Hello friends from WEBS! Keep up with all things Modern Daily Knitting by subscribing to our newsletter at the bottom of this page, or by leaving a comment. xo Kay and Ann
Dear Ann,
A little over a year ago I met artist Jennifer Wroblewski when our friend Cara Davis Conomos brought her to a little knitting event in the East Village that I’d had a hand in organizing. I couldn’t take my eyes off of Jen’s sweater. It was simple, but striking and unusual. Jen struck me as intrepid, not just because she had knit a sweater that fit, but because she had also designed the sweater. But more about the sweater later.
It turns out that of course Jen is intrepid; she’s an artist. She’s used to figuring out materials and methods and making them do what she wants them to do. Sweaters are no exception.
Jen recently sent me some images of her art, which recently has gone in a fiber-ish and three-dimensional direction, using wires and cables and other obsolete electronic detritus.
See the knitting?
Spit-splicing is not a viable technique here.
The work is called Knitting After the Apocalypse. Here’s what Jen told me about it:
“All of this material is donated by friends and neighbors, making it something of a community based effort. I frame the project as the trained behavior of a deranged homemaker. Making do as a crafter/mother in a post-apocalyptic environment. I also talk about using recycled materials as a way of redressing the excesses of my consumer behavior.”
It’s fascinating to look at. I love the painted bits. I hope to see it in person one day.
Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Program
Would you like to see Jen’s sweaters? Of course you would. There’s no shame in being interested in sweaters. We’re all knitters here.
Jen kindly shared some knitterly notes on her process:
“Every sweater is a one of a kind gift to a specific person. The body of each sweater is top down raglan. (Brick by Clare Lee on Ravelry is a great free pattern for this part.) The sleeves are knit to be very tight like gloves. I do my own design/measuring as I knit. I am completely motivated by color and fiber so the yarns change every time I make a new sweater.”
“Big Red was the first one I made, and the body is made with Manos Del Uruguay Maxima in Zinnia, with sleeves in some obsolete Babette from Miss Babs. This is before I figured out the sleeves need thumb holes.”
“Heather is bulky black wool blend (can’t remember the brand), knit on a 9 needle with sleeves knit on double-sided size 4 needles. The blue sleeve is a Miss Babs Babette color from 2014. The other sleeve has a Miss Babs as well as a Kismet fiber works silk/merino in Larc’s Song.”
“Funny Face I made for myself. It is also with Debbie Bliss BFL in charcoal. The sleeves are silk. The pink sleeve is Miss Babs Dark Coral Mulberry Silk, knit three together on size 4 double-pointed needles. The orange sleeve is Miss Babs Isadora French Marigold, also knit in 3-ply on size 4 double pointed needles.”
“Lexie is made with Debbie Bliss BFL in the color charcoal. The arms are a mixture of four different Miss Babs and more of the Kismet Larc’s Song.”
“The cape over the sweater is from a pattern on Ravelry called L’Enveloppe by Sally Melville. It is in seed stitch in two plies of various scraps of Miss Babs from my basket. (The two plies are each a different color, giving it a really pixelated appearance in real life.)”
I want to make one of these. I love the combination of graphic interest with wearability. These sweaters do not look like they are screaming for attention, or that they are “arty,” but they have so much interest and appeal. I’m tremendously inspired by Jen, her work and her sweaters, and awed by the fact–often relearned–that we knitters have true artists in our midst. Thank you, Jen. Please keep on, and let us know what you do next.
Love,
Kay
Very inspiring.
Jennifer’s work is mesmerizing and followed the rabbit hole into her website but and will return to it after the interlude known as work. She is inspiring. I have had L’envelope queued since November, a suggestion of a poncho without screaming poncho – moving it up to #1.
I hadn’t seen L’Enveloppe before, either, and I’m totally inspired by it. It doesn’t have that flappy poncho problem where you put it on and you look like Hagrid.
Oh thank you for this post! I haven’t even gotten out of bed yet and my day is off to a juicy inspired beginning.
Thanks for the inspiration. What a talented artist! Thinking about incorporating a little of the sweater thought in my #Bangoutasweater, now that I feel a need to redo one sleeve( did not like the way the increases looked) so there may be a strip or block thrown in now.
