A NEW book – ‘Knitting the University of Glasgow’ – draws on original designs inspired by Glasgow University’s architecture.
Scottish designershttps://www.deadlinenews.co.uk/2021/07/07/triple-success-for-graduands-at-new-designers-awards-2021-scottish-news/ inspected the main campus and archives. Here, they investigated plans of the University’s Gilmorehill site in the West End of Glasgow.
Both older features like cornicing’s ornate details and contemporary details like the library’s modernism, influence the collection.
Historians of Scottish knitted textiles, Professor Lynn Abrams and Professor Marina Moskowitz, along with the School of Humanities Research Coordinator, Christelle Le Riguer, compiled the document.
Professor Moskowitz said: “Our aim as historians is to investigate the place and significance of hand-knitted textiles to Scotland’s economy and culture, in the past, the present, and the future.”
The book is part of the Fleece to Fashion project. This program looks into Scottish knitted textiles from the 17th century until now.
Professor Abrams said: “The genesis of this book of knitting patterns, inspired by the built environment of the University of Glasgow, lies in research carried out by historians at the University of Glasgow into the economies and cultures of hand knitting in Scotland from the eighteenth century to the. present.”
It is not the first knitting venture the university has undertaken. In 2014, they created the ‘Knitting-in-the-Round’ network. It was a project that included multi-sector cooperations sand explored knitting as the craft for sustainability, creativity and authenticity.
Susan McComb, a knitting enthusiast, was employed by the university to create university architecture-inspired designs, some of which feature in the book.
The collection also includes designs from a competition amongst university members to produce patterns inspired by the building’s gothic architecture.
Other projects driven by the team include recruiting hand knitters to create the Commonwealth flags for Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games.
More recently, the team created Glasgow University Cochno Knitting yarn, where they change sheep’s fleece into double-knit worsted yarns.
The book will be available at Glasgow University’s gift shop.
