Vanessa Koranteng - Conscious Crafts: Knitting: 20 mindful makes to reconnect head, heart & hands

MINDFUL MAKES TO RECONNECT
HEAD, HEART & HANDS

Sicgmone Kludje and Vanessa Koranteng

As creative collaborators weve always had the passion to plan, develop and execute projects and weve always worked well together. Our ideas embrace stories and the meanings behind each project. Each of these 20 makes will touch on various zones of your wellbeing, most importantly your space, additions to your look and knitting techniques that you can learn that can then be applied to other projects.

Knitting has been proven to relax us; the repetitive actions help us to think clearly and positively and can even lead to curing pain in relation to physical and constant mental battles, Its here to help us find a joyous sense of awareness, where repetitive stress no longer affects us, (Matthews, 2016). The strength of the mind is underestimated because even when we do make things we realize that our thoughts wonder and its so easy to let our minds run rather than use it. The aim of this book is to create a productive environment for yourself, slowly repeat the steps resulting in a creation youve made with love.

Creativity has been a large part of our lives ever since we have been in school, with Sicgmone studying art at GCSE and A-level to graduating in textile design at Central Saint Martins, which led to designing a knitwear fashion label called Sicgmon and currently becoming a lecturer in Textile Design at University of Arts London. The impact of conveying an in-depth textile knowledge to students has always been an important part of her role in empowering and teaching the future generation of designers.

Vanessa has always been intrigued by art and textiles, exploring summer schools doing screen print workshops to fashion design and ceramics in school to graduating from University of Brighton studying Architectural Technology where she has currently amassed over 8+ years in the built environment and Interior design industry, being able to complete million-pound projects for clients. Alongside that she continued to allow her creativity to flourish by also developing a second hand/vintage garment label called Brantuo Studio where she would scour warehouses, collect, style and shoot these and turn this around into collections month on month.

These experiences collectively have helped us to enjoy the art of craft and the importance of being able to create unique items using our hands. The connection to the process of creating textiles opens up the space of meditation, it settles the mind while being excited to cherish a new connection to our heritage.

This lead to us founding, Black Girl Knit Club. Established in 2019, our mission as friends turned business partners is to empower and encourage Black women in craft, to create something with their hands and embrace their identity. We dont venture far away from what we have gotten to love, which is crafts and hand skills. We both had the urge to find a safe and inclusive space for us to develop skills with every workshop we teach; for everyone to go away with something, to embrace their personal touch to each project. It was vital to our wellbeing to be in the space with likeminded people who look like us, who are of similar cultures and embracing their identity, too. We also wanted to create a sacred space that produces a happy knitter. The space is built around the heart of creativity and not isolation, escapism and the relief knitting provides from mundane everyday life and justifies the fruitful time spent away from it.

We wanted to highlight the importance of wellbeing and mindfulness when knitting together by noting the emotions it brings when you make something for the first time. As time goes on we get busier everyday and we rarely carve out the time to concentrate on ourselves and achieving that is the luxury we want to bring to you. When we knit we always glance at the stitches and pattern very intricately, we have to concentrate on what were doing but relax at the same time. We can do this by watching our hands create tension, controlling our breathing and monitoring our thoughts. In fact, we capture our thoughts peacefully and go to the otherside to a deeper, more insightful place of creativity.

In this book we really want to enhance and bring out various types of experiences as you create these 20 makes for different areas of your life that will spark joy and value your inner calm. These projects were designed for all ages and levels in mind and our hope is for you to enjoy this time of slow crafts and the possibility to feel more relaxed by the time you put your needles down.

References:

Conscious Crafts Pottery by Lucy Davidson (2021). The Mindfulness in Knitting by Rachel Matthews (2016)

There are several essential tools that you will need before you can explore the exciting knit designs in this book. These are the basic tools and equipment you will need for most knitted projects.

Knitting needles Straight knitting needles are the basic tool used to create any hand-knitted piece. They can be purchased in a variety of sizes and are usually made from plastic, steel or wood deciding which type to use is down to personal preference. Yarn ball bands always include a recommended needle size for the yarn and most knitting patterns will include a suggested yarn weight and needle size, so make sure you check these before you start your knitting projects.

Circular knitting needles Circular knitting needles have two tips made from metal, plastic or wood that are joined together by a length of flexible plastic cording. They are available in a range of lengths and are ideal for knitting sweaters, socks, mittens and other accessories that are worked in a continuous round.

Crochet hooks A crochet hook can be used for weaving different yarn threads into your knitted projects; for example, a crochet hook is used to add fringing for the Fringed Scarf (see ).

Tape measure You will need this essential piece of kit to check the tension (gauge) on your knitted pieces (see ). A tape measure is also helpful for checking the sizing of any knitted work in progress.

Pins You will need pins when seaming to hold the edges in place. They are also helpful for marking out an area when checking your tension (gauge). Try to find pins with large heads, so that they are visible between the knitted stitches and dont slip through and get lost too easily.

Stitch holders Stitch holders are used to hold open stitches while they are not being worked on the knitting needles. For example, they can be used when shaping the neckline of a sweater. Stitch holders are available in different colours and sizes.