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- Mirjam, NEDERLANDS TEXTIELMUSEUM, TILBURG- ANNOUNCEMENTS
- Sivia, ISRAELI ROCKS EMIGRATE TO ALASKA
- Jen, ISRAEL'S FIRST KNIT-OUT
- Avital, PROFILE: MARK SHOULSON
Address: Nederlands Textielmuseum
Goirkestraat 96
5046 GN Tilburg, Nederlands
tel: 013 536 7475
URL: http://www.tilburg.nl/textielmuseum
email: textielmuseum@tilburg.nl
To get there: from the Central Station, take Bus 43 going to Heikant [ask the driver to tell you where museum is--it stops by the door)
The exhibition I went to see is called "Slipstich," a co-production of Dutch curator Carin Reinders and British curator John Allen, which shows new and exciting designs by Dutch and English designers (as well as students) for furniture, jewellery and fashion accessories. The catalog itself is bound in a knitted cloth laminated in see-through nylon, a thing of beauty in itself.
Porcelain coffee pots have crocheted vests; there are clothes for grown-ups, as well as for children, which have been knitted, felted, and printed, some lovely machine-knitted children's clothes that allow great freedom of movement, and knitted shoes with rubber soles. I loved a weird cloth that was knitted with a ruffled edge all round and then felted. It could be used, as they said, like a loose skin: in a video a young dancer put it on like a poncho, a skirt, hid in it and under it--fantastic. There were knitted forms to be used as ceramic ware (after they were treated, probably), as well as laundry baskets with a knitted structure (a big knitted sack folded inwards over a metal rack). I loved the various pieces of furniture, an old-fashioned-looking armchair covered with beautiful knitted material, and a coffee table whose *feet* look like knitted snake or a big snail. I fell in love with a dress by Susie Freeman, knitted on a double bed, the upper body partly black and an over-flowing skirt knitted of nylon thread; in its little pockets she put pieces of ribbons and all kinds of shiny materials--and it looked like an English sweet, black with all colors inside it!!!! I did not care much for the knitted garment of rubber bands, nor for the lounge settee made of knitted, rolled cloth covered with corrugated cardboard.
There were some marvelous bags, and I loved Alexander Wainright's wall piece, which was pieced of material (looked hand-painted), embroidered, and patched with small, knitted, jewelry-like patches, adorned with some beads. Exquisite! I loved the various lampshades, from those that looked like sacks hung in a corner to those that were fully blown up. Ballooning lights were mounted on top of each other. There was a hand-knitted chair made of what looked like an electrical high-voltage cable, but the catalog says it was polyethylene foam rod. I was not impressed by most of the dishes made of some other Poly???? materials. Other wall pieces had little squares with a test tube with a flower in each square.
Teresa Searle made a wonderful work with colored machine-knitted forms which she then embroidered and appliquéd. It was bold, yet still free in form and very pleasing. I was quite mystified by several knitted materials that copied real, woven materials and were displayed as deck chairs, cushions, etc. One work, probably the most fun, was a black table garment, a sweater for a four-legged table with a turtleneck hanging under the table. I was wondering how they dressed it. Well, each leg was knitted separately, the table surface was a flat square and so was the underside. This sort of disappointed me. The solution was *too* easy. I loved the Red Hearts Table Garment that showed up like a pile of 3-D red hearts (or more like pomegranates). Well, I hope this gives you all a wee bit of an idea of what I saw.
You probably all received a "strange request" in late June from a knitter in New Jersey who has granddaughters who collect rocks and postcards and who live in Alaska. As I was on the eve of a visit, I replied that I would be agreeable (definition of rocks in the dictionary does not necessitate them being large) and asked for the address. Got the daughter's address, no phone number, so I requested that the New Jersey lady ask her daughter to contact me on the one day I was in Fairbanks, in order to deliver requested items. Needless to say (?) no phone call, no message! Having schlepped four small rocks around Alaska for a couple weeks, the Israeli rocks were thrown to cohabitate with the locals. On returning home I found a communication from said daughter in Fairbanks saying she'd received her mother's letter, had been away, had returned a short time before my visit but had forgotten to get in touch! What's the lesson? [Ed.: That'll give Alaskan geologists something to think about!]
The "Canyon" in Ramat Aviv was filled with people on Sunday looking for gifts for the upcoming holiday and, in the midst of all this mayhem, sat three guild members, Joan, Ellen, and me, enjoying a late morning cup of coffee, conversation, and knitting! Ellen was working on a sweater from one of the gorgeous yarns she purchased on her trip last year to Florence, Italy. Joan was in the process of frogging her multi-color Baby Surprise sweater and I brought along some pink wool to knit a scarf for my daughter.
After finishing our beverages, Joan and I adjourned to the benches in the center of the mall to knit and look through recent knitting magazines. I brought along some of my finished projects as well as "works in process" and spread them out on our knitting bags in back of us, so that passersby could see them.
Some people looked at us with curiosity and interest, but didn't stop to talk. The exceptions were two women, one who mentioned how she'd knitted for years and enjoyed it enough to want to come back to knitting, and another who asked us whether we knew of any yarn shops selling "baby" or fingering-weight wool. Joan and I got to talking with them and the first woman was happy to take the guild's phone number to get further information about our next meeting; the second, who apparently does knit baby booties, just wanted yarn information, which we were able to provide her.
