Knitting Heritage Museum Symposium Registration Opens This Week

Tonight I am struggling to finish up the online registration system we will be using to enroll folks in the Symposium: Knitting Heritage Museum: A Work in Progress! to be held Nov. 8-10, Madison, WI

Thanks goodness for our founding sponsor: The Yarn Group of TNNA, and our generous co-hosts, the Wisconsin Historical Society.

I am stoked! What a line-up to entice people to convene and begin the process of forming a museum to honor our knitting and crochet heritage, and laying the groundwork for the future. I created the image below to be the symposium’s banner.  I could have used objects already in a museum, but the copyright issues made using the heritage items  that I have been collecting the easier course.

[okay - so the red socks, truly a work in progress, are my original design: think heritage in waiting. . . ]

Sometimes you have to make your own history: A Child’s Sweater knit by a Danish Grandma in 1960, 1930′s hand knit lace doily from Germany, original design socks, and a touch of Tunisian Crochet, a new stitch created by Sheryl Thies

Are you interested in identifying, preserving or displaying knitted or crocheted objects?

Knitted and crocheted objects, works of the hand and heart, provide snapshots of the ethnic traditions and socioeconomic status of the maker and wearer. An infant’s christening gown celebrates an intergenerational milestone. An intricate Shetland shawl or Bohus sweater knit for hire illustrates the often unsung ways women supported their families when male incomes disappeared. A sock, knit during wartime, connects the maker at home to the warrior at the front.

These often humble and utilitarian items were worn, passed down from generation to generation and sometimes donated to a local or regional museum. Many museums have these items in their collections but are unsure how to preserve, categorize and display them.

Join us to explore:
•    Engaging a segment of the population not now actively being served.
•    Using the internet to build a dynamic relationship between museums and knitters around the world
•    Harnessing skilled expertise, not necessarily available from staff or consultants, to allow passionate practitioners to share their knowledge and so elevate the status and appreciation of knit and crochet.

Symposium attendees will:
•    View a special exhibit created by the curators of the Wisconsin Historic Society’s Textiles and Costume Collection and UW-Madison’s Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection.
•    Participate in interactive forums and discussion groups to develop a vision and collection scope for an initiative to preserve, document and share knitted and crocheted objects.
•    Hear speakers including Dr. Susan Strawn, author of Knitting America: A Glorious Heritage from Warm Socks to High Art, and Melissa Leventon, principal of Curatrix Group Museum Consultants and Appraisers; Consultant to the new Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles in Bangkok (opened May 9, 2012).

Who Should Attend
•    Textile museum curators, textile researchers and students
•    State and local history professionals
•    Yarn industry professionals
•    Knitting and Crochet designers
•    Art patrons and collectors
•    Custodians of knitted or crocheted objects
•    Women’s Studies researchers
•    Passionate practitioners
And anyone who has ever thought that Knitting and Crochet deserved a museum, but didn’t know where to start.

Our registration page with Regonline will go live in the next 48 hours.  When it does, go to http://www.regonline.com/knittingheritagemuseumaworkinprogress to sign up to join us, for an historic kick-off for creating a place to Collect Preserve Research and Share Our Knitting and Crochet Heritage! I hope you’ll join us. There is much work to be done, and no time to waste!

Oh Canada Part I – Bedazzled in Toronto

Italian Silk and Gilt Intarsia Jacket at the ROM

My quest to create a Knitting Heritage Museum kicked into high gear in June when I asked the Yarn Group of The National NeedleArts Association for a grant to cover symposium expenses. Much to my delight, the Yarn Group made a grant of $5000, $2000 more than I had requested. At the end of the meeting, Kathleen Kroeger of Bejeweled-Bedazzled  rushed up and invited me and Amy, City Knits’ manager, to visit Toronto to research how the Canadians treat their textile heritage.  Besides being an amazing hostess, she is the creator of glorious glass buttons, so light that they will work on even delicate hand knit sweaters.  I am  still digesting all the wondrous things that happened during our visit – both as a tourist and a researcher.

On Monday, we enjoyed a special tour of the Textile Collection of the Royal Ontario Museum  led by Mitzi Beale, long time volunteer with the ROM, and my traveling buddy from our life -changing 1996 Scandinavian Knitting Tour.

The Italian knit jacket was a breathtaking masterwork from the 1600‘s, knit of silk and silver gilt thread using the intarsia technique in an impossibly fine gauge.  We are still wondering about the drawer of knitted and crocheted bags and lace:  seven objects, but only six descriptions.  I guess that means another email to a curator, and another “crochet gets no respect” anecdote for the files. We were nourished in many ways by a delicious dinner hosted by our friend Norm.

Silk Oasis on the Silk Road: Bukhara - Exhibit at the Textile Museum of Canada

On Tuesday, we were gifted with an astounding mini-seminar at the Textile Museum of Canada/. Executive Director  Shauna McCabe arranged for us to spend an hour with three key curators. I still haven’t yet absorbed all the wisdom they offered. [I’ll summarize their advice in Part II.}Our hostess Kathleen was so generous: Bead store 101 for Amy at BeadFX, shrimp on the BarBee, swimming with silver globes under a silvery summer moon; bedazzling bra straps and creating jewelry at midnight, and soaking up personalized tours of the special byways that make Toronto such a wonderful city.

 

On Wednesday, after a shopping spree at Romni Wools, Toronto's mecca for knitters,  we visited charming Cambridge, and fiber genius Kathy Fisher.

Hostess Kathleen Kroeger, Mitzi Beale and Kathy Fisher

She shared amazing insights about the modern chemistry of medieval plant dyeing, an introduction to Viking whirling spindles. I am in awe of her sheer energy and intellectual pursuits. Who knew that black walnut husks yield less dye if they have grown near the road in vehicular pollution, than trees grown in the cleaner air of the woods?

Wednesday evening Amy and I saw Camelot at the Stratford Festival was sublime, from the opening hawk flight (yes, a real hawk!), through the love songs with cunning lyrics, to the despicably evil Mordred who preyed on the human frailties of King, Queen and Knight, locked in a love triangle — all enhanced by the tour de force of costuming expertise.

Granny Square Jacket from the Stratford Festival Archives

Still the highlight of our Stratford visit was a tour of costumes, and props (Amy is a gifted designer, whether sewing or knitting), followed by our lunch with Stratford’s Archives Director, Dr. Francesca Marini. Though busy with founding a museum for the Stratford Festival,  she found time to share a very special costume from her archives with us: a bright green granny square suit, crocheted from fabric strips, as well as great advice for a start-up museum, which I’ll save for another day.

How wonderful to have so many new friends “up north.” I can’t thank you all enough. Can’t wait to return.

• Up Coming Topics:  
  • Oh Canada! Part II – Museum Start-up Advice
  • Building the Board;
  • Selecting a Symposium Date;
  • What makes me think that I am the one to start up this Museum???