Celebrate the Offbeat Side of Yarncraft with Yarn

Have you heard about the documentary Yarn by Una Lorenzen? Maybe you’ve been lucky enough to see it already. I don’t live anywhere near any of the places where the film is being screened in the United States, but I was lucky enough to get a screener from the filmmaker and I really enjoyed it.

Now I am going to say up front that this movie is not about knitting. There’s actually not really any knitting in it at all, though there are people wearing handknits. The story it tells is more about the playful and political side of yarn craft rather than the purely practical, and I guess it’s easier to find crocheters in that world rather than knitters.

The movie profiles Olek, the Polish crochet artist who is known for covering people in crochet (as seen above); Tilde Björfors, the artistic director of Cirkus Cirkör, which has done a performance called Knitting Peace (yes, it involves knitting, and acrobatics on strings, and is really cool); Tinna Pórudóttir, an Icelandic yarn graffiti artist who takes her talents to Spain and Cuba in the film; and Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam, the designer and crocheter behind Net Play Works, which makes those awesome crocheted playgrounds.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC10LplOF0M]

Even without knitting, this is a film that knitters, and indeed anyone who likes yarn for any reason, will enjoy. The narration, if you can call it that, is by Barbara Kingsolver, reading a piece called “Where it Begins,” which is lovely.

I had a lot of fun watching it while doing a little crochet and knitting. It would be fun to take your knitting and head out to a screening if there’s one near you (it’s not currently available on DVD or for digital download, but maybe someday!).

Have you seen or heard about this movie? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Next Pattern:

Just about anything you can make in fabric you can make in knitting, but there are some styles that you just don’t see that often translated into knitting.

For example, a button down collared shirt. This is a classic design, of course, and it looks great in a knit version, but it’s just not something you see much of.

Noma Ndlovu’s Guglethu shirt is the pattern to try if you want to knit your own button down shirt. This one is inspired by cashmere tops (though the sample was made out of yak yarn, not cashmere, and uses two strands of lace weight yarn held together) and includes lots of high-fashion details like double-knit cuffs, collar and shoulder seams.

It has a patch pocket on the front and 10 buttons including the button band and the cuffs.

The designer says you can also use a DK weight yarn held singly if you’d rather, and that the shirt looks good in a variety of yarns. There is another version on Ravelry that uses Berroco Remix Light, which is a mix of nylon, cotton, acrylic, silk and cellulose fibers. It has a more relaxed look but it still really pretty.

The pattern has 12 sizes, with a full bust measurement ranging from 32.35 to 72.25 inches, or 82 to 183.5 cm. The designer suggests 2 to 6 inches, or 5 to 15 cm, of positive ease when you pick your size. I could totally see knitting one that’s even bigger to wear more like a jacket, because I do that a lot with button down shirts I already own.

I love all the details on this shirt, which isn’t necessarily difficult to knit, but might introduce you to some things you’ve never knit before (like those cuffs with the plackets, or a shirt collar like this).

To learn more about this shirt and grab a copy of the pattern for yourself, head to Ravelry.

[Photo: Noma Ndlovu]

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