Lion Brand Notebook ®
The Knitted Mile is a project created by fiber artist, Robyn Love, for the exhibition Gestures of Resistance. The exhibition was held at in Dallas Texas, from February 20th to March 22nd.Robyn worked with fifty volunteers to knit a mile-long yellow stripe that was installed in the center of a road in Dallas. The concept was that a knitted median line on a highway interrupts the daily fast-paced movement of life with a lovingly handmade element. Hand-knitting and crafts in general, involve taking ones time and creating one-of-a-kind objects that express our individuality. The exhibition showed that this is an option to mass production, instant gratification and uniformity. The road stripe was knit in garter stitch, 4 inches wide in Vanna’s Choice, mustard color yarn provided by Lion Brand Yarn Company.
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helen (of troy)
While i sometimes knit for charity, (not much, i tend to do other things) I love knitting for art.
(i contributed 1/1000(a little over 5 feet)of the mile)
I hope everyone visits her blog, and reads about this remarkable project.. (and learn how it effected drivers!)
there are those who think that knitting blankets to cover houses, or sweaters for trees or lamp post are a waste, but art is never a waste..
it was wonderful of LB to contribute to this project.. (and i hope you’ll continue to post updated (as the project is likely to be installed in other locations)
Joyce Becker
What a wonderful Yellow Brick Road, time to stop and reflect where we are going in life!
Melanie
I’m curious…..how long did it take (in hours) for the one mile to be knit? how many skeins of yarn did it take to knit one mile, 4 inches wide?
I’m with you “helen (of troy)”….art is never a waste. It’s very cool!
sarebear
This is neat-o. It does make you think! What an out-of-the-box idea!
I too am wondering about the stats and figures. While practical charity projects of course are ALWAYS a great and necessary thing to do, art and off the beaten path (or on the beaten path, in this case) projects that are what the huh? kind of things are parts of the world too. People have different motivations that move them, and inspire them to create work, art, etc. Ideas can get others moving . . . .
Robyn
Many thanks to Lion Brand for donating nearly all the yarn for this project–they have been wonderfully generous supporters of my work for years. This project, in particular, would never have happened without them.
That said, here are some stats on The Knitted Mile:
The final piece was almost 2000 feet long, so just shy of being 1/2 mile long. Each skein of yarn gave us about 5 feet, so we used around 400 skeins of yarn. The piece weighs in at 57 lbs. As for the hours put it, it is hard to say since each person knit at a different speed (in the end, there were actually 90 people who contributed)–I had absolute beginners knitting this as their very first project and professional knitters all working on it. Suffice to say that it gave sharp new meaning to the notion of traveling a mile.
helen (of troy)
1 ball of Vanna’s Choice makes about 1/1000 of a mile (5 feet/some inches of 5280 feet in a mile)
how long does it take you to knit a 4 inch wide 5 foot long scarf? (me? about 3.5 hours)
Robyn had some 50 something knitters helping her (and LOTS of yarn thanks to Lion Brand!)
i knit 1 skein –but many others knit several (some knit 20 skeins!)
the mile of knitting was installed in Texas, but it might ‘go on the road’ with other installations in Portland OR, and in New England.. you should check out Robyn’s blog for info..
she can also be found on Ravelry as WeeBallYarn.
Ann
sorry, just don’t get this as ‘art’. Art should be something not many people can do–anyone with time and donated yarn can do this. Besides, it’s a huge waste of yarn/resources. Is this yarn going to be recycled at the end of the ‘performance’? Geez….talk about un-Earth friendly.
Melissa
What a wonderful project bringing so many artists together. Seeing your post and pictures made my day!
Zabeth loisel- Weiner
Oh! The Knitted Mile!
It was a real pleasure for me and some of my knitting circle students to be involved in this project. Thanks to Robyn who could visualize it and all of us helping to materialize it with the Lion Brand invaluable donation. We had good time, good laughs and an appreciation for the theme… even if we rushed a bit in the process! Personally, I loved the look of the big-wheel when all pieces, joined, were rolled for delivery.
In our time, our resistance to slowness is so obvious that taking time to reflect on our tendencies was revealing. We all learned from it… even us, hand knitters, already tuned to slow gratification!
Zabeth Loisel- Weiner
Lion Brand Notebook
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alice
neat idea. something that will cause people to catch on to knitting, a wonderful way to relax. pics are great.
Julie Whitmore
I love it. Maybe if it makes people slow down and realize that roads are built by hand and machine and that yellow lines can represent lives saved and lost (through drunk driving for example) we would live in a better world. I love “art” knitting. Fiber arts should have more respect and lots more accessability just like this knitted yellow line!
Deb
I think the *knitted mile* is a great idea! It certainly does draw interest to what we knitters/crocheters are up to.
I knit and crochet hats and scarfs for several neighborhood projects (homeless, needy, senior citizen homes and special requests). The only problem that occurs seems to be keeping up the yarn *stash.* Although, donations(skeins, leftovers, ripouts, etc.) are requested there never seems to be enough yarn to go around. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Many thanks for your help.
Zontee says: Hi Deb, if you’re on yarn community websites like Ravelry.com or Crochetville, reach out to other yarncrafters through their forums, as many times, people will be interested in donating yarn. Also, shoot an e-mail over to our Customer Service department at support@lionbrand.com — we consider requests in the order they’re received and when we have materials, we send them out.