If you’re a fibre artist and you’re considering taking up knitting in public, I’d like to suggest freeform knitting and crochet as the ideal way to start! It’s fast, portable and fun.

I should perhaps confess that until about six months ago, I would have sworn up and down to you that I would never, ever, knit in public – and especially not on the transit system. Thinking back, I can’t tell you why… did I think it was “uncool”? Were the projects I was working on too complex? Was I worried about being stared at? Instead, I was carrying a book. Problem is, I pretty much read and write for a living. I would inevitably wind up carrying work related materials with me to read. Suffice it to say that reading dry treatises on the state of residential landlord/tenant law through the ages is not the best recipe for arriving at work in a relaxed fashion – especially when combined with the pushing and shoving that is an increasing hallmark of the public transit system in the age of cutbacks.

So, a shift happened in my brain, and I thought “Why not just try knitting on the subway and seeing what happens?” I decided to focus on a project that, seaming aside, would be almost completely portable and amenable to public knitting. At that point, I was in need of a serious stashbuster of scrap yarns from a plethora of other projects as well. So, with this in mind, I started designing what was to be a blanket using swatches from former projects and bordered in log cabin technique. Knitting while commuting over the next several months yielded approximately 23” by 26” worth of future blanket:

Again, simple and portable… but I got bored with it. Also, being the type-A person that I am, I wanted to find something to do while in transit which would yield completely discrete pieces at the end of each travel session. Freeform technique, as advocated by Jenny Dowde sounded ideal The art of freeform involves, in part, creating small fragments of knitted or crocheted pieces using unconventional shaping and then using them in other finished pieces of work. Jenny talks about “taking your yarn for a walk” – so, why not take mine for a ride (or for ten rides a week, for that matter?)

Freeform is incredibly fun and simple to do, with funky and inspiring results. There is a ton of flexibility in the craft, and no real rules (aside from “play with yarn and see where it takes you). And - I finished two fragments today for a purse project on the subway coming to the office! I am preferring crochet to knitting for the commute as well. I suspect that some people were intimidated by my pointy little sticks (those Addi lace needles I’m addicted to could look like mini sabres, I guess!!!). The crochet hook is less potentially threatening, and takes up less space. So, all you need is a crochet hook and some yarn, and you too can “freeform” your commuting habits!

Now, if I could only figure out how to do large mosaic work on the tram…!!!

About the maker: Kristina Brousalis is a craft-daft hyphenated greek-canadian boygirl who lives and crafts next to a forest in central Toronto, Canada. She has been knitting for over 25 years and making mosaics for five or so. She practices law to support her Handmaiden silk, smalti and other craft habits. Her latest obsession is blogging, and she tries to blog something humorous every single day. Read on for a biographical essay on crafting.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 23rd, 2007 at 3:16 am and is filed under knitting+crochet+yarn. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will be moderated but will appear as soon as humanly possible.