Emma Hollingsworth

I learned to knit before I could read or write, and I believe this had an impact on both my personal life and the way I approach design. I learned I was capable of making so much, rather than always buying from a store. It taught me that I could reach out to my community when I needed help, and someone would be there to help me until I had it figured out on my own. It taught me that if something is to be done right and good, it’s going to take a lot of time and effort. And it taught me to think about where all the materials I encounter every day come from. When I watched a sheep get sheared and then had to rinse the oil out of the fleece before spinning it into yarn, I began to look at my sweaters and rugs and blankets very differently. Where had those sheep been? What if they weren’t even made out of sheep’s wool? Where did that material come from?

When you teach someone to work with fibers, a door is opened on what someone feels they can create for themselves and how they interact with the world. I took my capstone project as an opportunity to explore fiber arts as a tool of education and community.

My research for this project began by studying the history of fiber arts, primarily knitting, from it’s beginnings in antiquity, through till the place it holds in modern culture today. I learned that knitting originated from the 9th century Islamic world from fishermen who used a technique similar to knitting to craft their fishing nets. Knitting for many decades was a man’s work - guilds of highly treated knitting masters would make tapestries for royal families - treated with the respect of architects. Knitting clothing became the way that popular fashion was disseminated through common folk, who made their own garb in the likeness of fashionable clothing worn by the wealthy.  

In 1589 the knitting machine was invented and the entire industry mechanized and revolutionized. The first appearance of politics in fiber arts comes with the establishment of the American colonies when women would gather for “spinning meetings” to make American-made clothing and goods to help the colonies wean off of British imports. These spaces served as places of political discourse for voices that were usually left out of the political conversation. 

During both World Wars, great emphasis was put on fiber arts as the “women’s way” to show patriotism from home. These gender roll assignments were what second wave feminists were responding to when they abandoned their knitting and embroidery, so as to cast off the straight jacket of femininity and domesticity that fiber arts was forcing upon them. Two decades later, after the Vietnam War, the pendulum swung back in the opposite direction with third wave feminists espousing a “get girls crafting” message as an anti capitalist statement in line with DIY, Punk and Riot Girl aesthetics. 

I also researched sects of fiber arts such as Craftivism - a form of activism centering around practices of “traditional domestic arts” such as knitting, crochet needlepoint, and the like - the place of intersectionality in craft, new options for sustainable fabrics, and knitting as an application in science and medicine. I interviewed fiber arts educators at both grade school and high school levels about how craft sits in tandem with education and the developing of young minds, and what they choose to include in their curriculums.

Throughout my research the idea that fiber arts is one of the most expansive and culturally rich practices we have as a society was cemented in my mind. It weaves in and out of history fluidly and dramatically, right on the heels of every major historical event. And has hundreds of new applications today that are only continuing to be unlocked. 

After collecting my historical research, observational data, and case studies, I wrote out all of the key take-aways from each piece of research, sorted them into categories, and wrote down how I wanted my project to behave in each category. This visual synthesis of information helped me understand how I wanted my project to behave: