SARAH CAWKWELL

THREADLINES

Drawings Reliefs Sculptures   - page 3

This is the story of a friend, a real knitter, who, during a long talk together about knitting, told how she learnt to knit and how she and her grandmother and her aunt would sit on a sofa in a row knitting and what it meant to her. 

"I remember sitting at my Grandmother's feet on warm sunny days, watching a ball of yarn being jerked back and forth, again and again, across the carpet. I remember the sound: a clickety-clack made by her knitting needles that filled the air like the noise of typewriter keys being rapidly struck. So hypnotized was I by the rapier-like dual between those two needles, I would forget my task to look after the yarn, which would then invariably get knotted. Then the clicking had to stop while the yarn was untangled. 

"Whenever her daily chores ended, my Grandmother's hands, ever busy, instinctively, unmindfully, reached to pick up her knitting. Waiting for her to sit on the couch, I would rummage through her bag full of scraps and knitted samples, winding yarn around my fingers, dreaming of my first cuffs and collars. Sometimes she would pull out an old cardigan from her cupboard, take off the buttons, unpick the stitches, calmly loosen its threads. Slowly, as if it could take forever, she would unravel the entire piece to form a new ball of wool to knit me a new jumper. Strong old yarn reborn once again to be passed on, concealed, in new cables and stitches, all part of the ancient ritual of hand knitting. I was spellbound, learning the art of knitting by osmosis.

"My first stitch was knitted, sitting on my Grandmother's knee, in a golden yellow yarn. Soon I had knitted a small triangular scarf, albeit full of mistakes. And although I knew early on the first steps to this age-old craft, it was some time before I could join her and my aunt in the companionship of dropped stitches and unravelled rows. Three generations knitting on one sofa where family bonds were strengthened through the language of cast-ons and bind-offs.

"There was a lot to learn, a lot to practise. All the patterns that stitches could make and all the shapes that knitting could create, stitch by stitch, row by row. Starting from a simple loop I am inevitably caught in the spiral of a repetitive, calming motion unable to stop as I lose myself in its soothing magic." (Hania Dudziak 2008)

20 Blanket 2003, pencil,     21 Blanket 2003, pencil, 
77 x 57cm.                       77 x 57cm.

10 Thrown down 2002, charcoal & pencil, 57 x 77cm.

Knitting is a sacred and ancient art, one that has been handed down from generation to generation sustaining cultures and clothing mankind. Its very textures and patterns and language seem deeply etched into my consciousness and my art feels infused with its very ways during the making of a drawing or the teasing out of a relief. Knitting is like life, one stitch at a time, little by little.

SC January 2009

For further information email art@millineryworks.co.uk

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