Unravel: Revaluing the Craft of Knitting For New Emergent Design Contexts Within a Post-Industrial World

Abstract

Knitting can transcend traditional boundaries of craft practice and transfer knowledge from one discipline to another. Sennet (2008) refers to this as the “domain shift” where the principles central to a particular craft can be applied to another. Knitting today successfully navigates between practice, artefact, and narrative and as a metaphor for social change. A cultural phenomenon, knitting derived from the everyday domestic activity and over history has played an important role within the community, from patriotic knitting to ‘guerrilla’ knitting and performance. The image of knitting however, according to Black (2010) has been largely neglected within design and academic research due to its strong association with domestic life.

Today, in the face of so much complexity an understanding of a designer’s core craft skills is paramount when working in trans-disciplinary environments. Within this new context a re-evaluation of the role of knitting is required to fully appreciate the contribution that the craft can bring to current and emerging design issues. Through examining contemporary examples of craft practice together with designers working across traditional boundaries of knitting the author will challenge past perceptions by re-valuing the craft of knitting and discuss how the role of the designer can expand in keeping with relevant 21st Century design issues.