So while the three of us enjoyed each other's company and the chance to knit, public interest was minimal. I would have loved it if more of you could have joined us to make this event more successful, but keep on knitting in public all year long and making people aware that this hand-craft is alive and well and living in Israel.
Those of you who subscribe to the Knitlist may have seen this URL posted recently: http://web.meson.org/topology/mobius.html. Mark Shoulson (mark@kli.org) is the creative knitter who designed the Moebius Strip Kippah, a single strip twisted three times and then joined at the ends, so that it forms a one-sided loop. (If Moebius strips are unfamiliar to you, take a piece of paper, give it a half-twist, tape the ends together to form a continuous loop, and run your finger along the edge. You'll find there's only one edge and one side.) You have to see this kippah to believe it. (It looks a lot like the recycling symbol.) Mark designed the prototype and his wife Shani crocheted it in fine cotton.
Mark is from New Jersey, has studied in the U.S. and Israel, and used to teach computer science at the College of New Jersey, after several hi-tech jobs. He is now studying for a doctorate in computer science and a certificate in Cognitive Science at Rutgers University. He is the assistant director of the Klingon Language Institute (http://www.kli.org). In addition, he is one of the creators of the Shamash Kosher Restaurant Database (http://shamash.org/kosher), a very useful site if you travel a lot and observe kashrut.
Mark learned how to knit and crochet in high school and has crocheted kippot with his name in Klingon and in Sanskrit. He persuaded his mother, who was going through a knitting phase, to teach him, "more out of curiosity than anything else." Although he has been knitting for years, he insists that he hasn't knitted very seriously--mostly a lot of swatches. The topological wonders that appear on his web site, the Klein Bottle and the Moebius strip, are the most serious projects he has tackled. At the moment, he is working on a five-twist Moebius strip kippah but he's encountering a design flaw--the hole in the middle. When you twist a strip five times and join the ends, it tends to look like a cinnamon twist breakfast roll or a pentagon-shaped cookie-cutter. (I managed to design a 5-twist Moebius strip without a hole, of interlocking diamonds, scanned it, and e-mailed it to him.)
When asked about future projects, he said, "I hadn't had any specific plans; I have more interests than a small town and tend to leave a lot of projects unfinished. Though with all the interest in it now, I'm finding myself feeling around to find my needles (ack, all the packing!)... I'm thinking of trying another projective plane, this one seamless (except at the top). I think it'll take a whopping *seven* needles, though. (well, MAYBE it could be done with five, but it would likely be extremely inconvenient). I think once I was toying with the idea of making a two-twist strip (two-sided), coiling it properly to make a one-twist, and putting a zipper along it, to show a moebius strip being split in two. Maybe other ideas will come to me." A zipper in a Moebius strip? Now there's a twisted mind!
* On the web: The School of Textiles at Heriot-Watt University, Scottish Borders Campus. BA Honors show. http://www.hw.ac.uk/sotWWW/exhib00/coverpage1.html (from Jennifer)
* Mazel tov to Oasis Guild member Althea. She just celebrated (or is "survived" a better word?) the bar mitzvah of her son, Pesael Cohen.
* Bat Yam Yarn Shop: In Family Circle Easy Knitting (Spring/Summer 2000), an article called "Round the World in 80 Stitches" mentions a yarn shop located on 90 Balfour Street, Bat Yam. "Chic Buttons" (Caftorei Shik), has been owned and operated by Turkish Jews, Dina and Yitsak Parlian, for 27 years! It is located on Balfour Street. According to the article, they carry wool, cotton, acrylic, mohair, angora, merino, and alpaca (mostly by Israeli manufacturers Polgat and Vitalgo). (from Amy)
* The September guild meeting was held on the 19th. It was an intimate, select gathering in Ein Kerem, attended by hostess Donna, Haya, and Althea. Oh well, everything happens "acherei ha-chagim," right?
* Lace-knitter and designer extraordinaire, Judy Gibson, has finished her latest project, a Star of David: http://www.users.cts.com/crash/j/jgibson/knitting/star.htm. A beginning lace knitter wants to knit her own chuppah and Judy came up with a number of interesting ideas. (from Avital)
* Nina Libin, the author of books on "Beanile Lace," a form of tatting that incorporates beads, will be in Israel in the Bat Yam area for the month of October. Avital Pinnick is trying to coordinate a meeting with Nina in Jerusalem. Interested tatters, please call Avital.
* On Sept. 14, I had coffee with Marjorie Brigham of Adelphi, Md, president of the Metro Knitters' Guild (http://www.wam.umd.edu/~brwb/index3.htm), an active guild with about 25 dues-paying members. She and her husband were in Israel for 7 weeks, from mid-August to the end of September. Before her trip, she searched the net for "Israel Knitting Guild" and came up with the Oasis page. (She commented on how lovely the site was, with the photograph of the sunset.) The Metro Knitters meet on the first Wednesday of every month and they publish a lively monthly newsletter (the $6 annual dues cover costs). You can read the Sept. issue at http://www.wam.umd.edu/~brwb/September.htm. In addition to knitting, Marjorie does lovely beadwork. She was wearing a watchband and a necklace that she had made and she presented me with a "suncatcher kit." When she's not knitting, Marjorie is a teacher specializing in home and hospital teaching, for sick children and teenagers on maternity leave. (by Avital)
