Patterns! Music! Lights! Camera! Action!
Patterns! Music! Lights! Camera! Action!
Rose's first post feat. updates from WLM HQ, a playlist and Edinburgh Festival highlights.
Firstly, I can’t quite believe how many subscribers we have! Greetings, travellers! Welcome to our Substack <3
Updates form WLM HQ
Lydia and I have done a lot over the last fortnight. The Jackpot Jersey test knit is on its way and going well! We had some feedback on the sleeves being too tight on some of the smaller sizes, and Lydia and I were able to edit the pattern and fix these problems relatively swiftly! We’re also writing our first pattern block together! Yesterday we met with Jen Parroccini for some advice on short row and bust dart shaping, amongst other pattern-writing queries for this new block. Lydia’s been working with Jen for years, but it was it was great for me to meet Jen for the first time, after listening to her and Elizabeth Margaret excellent podcast, Knitfix and Chill.
I still have so much to learn on the technical side (though I do LOVE a spreadsheet), and Lydia’s been essentially training me on garment construction. It’s a learn-as-I-do-it kind of situation, which is sometimes tough, but mostly super exciting. I’m feeling grateful to be working with someone as generous and caring as Lydia and hope that you’ll love the patterns as much as we’ve loved making them! I’m sure there’ll be more on this soon.
If you want to check out all of Lydia’s released patterns tap below:
Knitting Machines and a playlist to keep me going
After starting off on a basic bulky weight gauge machine, I’m now teaching myself how to use the brother kh881 knitting machine and it is a steep learning curve. Especially after spending a month cleaning and replacing the sponge bar etc. etc. I’m prrrrettttyyyyy certain that the K-Carriage is broken. But onwards we go.
If you are at the beginning of your knitting machine journey (like me), I recommend Discovering Machine Knitting by Kandy Diamond. It’s been super helpful and so far the clearest resource I’ve found in explaining the basics.
Earlier this week I was really struggling with a very long and very fiddly transfer tool cast-off on the machine (I’ve not developed the muscle memory for this yet) and I randomly put on a Spotify playlist that I made myself a few years ago. I make a LOT of playlists - I tend to think through ideas through music rather than just words. This playlist was exploring Late stage Capitalism and Neoliberal Dread - songs to do with being an individual, single and resilient, confused and lost, frustrated and hopeful. (I called it Become Yourself, Only Better). I know, I know… but you know what, it’s a great playlist and in a totally un-ironic way it helped me get through my BIND OFF NIGHTMARE. I’ve edited it a bit and shared it below. Maybe it will help you wade through the bind-off mud I’m planning on sharing a different playlist every time I post. (Currently, I’m sharing via Spotify, but might find a better platform for it… watch this space)
And finally… Edinburgh Festival Highlights
A lot of the work I make involves performance - be it music, acting, or just physically working with other bodies in a space. I do a lot of work with groups, however, I’d taken a bit of a hiatus from performing solo, not out of choice, but because, well... the pandemic, and this month I did my first solo performance since 2020. I was terrified during the lead-up. My confidence had been seriously knocked and I couldn’t remember why I was making this work in the first place! Not a great place to be in. But, I pushed through and I’m so glad I did because it actually went well!! (I hope to share some performance stuff in the future… I’m feeling a little shy right now!) For now though, I want to tell you about some of my favourite things from Edinburgh this year as they really helped to remind me why making this kind of work is important. It couldn’t have come at a better time really…
FILM: Paul B. Preciado's 'Orlando, My Political Biography'
I’ve been interested in Preciado’s writing for a long time and I really recommend this film. I got to see a preview at the festival and I think it’s out later in the year. Or maybe early next year (??) It’s a beautiful film - very moving, very stylish, funny, smart, cinematically complicating the singularity of identity by mixing the present with the past (fiction) of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando. It made me think of Ursula Le Guin’s Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction:
‘Before the tool that forces energy outward, we made the tool that brings energy home.’ Prior to the preeminence of sticks, swords … our ancestors’ greatest invention was the container: the basket of wild oats, the medicine bundle, the net made of your own hair, the home, the shrine, the place that contains whatever is sacred. The recipient, the holder, the story. The bag of stars.
The film was both linear, a spear, and a vessel, holding multiple strands and shapes and narratives. I’ll be thinking about it for a long time.
DRAG: Ginava's Messy Friends
Not only was this an excellent drag and cabaret show (I gasped and cheered and smiled through the whole thing), but I particularly liked how it shared snippets of interviews with the performers, before they got on stage. Lots of chat around nerves, performing and feeding off the audience. And then to see these incredible performers just BRING IT, after sharing such vulnerability. It felt generous. I always love work that shares the inbetween-y stuff. Also the costumes were fab.
COMEDY: Patti Harrison - My Huge Tits Huge Because They Are Infected NOT FAKE!
She’s brilliant. I’m still thinking about her and it’s been four weeks. I’m sure you’ll have seen her in Shrill, or Theatre Camp, and you can find some clips online of her stand-up, but if you every get the chance to see her in the flesh, grab it.
And on this note I will end my first ever post. I was quite nervous about writing it! I definitely struggle with writing, being verrry dyslexic, but as long as it made some sense that’s good enough for me.