DROPSTITCHED

3000 staples, 2.5 litres of matt emulsion, 2.5 Litres of matt floor emulsion, 1.25 litres of gloss paint, 1 Brother KH230 knitting machine, 500 balls of wool,  2 months, one room.

I would like to thank GAVAA who awarded me with the funding that made this exhibition possible. 

Without their help my proposal would of remained just that, a proposal.

I would also like to thank Jon for all his help and hard work documenting my exhibition, my family for their ever support (be it financially or emotionally) and patience, my friends and of course Ryan for putting up with having an artist as a girlfriend. 

The Hanging

Again I hung my show whilst I was still knitting. I found this a good way to work as not only did it break up the monotony of knitting it also meant I could be productive outside of knitting and kill two birds with one bird so to speak. 

My general programme would be to spend two nights after work knitting then a night hanging what I had knitted and so forth. In the final stages of my hanging I moved my knitting machine in to the gallery space so I could maximise my time and create more wool as soon as I ran out rather than having to go back home to do so.

This was very laborious but the excitement of seeing my show finally coming together far outweighed any complaints of fatigue.

To hang my wool I began by applying it vertically, as if wallpaper, to the walls and stapling each sheet in to place. 

I didn't want each sheet to be perfectly placed in strips as I wanted to respond to the wool and the way it wanted to hang naturally. Instead of controlling the wool I reacted to each individual sheets personality. Each sheet was entirely different, some with flaws which altered their aesthetic entirely. 

After I had hung every sheet of wool I then began to manipulate certain areas of the wool with a yellow gloss paint - the same of which I used for the woodwork.

I chose specific areas and poured paint accordingly to each. Not only was this to explore the relationship paint had when used with wool but it also explored the depth created after application. 

Wool is super absorbent and with a paint so thick as gloss applied it was exciting to see how the wool reacted. 

At the end of hanging I finished off by giving the floor it's final cover of yellow paint so that it would be perfectly yellow for the opening.

The Final Countdown

It was important to start preparing the gallery space for my show rather than just concentrating purely on knitting, I didn't want to end up with a mountain of wool with a completely wrong environment of which to hang it in.

I entered the space two weeks before my opening and began by preparing the walls with a yellow matt emulsion paint. The walls needed two coats each to be a suitable enough backdrop colour for the wool I was going to hang in front. 

I wanted a colour that would not entirely blend and vanish within the wool but instead a couple of shades lighter than the wool so that it would shine through any holes and create a sense of  greater depth within the wool.

The floors were painted with a matt emulsion floor paint the same colour as the walls and all woodwork with a matching gloss paint. 

I did also want to paint the ceiling but unfortunately the material was not suitable be painted and I did not have the funds to suit my other solutions. 

I was however quite pleased that I didn't end up painting the ceiling as it opened up and altered the perception of the space. This is one of these "happy accidents" I learnt so much about at university.

Knots and Tangles

This is something I did not foresee.

Having used knitting machines previously that came complete with a comb I had not encountered some of the problems that I was to come across once I began knitting. 

The fact I only have basic knowledge of knitting machines probably made these problems harder to solve or understand as I just had to keep taking estimated guesses on how to solve them.

To make it easier to understand I shall firstly explain what the comb is.

The comb is basically exactly what it says on the tin. A large comb that is hung across the entire bed of the machine. The teeth are hooked and fit on to the stitches of wool which are across each individual needle.

Weights are then placed equally across the comb which pull the comb and wool downwards away from the machine bed. 

This is to stop the wool popping off the needles which it tends to do when not enough weight is applied to hold it down.

I have six weights which I apply as I would on a comb but the problem with this is that this does not distribute the weight as evenly as a comb and this is where the problems occur. Certain areas of the wool pop off and become entangled in the bed pins which run in front of the machine's needles. This causes massive knots and tangles which need to repetitively and carefully removed with a tool before more knitting to avoid the wool falling off the bed or the wool getting jammed in the hand piece.

I am also beginning to learn that whoever/whatever rolls the wool in to balls obviously is very bored and complacent when they start as the the closer I get to the centre of a ball of wool the more tangled the wool becomes in it self and I need to stop knitting to untangle it.

All of these things I did not take in to account when I started and each take up a lot of precious time that could be spent knitting!

Knitting

Before starting to knit it was important that I set up my machine in a suitable work location.

Ideally I would have set up my machine on a table that was as wide as my machine and a meter or so high so that my knitting had more room to hang. 

Unfortunately I was in no financial state to fulfil these requirements so instead made do with my home coffee table which is the ideal width for my machine and still at a reasonable height that I can knit comfortably whilst sitting on a stool. 

I had a lot of hours of knitting ahead of me so it was important that I took comfort in to consideration.

After setting up my machine I made sure I had enough room to manoeuvre and, more importantly, a TV and stereo close by so that I could keep entertained with films and music while I worked.

I began knitting just over a month ago now and the closer I get to my deadline the more I'm producing per night. 

I have always been one of those people who works better under pressure and knowing this pushes me to work harder the closer my exhibition opening looms.

On average it takes roughly an hour to produce a 2 meter sheet of knit. 

Sometimes a sheet takes longer depending on how much errors occur during the knitting, most of which could be avoided with the help of a comb. 

Although I'm using a machine, knitting is still incredibly tiring work. 

The more I knit the stronger my arm becomes and less painful each night. However due to the amount I am knitting and for long periods of time, blisters have started to appear on my hands and my back is bent over for hours at a time due to the low height of my table. 

Who would have thought knitting could be so hardcore?

Step 3; The Wool.

I wanted to use a single tone, yellow, double knit wool called "sunshine".

I knew I wanted this to be my chosen wool as soon as I started planning my exhibition. 

The reason being that I have always liked the way that this particular colour of wool plays with its own aesthetic and changes in accordance to its surroundings. 

In using this wool I find it the perfect example of colour within and organic form, which is exactly what I was looking for.

Getting a hold of the wool proved a lot easier than I had anticipated thanks to the help of my favourite local wool shop which is located in the Aberdeen Market. I wanted to purchase my wool from a local store rather than a chain so that my money would benefit an independent business and those who work hard within it. 

I ordered my wool and it arrived  3 weeks later on the 8th of January , all 500 balls of it.  

So now I was ready to start knitting and making progress towards my deadline of the 17Th of March, only two months away. 

Step 2; Planning

Having already completed a proposal and been granted an exhibition space and date within the Project Slogan Gallery, I then began to to study the gallery  dimensions in order to determine how much wool would be needed.

It was very important that I looked at the specific gallery measurements as I did not want to be left with less materials than needed.

Not only did I need to figure out the amount of wool that would be required, I was also going to paint the entire space yellow so also had to take paint levels in to consideration. 

This whole process was probably one of the most daunting stages. 

Having never knitted anything to this scale before I only had my imagination and past experiences of knitting larger wool panels to help me through planning. 

The sheer scale of my project had begun to finally sink in.

In the end I decided 500 balls of wool would be enough on the basis that 4 balls of wool created a sheet that was roughly 2 metres in length, almost 4 when stretched. This would then give me 125 panels and approximately 500 metres of wool.