I like how, when worn, the sweater looks like it may be a boxy short sleeved vest over a more snug and fitted sweater.
Wow thanks for telling us about Ms. Wroblewski.
Hope to see her art works in person somewhere.
Yes indeed – seeing a hand-knit adult sweater that fits is always impressive.
Just wanted to add that the Stopover KAL is a huge amount of fun – I am hoping to meet my goal of knitting an adult sweater that fits me.
Eyes on the prize, Lisa! You can do it. I’m impressed (and relieved) at the photos of finished Stopovers that fit like a dream. #BangOutASweater is where I’m living these days, endlessly refreshing my screen.
Love the sleeves idea. Am going to use asap.
that sleeve idea is genius. I think for my style I would do something a bit more fitted for the body, but I love the idea of a neutral base and a pop of totally unrelated sleeves.
Thumb holes in the sleeves – genius!
That’s my Jen!! She’s the best and inspires me on a daily basis!!! ❤❤❤❤❤
Back at you sister.
Yarn + friends 4ever!
Visually interesting stuff alright! Would love to see these in person, both the wiry constructions and – especially – the sweaters.
But Kay, I must gently differ on the “not looking arty” assessment. Any one of these garments would draw sideways double-takes at my local Post Office or Town Dump (the two social interaction hubs of my town and I am not joking). Not that such attention is a bad thing – not at all! One must just be prepared for the pencil-thin spotlight of fashion notoriety 😉
Quinn, you have to keep raising the bar if you want to be the Village Eccentric. Nobody is going to hand it to you on a plate.
You know – and I say this modestly, looking down and twisting the toe of one muck boot in the snow – when you start from a baseline of “that lady with all those goats,” then add a fine assortment of handknit socks and a dog who looks like a deranged muppet, you really have an advantage in the Village Eccentric Sweepstakes.
As my fourth-grade teacher said, “We are all good at something.” She neglected to say that some of us don’t even have to try.
Deranged muppet?? Oh my … tears of laughter! Sorry I’m not sorry, pup. 🙂
Brain. officially. blown.
Oh my gosh, love the oversized, drapey sweater with tight sleeves! Why have I never thought of that?! And also the cape … I need a cape.
All God’s children need a cape. Just realized this.
Next up: #BangOutACape !
Kay – that comment made me snort my coffee (luckily, it had cooled a bit…)
And now I want to knit and paint all the cords! 20+pairs of earbuds floating around all my drawers – Imma looking at you!
What brilliant work – love both the wiriness and the interesting approach to sleeves – very inspiring !
Artists are among us and within us. I was just last night thinking how profoundly the artistry of MDK has affected me (really I know, sniff). The blanket bravado, the kidsilk haze smoky scarves, the two friends luring us ever onward! Come forth and knit with Lopi! Try this sloncho on for style! Can’t you feel KonMari smiling on the knitting up of Christmas lights and old earbuds?
Hi Everyone! Oh my gosh thank you so much for your feedback. I cannot overstate how I LIVE to encounter interesting objects, songs, works of art, sweaters, made by other people that I can enjoy for a bit. The thought that I get to repay the favor in my own small way is just the most validating thing. xoxo
I love this approach to sweaters but am having trouble wrapping my head around it from the photos. It looks like she knits the sweater top-down (and oversized, in some instances) in her base color through the point when the raglan increases are complete and the arms are separated from the body – and from there on, she works the sleeves in the contrast yarn and tighter gauge. Do I have that right? I am utterly gobsmacked.
Yes! This is exactly right. It’s so easy. The trick is to reduce the sleeve stitches dramatically to make the shoulders pouf out and the arms right. I reduce stitches by intuition/guess depending on the recipient. The good thing is that you can try it on as you knit to figure out the sleeve fit.
Thank you! This is so inspiring!
Love this post and her work!
I am an artist by profession and have been integrating my love for the fiber arts more and more into my gallery work. For years, they seemed like separate endeavors. But now, as I move in this direction, I am seeing more and more how all of these creative efforts are inter-connected. And also, how ancient and universal are those connections.
