BARBARA KNITS AGAIN

Looking through Barbara's blog this caught my eye. Evidence of another project based around World War's, using members and volunteers (a form of community).

Also relates to how the archive is important for British Heritage, exact re-creation of the First World War for film use.

Interesting blog on vintage yarns,  shows just how ration the balls were during  the war. 

Seems like Barbara is quite interested in products from WWI, might be interesting for Imogen to get involved with some current investigations she is doing.


REFERENCES
http://barbaraknitsagain.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/tell-them-of-us.html
http://barbaraknitsagain.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/copleys-cobweb.html

KNITTING AND CROCHET GUILD

Founded in 1978, the Knitting and Crochet Guild are a national charity dedicated to UK domestic hand knitting, machine knitting and crochet. It is run by volunteers and supported by subscriptions and donations. They have held exhibitions and run courses and workshops as part of their education programme. (this could be something to consider as a means of introducing the community to our project) They also have displays at national yarn fairs to share and develop skills, knowledge and enthusiasm about knitting and crochet.

"to be the leading national voluntary organisation for knitting and crochet in the UK, by working for the benefit of members and promoting education, innovation and preservation for the crafts of crochet, hand knitting and machine knitting"

SlipKnot is the journal for the Guild that has been published since its foundation. The aim was to tackle the subjects of hand knitting, machine knitting and crochet at a higher technical level, encouraging critical approaches to techniques and historical study and also recording contemporary developments.

The Guild is based at Unit 4, Lee Mills Industrial Estate, St Georges Road, Scholes, Holmfirth (investigation into why this place was chosen, could look at history of the area). Preservation is one of the key aims of the Knitting and Crochet Guild, it has collected material relating to domestic knitting and crochet in the UK.




THEIR AIMS

• supporting a network of local and regional groups which engage and encourage members to take part in the whole range of Guild activities
• publishing the journal, SlipKnot, which is written by and for members
• preserving a select collection of historic and modern knitting and crochet of museum quality and interest, and a collection of patterns, magazines, periodicals, books yarn samples and shade cards which are made available to members and other interested people for reference purposes and for loan where feasible
• developing the website as a reference source for members and others

REFERENCES
http://www.kcguild.org.uk

Abbey Price-Selvedge Magazine Article Research

As an idea for our end aim for the project we’ve decided to research in to writing an article on Lee Mills for a writing competition that Selvedge magazine are currently running. We felt that the best step towards developing this as our outcome it would be a good idea to research the articles that Selvedge magazine have recently done on the subject of archives in textiles.

In my research in to the magazine I looked at the nov/dec 2013 and the jan/feb 2014 issues.

Nov/Dec Issue:

In this issue of the magazine I’ve found an article on:

"Archival Quality" -Blodwen’s Welsh Heritage Blankets

This article is about a project called Blodwen’s Heritage Blanket Project. The project is based on the idea of old Welsh weaving mills sustaining through the new modern times of textile production. The project is basing it’s new work on an archive of patterns from Welsh weaves dating to the 17oos.
I felt this article relates to the type of article we would approach in doing about the Lee Mills archive. I think looking through the article and how its been written and the imagery used it has been useful in giving us ideas and inspiration for our project.

Jan/Feb 2014 Issue:

In this issue of the magazine I’ve found two articles relating to the topic of archives:

"Deconstructing History"-Unpicking 17th-Century Women’s Dress

This article is about 17th century women’s under garments from a collection at the V&A. I felt this article related to the topic of archives and Lee Mills as the V&A has large ranges of archives in many different areas of art and design.

 ”Silk Screen”-Ptolemy Mann Visits The Whitchurch Silk Mill

This article is about the silk that has been produced from the silk mill in Whitchurch since 1815 till the present day. I felt this article related to the Lee Mills archive project in the way the silk products produced from this mill from the past are archives themselves.

I feel from this research in to current Selvedge magazine articles it has become clear that the magazine and it’s readers are interested in stories about textile and fashion heritage, which means that creating an article based on the archives at Lee Mills will be suitable for Selvedge magazine.

Reference: Selvedge nov/dec 2013 jan/feb 2014

-Abbey Price

FIRST THOUGHTS...

There was only three of us present when we were asked to consider this, so we had to think about the others in term of their specialisms. However in our next discussion we will talk through the ideas and listen to your thoughts about them.

GROUND RULES

• Every person must blog at least once a week, whether that be some research that has been done or just to let everyone know your ideas or where you are at
• One meeting to be held a week to discuss ideas and developments of the project
• A journey to the Lee Mills Archive is to take place once every two weeks and as much is appropriate
• A dictaphone is to be used for recording all conversations, whether that be with employees at the Archive or the meetings that we have one another