Purlpuri

2011-07-12T11:41:00.000-07:00

http://thecatsofmanchester.tumblr.com/

Berlin Fashion Week

2011-07-12T08:52:00.001-07:00

Bread and Butter

Capsule

Premium

New Drawings

2011-06-16T06:02:00.000-07:00

I have picked up drawing again, as I knit all day for work. These are very satisfying to draw. They start as doodles, when I am in a situation with a notebook and my head starts to wonder. The one with the lines started to take over my notebook page when I was in a seminar for Education Health and Safety Law training and the other one was when I went to a pub and the football was on. See I didn't say "to watch football". I can't really force these drawings, so I suppose I should start attending lectures and seminars so often to get this drawing flow going. I do enjoy listening some lectures, I find things interesting, but I have never been very good just sitting still quietly. For example, I don't really choose to go to a cinema for very often. Sitting in a dark room quietly for two hours- waste of time. If it wasn't for other people, I don't think I'd go to a cinema, probably never.. Though funnily I like watching films very much. I wonder what that's about.

But anyways, here is the drawings:

Pointelle Samples

2011-05-28T05:02:00.000-07:00

Since working at Make Piece I have been learning a bunch of new techniques. This one is called the pointelle, though I have used this in my garments before, though I didn't know it was called pointelle !

I have also been trying to find the time to do my own garments, and I have one going! Here is a little taste of it:

Now I start making a move towards the studio to see what I can make of this last one then! Have been sitting on a computer now for hours...

Bye!

V

Knitmaster Book Volume 4

2011-05-28T04:07:00.000-07:00

I just put these pictures of the knitmaster book for you to see, what is possible with Fair Isle punchcards. It's only a couple of samples, my own notes for thinking of my work, but also for people to see that I can do these things made to order and you can pop in and see me if you want something made for you from these patterns and the patterns that I have already written. (See collections from www.cargocollective.com/valpurivihriala

The last drop performance at the Victoria Baths

2011-05-28T03:35:00.000-07:00

Images from: http://yuchenwang.com/blog/

Here is a piece that I got involved with recently. It was an outcome of the residency of Yu-Chen Wang at the Chinese Arts Centre and with a different collaborations between artists in different medias and areas it ended in a performance at the Victoria Baths.

The performance was interesting in a great surroundings. It was exciting to be a part of it. The Cornerhouse will show a film about the performance later this year and there will also be a Yu-Chen's artist book published by the Chinese Arts Centre.

Click on here to see more pictures and information about the performance and Yu-Chen's residency:

http://yuchenwang.com/blog/2011/05/20/futureeverything-festival-2011-yu-chen-wang-the-splash-and-a-last-drop-victoria-baths/

Also go see:

http://cargocollective.com/aliyahhussain#895392/Aliyah-Hussain

Warming up.

2011-05-28T02:06:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

I can't believe that I have left so long not to update my blog. I have been concentrating mostly in my placement at Make Piece, and it has taken a lot of my time. Also I couldn't think of anything to write, that would have been more important than the photoshoot we did. I thought it would be important what comes first when you open my blog. But problem solved, I have now done an online portfolio, that I can just put the important pictures and they will stay there. Here is the address for that:

www.cargocollective.com/valpurivihriala.

I just had a little think and it seems that I have a lot to catch up on with the blog. There has been quite a few things going on lately and they are all very exciting, so of course I must share these things with you. Anyhow I decided to start this blog shooting lightly. I would like to quote my dear friend Suvi, who quotes her dear friend Jack N: " All work and no play makes a Jack a dull boy". So this post will be a little bit about other stuff than just knitting or work. We get to the serious stuff again in the next post, when I have warmed up a little bit for this writing.

The thing that I wanted to share with you all, is something that me and Riku made together. Something beautiful, big and using the great force of nature. We made a Pizza!

I try to keep my Sundays free, when I am free to sleep how ever late I want, and do whatever I want and eat whatever I want. I really like cooking, but I'm often too tired for that after work. But Sundays I like to make a bit of effort for the cooking, it's just something that is good to do together. Though often my vision of what I want to cook is so specific that I hardly let anybody help me, but I am working towards a better, non-control freak me. So last Sunday me and Richard decided to make a pizza as there was loads of stuff in the fridge that needed eaten. Also I often have frozen fresh yeast in the freezer. I have tried to bake pizzas with dried yeast- it doesn't work out for me. All and all I don't think my pizza making skills are the same than they were when I lived in Finland. I have tried to think why that is. Is it the oven trays? Is the water? Is the yeast and flower? i don't understand it. But anyway, these pizzas were delicious.

This is how I make a nice pizza dough:

fresh yeast, use about a size of half a golf ball (I buy mine from Barbakan, Chorlton, it only lives for one day, but you can freeze the rest)
hot water (2 dl about)
Oil
Salt
Plain flower

Melt the yeast in the water, add salt and oil, then start adding flour and keep mixing and adding until the dough don't stick on your hands anymore. I suggest you only use one hand that you mix in the dough, otherwise you are in trouble if you try to do anything else in the middle, like answer the phone, open the door or finding a knife from the drawer that you can keep scraping the dough of from your hand. So yeah, it's well easy. Then you spread the dough in the oven trays, keep pushing it with your fingers gradually over the oven trays and be careful not to make holes. I tend to do mine really thin crust, but you can do yours however you want. If you even going to make a pizza.

