Wednesday 20 February 2008

knit

When I was a silly, frilly, deeply dippy young thing (in my 20's, not 'the' 20's) I knitted on my daily tube journey to glorious Sunny Soho - my very own shiny, spangly, sprinkly, happy clappy City of Adventure. I collected tank tops, (I had a label called Elvis' Tank Top Shop) wore bobble hats, scarves and specs... School children asked me what I was doing, older people would give me sly smiles... young-ish people knitting wasn't a regular sight then (the tasteful 80's).

(portraits above - chris tubbs for elle decration)

Whilst at St Martin's I knitted album covers and got told off (t'wasn't serious typography). So when I left.... I knitted a cover for my hoover.... for a fetish edition of Time Out magazine.
(hoover photo - Neil Juggins)

There were fluffy, but oh-so-irritating, pinch-me-tease-me-itch-me easter bonnets also made for Time Out. They were really quite creepy. Erm - then there were giant fairisle canvases, giant knitted road signs... and so on.

(masks shown to make kittypinkstars giggle)

This Christmas I keenly undertook my new mum responsibilities and dusted off the old needles. I started to knit bunting. I thought - what a great new family tradition. As my daughter grows older, she can add to it... It'll grow as we grow as a family and each year our memories will stretch across another little bit of our home... Then my partner walked in and asked why I'd strung my knickers across our ceiling.
(masks shown to make kittypinkstars giggle)

So - I'm not a natural born knitter.

Over the next few entries I'm going to blog about some people who can knit very well indeed. And in the meantime, here's some of the many splendid varieties of wonderful woolly eye candy:
knitted cars - tim walker - for vogue

Knitted-look ceramics by Madieke Fleuren (above & below).
Found on the bloesem blog

Ruth Cross knitted chair (above)

berber inspired necklace (above) - maria ribeiro

allyson mitchell installation above - found via eclectic gipsy

above & below - hilarious stitchmcyarnpants blog

7 comments:

Gigibird said...

I wonder what Allyson Mitchell would do if she got a bad case of moth?

lovely textiles said...

Ha! Now I won't sleep tonight - imagining I can hear the sound of tiny nibbles!

Kittypinkstars said...

I love the oh so creepy but somehow fascinating masks!! And a hoover cover!!! What a fab idea..my hoover really needs an outfir :D

lovely textiles said...

Oh no. I took them down! I'll tack them back onto the end of the post for you!
All household implements should have outfits I think... x

Anonymous said...

I think your work is so fun.

Anonymous said...

Hi Elvis,

I'm so glad I fund you again! I saw years ago your pictures in Elle Deco. I loved everything about you/your work. I've even wrote you a mail, about how you are inspiring me. And I like to thank you. So much.
Esther

lovely textiles said...

Esther, thank you so much for your comment. I've sent you an email on flickr. xx elvis