1980s
The most recent heyday of knitting and crochet was the 1980s when young designers came into prominence such as: Patricia Roberts, Kaffe Fassett [his sweater here] and Sasha Kagan
Exciting fancy yarns were readily available. This is a close-up of a jacket designed by Sylvia Cosh using Colinette yarns and sold as a kit through 'Woman & Home' magazine in the early 1980s.
The Leeds & Bradford branch of the Guild made, as a group project, a jacket with a yoke made of crochet scrumblies with the rest of the garment knitted in stocking stitch.
Garments were bright and colourful such as this exuberant mohair dress made to a pattern in 'Wild Knitting', and worn with red tights and yellow eye shadow.
Yarns such as this shaggy pink / grey blend were popular.
This jacket, sold as a 'designer's sample' and combining crochet with soft suede, may date from the 1980s
1990s
In the 1990s handcrafts seemed to go into decline, with yarn shops closing and the range of yarns readily available in the UK decreasing.
Knitted Village
Much-Knitting-by-the-Sea is the name of the village created by Morecambe resident Dorothy Entwistle by way of recuperating after an operation. Although the village is imaginary, it does include: Dorothy’s own bungalow, her local church, Trinity Methodist Church on Morecambe’s West End Promenade, and many, many more buildings. The knitted village first went on public display in November 1992.
The intervening years have not been kind to the cardboard and sellotape which hold the houses together, so the Guild has taken the decision to build more permanent frameworks in Lego or Duplo, and to drop the houses over like tea cosies.
Can you help? Donations of these plastic building bricks are being now sought towards the upkeep of the village.
They may be sent by post to:
The Collection Co-ordinator
Unit 4, Lee Mills, Scholes, Holmfirth, HD9 1RJ
… or brought along to any of the Guild’s Open Days (near Holmfirth in West Yorkshire), when parts of the village will be on view, along with possibly the largest and most exciting collection of knitting and crochet in Britain.
In the late 1990s, crochet garments – dresses, cardigans, jumpers – made in developing countries, in rayon and viscose, flooded the shops. The heavy yarn means the garments soon lose their shape (several in the Collection have extraordinarily long sleeves) and are already appearing in charity shops.
One of the most exciting garments from the 1990s is this machine knit wedding dress, which was made for the 'Gripping Yarns' competition on BBC TV's 'The Clothes Show' in 1993, and won Third Prize. A photo of it appeared in Bradford's Telegraph & Argus newspaper, which a local Guild member passed on. It was a press release from The Press Association. We phoned up to try to buy a copy of the photo. Our phone number was passed to the Devon-based photographer who'd taken the photo, and he in turn passed it on to the designer/maker, Katie Aggett. During the course of a conversation with Katie, we asked what had become of the dress. It was in a box gathering dust in her attic. We explained about The Guild Collection and she was delighted to pass it on to a good home!
Our pictures show the rear view of the dress. It was made on a Dubied machine using high bulk acrylic yarn, and knitted in 5 x 5 rib so that it clings to the body. The frills, inspired by the vaulted ceilings of Exeter Cathedral, are stiffened with fuse wire.
A few years ago, The 'Knitting & Stitching Show' launched a competition to raise money for charity. One autumn, participants bought a 10 x 10 inch frame which they returned the following year filled with textiles of their choice. The finished frames were sold for charity. Those with recognised names were auctioned, but most were sold for £10. At the time Horst Schulz was not well known in the UK, so we were lucky enough to buy this panel, knitted by him, for only £10.
2000s
This a small panel was designed and made by American textile artist and Guild member, Suzann Thompson, for the exhibition she had at The Colour Museum in Bradford in 2000.