Knit and Matter is a blog which shares my research on what matters when we make with yarn. I will be sharing posts about different aspects of the research, and would love to hear about how and why fibre crafts matter to you.
So far, my research has included two funded projects: Crafting Literacy (funded by The Leverhulme Trust) and Knit and Matter (funded by The British Academy). In both projects, I have been trying to answer questions such as:
- Why do people engage with fibre craft such as knitting and crochet? What does it mean to them?
- How might fibre crafts work as a way to make and share what’s important to us in our everyday lives?
- What matters when we make with yarn?
There are hundreds of blogs and hours of video content online offering helpful information about knitting, crochet and other fibre crafts, from technical know-how, to their rich history and the fascinating debates that exist about these often misunderstood crafts, their contemporary use in textile art and their therapeutic benefits. This range of perspectives is testament to the complexity and significance of fibre craft and the part it plays in our lives.
Knit and Matter doesn’t aim to offer any technical advice. Neither does it profess to go into any depth on specific aspects of knitting history, textile art or therapy. I am grateful to the many wonderful experts in all of these fields who have shared their work elsewhere and have informed my own research. I will refer to sources that I have come across in the course of my research and which I feel could be of interest to those who’d like to follow them up. Links are shared for their relevance to the research rather than any commercial benefit.
