What if I kept my knitting on the knitting needles for my next canvas?
This idea needs a little context. As a painter and a knitter, I had an idea about a year and a half ago. I started painting on unstretched canvas so I could go as large as I wanted to go without worrying about the stretchers and transportation. Then I realized, in a more direct way than I ever had before, that canvas is just as a fabric. As a knitter, I’ve been making fabric since I was in single digits. So I put two and two together and came up with my new series: Knitted Canvasses:
I’ve been working on these for a while now and have been pushing my original idea each time. I’ve been changing colors, creating patterns, changing size, and recently even started a pair of mittens which I’m sure will be featured in an idea soon. My most recent canvas is with bigger needles and yarn. It’s soft, bumpy, and just everything I like. I had to buy needles to use it and I thought that I might leave them in.
There’s been a constant struggle between my painting and my knitting about which I would rather do at any given point and which is more important in the finished knitted canvas. Painting pretty much always wins. But if the needles were super-glued in and made into a part of the piece not only would the connection to craft be stronger, it would almost be sculptural.
Hmm….