Artsy happenings! by Aimee Chalmers

Have you started knitting? I know some of you have… and from what I’ve seen it so far, it all seems to be going rather well!  

In the meantime, Catriona and I have been turning our heads to the Pop-up Art Exhibition at which Scotland Handknit will be unveiled – hopefully at a preview on Friday evening, 20^th June 2014.

The exhibition is part of a bigger celebration of Scottish culture called ‘Hear the Nation’ (organised by NE Fife Yes Campaign) which will take place on 21^st June 2014 at the Corn Exchange in Cupar, Fife. ‘Hear the Nation’ ? Hm. Ok, we’ll call our exhibition  ‘Here’s the Nation’.

The purpose of the day is to showcase and celebrate Scotland Handknit, one other art installation (more about that another time), and the work of Scottish artists. It won’t harm either if we all have a fun day and raise money for the Yes Campaign.

Like Scotland Handknit, our ethos is inclusivity… building bridges between the political divide. There are three other strands, besides Scotland Handknit: a

commercial art exhibition, at which invited artists will exhibit, a sale of donated A5 sized artworks ( £25.00 each), and lastly, craft stalls involving a sample of our best local potters, jewellery makers, woodworkers… if we have room for that.

The theme of the exhibition is ‘Scotland’ in its widest interpretation (landscapes, seascapes, cityscapes, myth, reality, dream, folk frae aw the airts –all Jack Tamson’s bairns).

A number of high profile artists have agreed to exhibit – how exciting!  (Scotland Handknit will be in good company) We also hope to have an on-line preview of work, from about six weeks before.

The only problem is that we haven’t been able to hire exhibition boards yet, and obviously can’t have an art exhibition without exhibition boards. We’ve decided if we can’t get them by 14^th February we’ll have to abandon the whole thing… but surely it won’t come to that!

We’re also going to invite ‘yes’ supporting artists to donate A5 sized original works of art (on card supplied by us), for sale at £25.00. These will be presented together, as another exhibit in the exhibition.

We’re going to need money to get things set up – one local knitter has volunteered to make up quiz sheets, and is selling Scottish lochs (well not the actual lochs, just their names) for £1.00 each on her ‘Loch Aye the Noo’ cards (Winner gets £10.00, Scotland Handknit gets £22.00 for every card). Another local knitter is going to try to get sponsorship from businesses… fingers crossed about that.

Another possibility – I’ve 100 copies of my new novel Blackthorn, which I want to donate. It’s a fictional biography of the poet Marion Angus  - about a clash between love and duty, about circumstances (poverty and homelessness) that still blight the lives of women today, and about fate intervening to change the ‘best laid plans’. The price is £9.99 and the total cover price will be donated to Scotland Handknit.

Read about it here:               http://www.aimeechalmers.com/blackthorn/4580573153

And buy from my shop page if you’re interested.

Good luck with the knitting!

Coffee in Killin, or How to recruit unsuspecting women to knit a frame for a map by Aimee Chalmers

A knitted frame for a knitted map. Seemed like a good idea.

By a fairly simple process of multiplication, I worked out the length and width of our map-to-be (length 1.782 metres, width 1.26 metres). That was the easy part.

Elena and Catriona worked out between them what the dimensions of the frame would need to be, how it might look and how it could be knitted.

We considered a frame exactly the length of the sides, with added corners, but decided a ‘never-ending’ frame would be better. (Four knitted strips, each 10 cms wide, each 10 cms longer than the side to which it is attached, placed in turn round the map until the last piece adjoins the first.

We debated whether the map should have a ‘slip’ (border) between the knitted map and the frame.

We thought about possible patterns: cable, Fair Isle knitting, Shetland patterns, flat stocking stitch (which could include motifs, as long as they all sat in the same direction).

Shades of blues were favoured for the frame – grey blues and green blues. Catriona thought they could be quite strong shades (with occasional splashes of brightness or silver to add interest).

That’s that then, another step forward! Now. Who’s going to knit it?

We had a contact in Killin, originally from the Isle of Lewis, who was to knit the northern Hebrides. Oh, but she was expecting more than one rectangle, Annie said, when her rectangle arrived though the post. What about her friends?’

Sorry, but all the pieces were allocated.  ‘Do you think they’d like to knit the frame?’

Yes, they’d certainly knit the frame, no problem at all. There are some beautiful knitters among them, and they meet once a week anyway to knit (and do quilting)  for church funds.

Catriona and I decided to meet them, to thank them for offering to take part, and to ask whether they had any opinions/plans of their own about knitting the frame. They were having a sale of their work and a coffee morning – a perfect opportunity. We’d go to Killin – weather permitting.

Two nights ago I phoned  Annie, our contact in Killin, to check times. Something she said on the phone made me a little bit uneasy… but I thought maybe I’d misheard, so didn’t tell Catriona (who was driving) until we were nearly there.

‘I’m not sure if Annie has asked the women yet.’

Turned out, she hadn’t. Not really. Well, she’d mentioned it, maybe. Sort of. And shown someone the map she’d already been sent, saying ‘what am I to do with this?’ So yes, they definitely knew we were coming to the coffee morning… but wondered why.

How welcome we were made. And what a great group of women! They’re members of the Church Guild, and regularly meet: once a week to knit and once a week to quilt, to boost church funds.

Breadbane House was packed full with beautiful knitted and crochet work (I came home with two hats and one child’s jumper - unfortunately  the crocheted jumper was too small for me or I would have had that too!) The standard of home baking was so good I had one too many shortbread biscuits with my coffee.

I found it difficult to explain what our project was about, amongst all the comings and goings, but between the two of us we must have  got the message across. And they knew what they were talking about when it came to knitting – keeping us right on what would be best!

We have the name of one woman who will act as the main contact for the frame, who will recruit as many as she needs to help her. We have recruited a women whose forte is crochet, who is willing to do a ‘slip’ of a few rows of pale wool crochet round the map, to make the edge secure – as long as we get it to her by the end of March. We’ve recruited another knitter of one of the rectangles, to replace one who had to pull out last week – and so Annie has a friend to work with and to share the decisions.

A very successful day. Thank you, Catriona, for driving us. Thank you to the Women’s Guild of Killin for making us feel so much at home, and to the owner of Breadalbane house for her hospitality. Welcome to all the new members of the team: Jani Ellis (and friends) , Alicja Fraser and Desiree van Doorn.  Hope we’ll see you all at the launch party in June!