Nota: questo post è dedicato agli studenti e agli ex studenti di inglese, per quello l'ho lasciato nella lingua franca in cui ci siamo trovati.
Per i curiosi riguardo Alice che desiderino approfondire in italiano, potete trovare notizie e contenuti interessanti presso:
gruppo Facebook:
- Corsi e modelli di Alice Twain
Nelle librerie e on line trovando i volumi pubblicati con l'Editore Altreconomia
***Libera maglia
***Ai ferri corti
Su Ravelry c'è anche una vasta selezione dei suoi modelli
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1) Dearest Alice, thank you very much for this meeting for our blog, please introduce yourself
Hallo to all. My name is Alice Twain, I am a knitter, a knitting instructor, and a knitted garments designer. I am Italian and live in Milano.
2) How did you approach the world of manual work? What was your first knitted object?
I actually started out with crochet. My grannies taught me to crochet as a child, but they were never able to teach me to knit. During a very stressful period I picked up the crochet hook and made a huge crocheted scarf just to cope with the situation. But I intensely wanted to learn to knit, as I liked the knitted fabric better. I taught myself to knit by studying the structure of the knitted stitch in a store. I bought a garment. I first taught myself how to purl, then how to knit. What's interesting is that I learned to do that by holding and throwing the
yarn with the left as I did in crochet, thus I learned a quite oddball technique for knitting (yes there are several). It works so I stick to it when working my items. From there I knitted a few swaches, then I immediately made a pair of socks.
3) In your opinion, what is the most important contribution of theEnglish Speaking culture and civilization to the knitting world?
Well, the English made modern knitting (not alone actually). Knitting's origins are pretty obscure, all we know is that around 1,000 years ago there were people knitting socks in the round (to form a tube), working with four or five double pointed needles at one time, and with two different colors to make intricate motives: all pretty advanced techniques. Some of these socks popped up from the sands of the Egyption desert and are now at the Victoria and Albert museum in London. This means that knitting was already an established craft, so it almost certainly predated these socks by at least a few centuries. After knitting spread across Europe, the northern and eastern regions took the lead. Knitting developed characteristic styles ,for instance, in Scandinavia, in the British isles, in the Baltic states, in Russia. In England a true industry developed around the making of socks, of "frocks" (jumpers), and of gloves.
So, as a consequence of the enclosures movement, since the XVth century, vast parts of the rural population were dispossessed, making the communal pastures and fields no more accessible, peasants had to survive on a meager income from the agricolture, which they supplemented working textiles: some regions specialised in spinning or weaving, others in knitting, which had the advantage of portability. Where this process led is known: the enclosures created what Marx called the "primitive accumulation", which gave rise to the productive capitalism of the XIXth and early XXth century, and, at the same time, a class of workers that were mainly living off their manual work, which included knitting. From this situation arose a wide range of styles and techniques which became standardized. Knitters were supposed tu turn out that specific product and would be paid only if their knitting conformed.
Much of the unique styles that are so characteristic of the British Isles, from Cornish socks, to Fair Isle tams and, later, jumpers and vests, to Guernsey frocks, to Sanquhar gloves, to Shetland shawls (etc.) due to the standardization brought on by commercial requirements. You could sell pretty well a one of a kind garment you knitted for a well to do client, but if you were slightly less skilled you worked by turning out a series of identical items for an intermediary. This meant that the techniques, stitches, methods became varied, but also locally standardized. By the late XXth century, also thanks to Internet, we were really ready to reap this wealth of technical knowledge, and synthetize
it into a corpus.
4) Which word of advice would you give to those approaching knitting for the first time?
Do not be afraid. As Elizabeth Zimmermann said "Really, all you need to become a good knitter are wool, needles, hands, and slightly below-average intelligence. Of course, superior intelligence, such as yours and mine, is an advantage". To become good knitters you do not have to stick to knitting garter stitch scarves for years. Once you are comfortable knitting and purling (and it takes a few hours of knitting spread over a week or two) you are ready to face more intricate knitting, such as hats or socks.
5) Please, tell us something about your next project
Quite impossibile, I always have several projects in storming my brain. I am working on a kite shawl, on a top down sweater, on a pair of flip-top mittens, on a book, on another publicaton ect. I have absolutely no idea of when and how my next output will be. I totally lack discipline.
6. Should we have to wait for long to get your third book?
Yes. It's a labor of love from which I do not imagine earning much money. It will be extremey technical and only in English, as I do not want to translate it for the sake of selling a dozen copies in Italian. As such I will take my time. I work on it in my spare time. It's likely I will even produce a different book meanwhile I am still working on the technique book you call "the third book".
THANK YOU ALICE ! ! ! ! ! !
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vi. 8th 2020 UPDATE
: : : for all Italian speaking friends : : :
IN ITALIANO
trovate un'intervista appena rilasciata (08 Giugno 2020) IN ITALIANO al seguente link:
