The Impulse Is Fulfilled: Design of Cities and Knitting the Head of Philadelphia City Planner Edmund N. Bacon
by Amber Dorko Stopper
Originally released September 2006
In Philadelphia City Planner Edmund N. Bacon’s book Design of Cities, Bacon exhorts city planners to anticipate the needs of the human heart and spirit in planning urban spaces. Do we do enough of the same in our knitting?
Thus provoked to consider the issue, a knitter creates a larger-than-life bust of Bacon during the year of his death. Monograph includes "blueprint" for large, knitted and felted heads.
Although inspired more by the paintings of Ben Shahn when the Bacon bust was being created, isn’t it funny to see – particularly in light of Bacon’s frequent use of Paul Klee’s diagrams in Design of Cities – how much the Bacon bust looks like Klee’s Head of Man Going Senile?
May 2, 2006 was proclaimed Edmund Bacon Day through a Resolution of the House of Representatives, Commonweath of Pennsylvania. At a public ceremony held in Philadelphia City Hall, I was happy to drop off the very first copies of the very first NOSHI monograph to two of Bacon's children, Hilda and Kevin (yes, that would be Kevin Bacon). It was an auspicious occasion and a wonderful opportunity to express just how far and wide Bacon's vision was and is able to translate.
- A.D.S.
Vision and Blindness: Edmund Bacon’s 1963 Plan for Center City, Philadelphia (PDF)
Ed Bacon on the cover of Time magazine, November 1964
PURCHASE!
You'll Be Wrapped Around My Finger: Wrangling Stockinette Edges
by Lisa R. Myers
Originally released September 2006
There's a simple answer to the problem of stockinette-stitch fabrics rolling up at the edge: ribbing. Or garter stitch. Or any of a million other beautiful edgings. But, after 10 years of telling novices and pros alike that there's no solution, this knitter set out in search of, if not the mythical beast itself, then its real-world cousins. Which cast-ons produce less curling, which more? Does it matter whether the cast-on edge is loose or tight, or whether the fabric itself is, or might it be a matter of how the two relate? Does yarn structure--number of plies, degree of twist, woolen-spun or worsted--play a role?
Here are the results of the extensive swatch test you've always wondered about but never had the patience for.
While exploring the effect of various cast-ons on the degree of roll, we encountered a cast-on we've never seen. (And we've seen a few.) The structure is similar to that of the long-tail cast-on, in that it has a row of knots along the bottom of the live stitches, and it's also done with a single needle. But it differs significantly in being done with a single strand of yarn. It's also atypical to see a single-needle cast-on worked with the needle in the left hand; this knitter is right-handed herself, and the rest of her knitting is completely standard. Those who follow such things may wish to know that the she learned to cast on as well as to knit from her mother, who was of Eastern European Jewish descent.
- L.R.M.
PURCHASE!
The Punk Rock Knitting Swindle
by Amber Dorko Stopper
Originally released May 2007
DIY used to mean not only do it yourself, but figure it OUT yourself. Now, DIY - as in DIYnet.com, and way, way too many do-it-yourself television shows and "lifestyle" magazines – means “follow the instructions that somebody gives you.” And knitwear "designers" are fast at hand to supply the latest "punk rock" knitting pattern.
The punk ethic was one of anticonsumerism, not one of chubby little intarsia skulls. And at least one knitter-writer agrees with the immortal Lester Bangs, that knitting's "fashion industry" is in fact "swooping down to rape your stance and leave you shivering fish-naked in the cultural welfare line," and telling you you love it.
Part memoir, part manifesto, "The Punk Rock Knitting Swindle" tracks two energy paths--1970's punk rock and the knitting renaissance of the last decade--on a collision course, as the author casts a skeptical eye over contemporary knitting culture to reimagine knitting as part of the performance of self in the Internet age.
Illustration by Corvus Elrod
By the Summer of 2006, The New York Times Style Section had their fill of skulls, too.
PURCHASE!
Is Ornament a Crime? Weimar Cabaret Derivatives, Bauhaus Design Principles, “Knitted” Metal Maille and Handknitted Stagewear
by Lisa R. Myers and Amber Dorko Stopper
With an itch for the “sinister elegance” of early 20th century Berlin, and inspired by the shiny tubular steel of the Bauhaus school, a small team of handcrafters created stagewear for cabaret singer Jeffrey Marsh using traditional knitting and an unlikely new element: knitted maille, or chainmail. The garment debuted on the stage at World Café Live on May 14, 2006... but the intrigue of combining chainmail and knitting, particularly with the intention of evoking the Bauhaus aesthetic, had just begun.
Exploring Dress and Culture in Weimar Germany
the bauhaus-archiv museum of design
A brief note on the history of Bauhaus design
Form Follows Function at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London
