100g skeins which are wound into cakes. 100g £5 plus postage
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Artesano Aran in Wester (red) 50% wool 50% alpaca
2 x 100g skeins which are wound into cakes. 100g £5 plus postage
18 x 100g skeins which have been knitted once, frogged and wound into cakes.
100g £3.50 plus postage
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Artesano Superwash Merino in Sea Blue 100% merino wool
27 x 50g balls. 50g £2.50 plus postage
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Artesano Superwash Merino in Black 100% merino wool
17 x 50g balls. 50g £2.50 plus postage
I’ve just come back from a new wool shop in Kings Norton. It’s called Fibre Flurry and is run by the lovely Michaela. They only stock wool with a 70% or higher natural content. They also have a good stock of needles, accessories and related items.
I cycled over to have a look and ask for help with a large commission (more on that later) but couldn’t leave the shop without purchasing 2 skeins of handspun undyed wool (pictured above). It was just too lovely to resist.
For more information and directions visit the Fibre Flurry website here. You can also follow them on twitter @fibreflurry
As you may (or may not) know we offer free wool and needles to anyone that comes along to our night. After 5 years of knitting hootenannys the S&H cupboard is almost bare.
I plan to try and raise £50 to cover the costs of a new stash of wool for the next 12 months of knitting hootenannys. To do this I would like to hold a raffle. However a raffle is pretty rubbish without any prizes.
So here’s where you lovely lot can help. If you have a prize that you would like to donate to the raffle prize fund please let me know by Monday 11 April info[at]stitchesandhos.co.uk Ideally it would be something handmade or knitting/stitching related but any prize will be gratefully received.
The fundraiser will be held on Tuesday 26 April from 7:30pm onwards, back bar, Hare and Hounds, Birmingham.
They’ll also be a scrumptious cake stand selling delicious cakes to tempt you from your money. Sounds to stitch to will be provided by Matt Snowden and Bethan McKnight.
Hope to see you there