For a fun twist on how the fiber arts can influence a (famous) fine artist, there is a wonderful talk on YouTube between Robert Storr and Chuck Close in which Mr. Close (at the very end of the talk) pays tribute to his own grandmother. Apparently she was an avid knitter and crocheter. One who had no qualms about frogging large, time consuming FOs. He talks about how her willingness to start over and keep going until it was right, informed his own studio habits and approach to the easel. I love how he pays her tribute. 😉
I will look for this conversation on YouTube. I am right there with you regarding studio practice and fiber arts. They are completely separate at times, and at others totally connect. I have a wonderful painter friend (Heidi Pollard — amazing amazing work) who recently counseled me not to worry about whether the two even have to relate at all, and that we have a right to be complicated people. Do you have a website?
Hi Jennifer,
Really enjoying this post, and finding out about you and your fabulous work. I did have a website, but I took it down for a revamping about a year ago. Due to some major life occurrences, it, and my work, have been on hiatus since. However, if you google my name (Clare Kirkconnell) you will find my work and my primary gallery (The John Berggruen Gallery). You can also find me on my newly hatched Instagram account at which I am having fun confusing me and others as to what my life is all about. 😉 That said, your friend’s counsel is something I am trying to take to heart these days.
You can either get my email from Ann or Kay, or direct message me on IG (napagal.clare) and I will get it to you. Would love to know more about you and further the conversation. XOClare
P.S. Google (in videos) Chuck Close and Robert Storr In Conversation. The bit about his grandmother starts while answering a student question that occurs towards the end at about 1:10 something-ish. I just listened to it and it is better than I remembered. For that matter, the entire video is wonderful.
Clare, I love your paintings. The grid in your work (and Chuck Close’s) brings painting as close to the knit stitch as it can be, I suspect. Such beautiful work. I am thrilled that Modern Daily knitting has connected us!
You might also like this sweater. I thought it had a great arty vibe to it. It’s friendly to bits and bobs of leftovers as well.
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/gakusei
I especially love the grellow version!
I, too, love the idea that the sweaters appear to be two separate pieces. What a stash buster this idea could be! A few years ago, I was in one of Cal Patch’s tunic classes at Squam and kept noticing that one young woman was wearing what appeared to be a shawl thrown around her shoulders. That dang shawl didn’t move all day (as opposed to any that I wear – which end up dragging the floor at some point). There were no instances of slippage and adjustments – all day! At the end of the class, I had to ask her how she kept it in place. The answer was L’Enveloppe’. It’s a genius design and so wearable.
Love the post-Apocalypse knitting AND the sweaters! Thanks for sharing this!
Love the art AND the sweaters! That knitted wire fencing got me wondering: Are chain-link fences knitted?
They sure look it.
Let’s just agree that they are.
Thank you, this is sooo inspiring!
Wonderful post. Love the art. Those sweaters are pretty brilliant, I remember her. I may need to try this–it’s the beauty of the Boxy sweater arms but on a large gauge oversized sweater body instead of a largeoversized fingering weight knit body. . And–love that it brings back happy memories of that little popup of Maine island Starcroft yarn last year–that really happened!
Ooooooh, all kinds of inspiration here! Love her sweaters. What a great concept to knit the sleeves as fingerless gloves. And her art. Fantastic! I’m heading down to the basement tomorrow to raid my husband’s big box of extra wires/connectors/cables. (Or maybe I should just keep the box in a safe place in case the Apocalypse happens….)
Inspirational, indeed! Love how you connect us – knitters and artists, all! And you’ve motivated me to pick up my hibernating ‘He’l’Envelope.’ Thanks!
This is great…and best of all, I may even be able to use use her sweater idea right away to slightly modify my Stopover!
I started with my sleeves, and have finally almost finished both of them. (Done two-at-a-time.) They’re on size 8s, and my gauge seems to be tighter than on my swatch, though they fit fine over a long-sleeved shirt. Given this information, and others’ mods of going with a smaller sleeve size for this sweater, I may try a size 9 for the body of my sweater! The adventure continues…slowly.
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Love her work! Truly inspiring