Category: Knitting

Extremely proud of my student, Hyacinth. She is truly inspirational. Here her success is celebrated in the Wandsworth Guardian.

Looking forward to teaching her new skills this term. I am planning to teach her Stranded Colour Knitting by introducing two slightly different textures. She doesn’t know it yet, but she’ll be using a circular needle – before she knows it she’ll be knocking out snoods for all and sundry!

South Thames College hand knitting student, Hyacinth Malcolm is soon to be the focus of a short documentary film, which is being made as part of Chocolate Films social documentary project, 1000 Londoners.

The five-year digital project which aims to create a digital portrait of a city has already featured former Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, and X Factor winner turned stage actress, Alexandra Burke.

‘What’s so special about Hyacinth?’, you may ask.

Well, if you met her, you would be instantly taken with her vivacious personality and quick-witted humour. You would also notice that she loves knitting, along with many of the experienced knitters in the hand knitting class at South Thames College. But Hyacinth isn’t an experienced knitter, she took up the challenge of learning to hand knit only last year.

Okay, so she’s a quick learner, so what?

Indeed, she is a quick thinker and very intelligent, but where she stands out from the rest is that she is severely visually impaired – almost totally blind.  60-year-old Hyacinth has learned to knit virtually by feel alone, taking her instruction from her tutor’s spoken words.

Ruth Herring, Hyacinth’s hand knitting tutor approached Chocolate Films about the possibility of featuring one of her visually impaired students in the project. She said: “I picked up on the project from a news item and was really taken with the sensitivity of the film making – it’s not reality TV, it’s an important socio-documentary. Each short film is about a Londoner and the whole project is designed to be a snapshot of diversity in our wonderful city.”

Ruth emailed a short piece about working with visually impaired learners and one of the filmmakers immediately picked up on the theme. “It was the fact that Hyacinth and others with special requirements are being taught as part of a mainstream educational course, not as part of therapy”, recalls Ruth. “Despite her disability, Hyacinth is a determined woman. Her journey to my class involves a bus, a train and the Tube to Tooting Broadway. Unlike many commuters, she rarely moans about delays and just gets on with life with her wonderful permanently fixed smile. She is great fun to teach and a real inspiration to others on the course.”

“If there were a down side to teaching Hyacinth? It would be that she laughs when she drops a stitch. She knows that normally I have to step in to help her if it ladders down too far!”

To find out more about courses at South Thames College visit www.south-thames.ac.uk or call 020 8918 7777

Sightseers 2012 (Dir. Ben Wheatley)

This film has been on my “must watch” list since its release in 2012 and last night I finally got to see it! I was anticipating another quirky comedy from director Ben Wheatley and wasn’t disappointed, but what a surprise to find that I had a little something in common with one of the lead characters.

“If the caravans a rockin’, don’t come knocking.”

This one liner from British movie Sightseers, written by co-stars Alice Lowe and Steve Oram is a great clue to what’s in store for the viewer. Yes, there was raunchy stuff a-plenty, but far more importantly for me; there were lots of wonderful knitting references throughout the film. Sightseers was released to fairly mixed reviews – movie bloggers either loved it or rather unfairly slated it as being very juvenile. It wasn’t perfect, but I found myself hooked once it became apparent that Tina, the female lead character, was an avid knitter!

Don’t bother seeking out this low budget British movie if you don’t like very dark comedy – think Fast Show meets Natural Born Killers, add a splash of Woman’s Weekly (circa 1968) or Elizabeth Zimmerman and you will be somewhere close to understanding what’s in store.

If you are in any way squeamish (there’s a lot of brutal killing involved), are offended by filthy language, or squirm at graphic sexual references (there’s plenty of both), then fast-forward to the knitting bits, they are worth spotting. Err, having said that, the knitting bits and the sex and violence were rather inextricably linked. The first taster came in a flash back to how Tina’s beloved dog “Poppy” met its maker – a stark warning not to leave your giant knitting needles on the sofa!

There were plenty of knitted knick-knacks in the film – both on show in their touring caravan and at Tina’s mother’s house. However, my favourite knitted piece by far had to be the wonderful woolen split crotch bikini pants, which Tina had made especially for her first holiday with new boyfriend Chris, for when they were in the mood for a “mint”.

There were moments in the film where Tina was seen knitting something featuring a yellow triangle motif, which turned out to be a sweater for her beloved Chris. She was obviously a very prolific knitter as she had it finished in time for Chris to wear in the brilliant final scene filmed at Ribblehead Viaduct, which (spoiler alert!) was a bit of a nod to road movie Thelma and Louise.

Popular literature and culture have given us many famous knitters; Madame Defarge of Charles Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities fame has to be my all-time favourite, but this film has given us a new malevolent knitter in the shape of Alice Lowe’s character Tina.

Welcome to the knitters’ Hall of Fame, Tina. Keep the skills alive!

Come and join us for a chat on Facebook k1p1

I’ve been revisiting my pattern archives and yesterday came across the original, hand-drawn chart for the Mona Lisa sweater featured in my first book “Knitting masterpieces”. I’m so pleased that I have kept this piece as I love the fact that I have scribbled the calculations and notes around the pencil crayon drawing – it’s a real working drawing.

Discovering this piece also took me back to how the original idea for this sweater was borne out of a challenge from the late Paula Yates. I was invited to have dinner with Paula at my friend Karen Manner’s flat in Maida Vale; Karen was a fashion PR and wife of singer songwriter BA Robertson and since leaving fashion school I had been commissioned by BA to knit him an array of intricate intarsia sweaters for TV and film appearances. With her music biz connections, Paula fell in love with the Beatles Abbey Road album cover sweater, which I had knitted for BA – it was particularly hilarious. After a couple of glasses of wine, I found myself rising to the challenge to knit the Mona Lisa; I started working on the chart the following day (no doubt nursing a proper hangover) “Knitting Masterpieces” was great fun to write, in part because Karen organised for the knitwear to be modelled by celebrities. Paula was pregnant at the time of the photo shoot, so the Mona Lisa sweater was modelled by a friend of mine, a little known, jobbing actress called Michelle Collins…… the Mona Lisa sweater story continues.

Paula Yates 1959 -2000.  British TV presenter, writer, mother and a great laugh. RIP.