We got about three trays of pizza from the dough I made, so we decided to make one and a half each, was great fun!

Riku is putting courgettes on the pizza.

My pizza had: onion,garlic, pesto, cherry tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, olives, courgette, feta cheese and emmental cheese

Riku's pizza had: ham, mushrooms, peppers, danish salami, spinach and cheese.

I also made well nice chopped tomatoes and fresh herbs and garlic mix for the tomato base. Oh my god I am hungry now, why did I choose to make this blog before I have even had breakfast?

Riku wants to already eat the pizzas, but you can't yet Riku, they need to be baked in the oven first!

Now Riku can eat the pizza, Look how happy he is!

So that me sharing about my sundays. Next post will be a bit more about work again I promise!

V

Summer-Autumn Mini Collection 2011

2011-04-02T12:01:00.000-07:00

Retro Fashion!

The HedgeHodge Top

100 % Acrylic

The Phones Top

Lambswool with Acrylic Blend, 100 % Lambswool

Motif from KnitMaster Vol. 4

Retro Cats Top

100 % Merino, 100 % Lambswool, Lambswool with Acrylic Blend

Motif from KnitMaster Punchcard selection

Black Bolero

100 % Lambswool

Emma Dress

100 % Acrylic

Disco Jumpsuit

100 % Acrylic

Team:

Knitwear Designer: Valpuri Vihriala

Photography: Gareth Hacking

Styling: Sophija Gugina and Valpuri Vihriala

Models: Leonore and Sandra

Other Clothes: stylist's Own

Also Go to:

www.flickr.com/annavalborg

www.flickr.com/photos/gazh1/collections/

www.cargocollective.com/valpurivihriala

Tremors in 60 seconds, A film by Rich Howe, Mark Horne and Kane Glover

2011-03-28T08:07:00.000-07:00

Tremors in 60 Seconds from Baron VonKanehoffen on Vimeo.

My leg is injured.

2011-03-28T07:24:00.000-07:00

Make Piece

2011-03-22T13:03:00.000-07:00

I have been doing an internship now for a month for a company called Make Piece. It's a knitwear design company based in Todmorden, about half an hour on a train from Manchester Victoria. Behind the label there is two ladies: Nicola Sherlock and Beate Kubitz. Make Piece is all about sustainable UK produced luxury knitwear. All the yarns are coming from the UK, they even have their own sheep (60 shetland sheepies to be precise). They were recently on Country File on BBC One. The episode doesn't seem to be available on iPlayer anymore...

I go to Make Piece once or twice a week to work with their machines. My new favorite machine is Brother Chunky ( I can't remember now what number it is, but I am looking to buy one, so if anyone hears anything, please let me know! ). Even though working with chunky gauge machine, the garments that I have made, are knitted with fine yarn. I also work in my own studio during rest of the week to carry on practicing the designs that I learned in Make Piece studio.

The toughest thing to learn has been fixing things. When I started to use machines, I used to just do practice samples, where it didn't really matter if I just started again. In the point when I started to produce garments, I was so careful that I didn't really make any mistakes anymore (cos I didn't really exactly know how to fix it if yarn broke or I lost a stitch). It was the new way of managing the tension by hand rather than trough tension wire that got me into few blood pressuring pickles, but luckily I have gotten trough that stage where I constantly snapped the yarn. At this very minute though, there is a garment in my studio that I have to undo into a certain point. I think I haven't done the "undoing" right, as it has turned into a god forsaken mess. I did fiddle with it for nice three hours today, but when the sun started to go down, I decided to go home. I am hoping to wake up very early tomorrow to go and see if my heart is healed enough from today's struggles and I could just carry on. I have started to find my Finnish "sisu" from inside me since started this internship. (Sisu is a word or a saying about Finnish people, that they are very stubborn and don't give up, I didn't really think that I fitted in that stereotype until now). But I am there to learn and I think after a while I will be seriously good knitter.

Here is some designs by Nicola Sherlock that I have learned to knit at Make Piece: (images from www.makepiece.co.uk)

Foxglove Shrug

Edgeway Shrug

Garments on these images are not the actual garments that I made, they are just images to show which ones I have been knitting at Make Piece.

To see more of Make Piece beautiful designs go to:

www.makepiece.co.uk

They also have a blog:

http://www.makepiece.co.uk/pages/NEW-label-we-want-your-help.aspx?pageid=415

So,

Let's campaign for wool!

Kisukiskis

Valpuri

Taiwanese Breakfast Club

2011-03-19T08:53:00.000-07:00

During my Artist Workshop training at the Chinese Arts Centre I have met Yu-Chen Wang. Yu-Chen is a London based artist originally from Taiwan. She is currently doing a residency at the Chinese Arts Centre. This residency is her first and longed one, as after her graduation from Goldsmiths she has been working in design.

Yu-Chen is really open person, telling honestly about her personal life and it also reflects a lot in her work. She has told us (artist in the Chinese Arts Centre) about her development as an artist. She also told us her worries and struggles that she has had with trying to work and stay in this country, but also about other stuff that many of us artists face after graduation. Money worries, settling in the "real" world (I don't think I need to explain this part too much, we all know have learnt what that is once coming out from University), trying to figure out what is it that you are. It's not the most simple thing to figure out, even if you have got the medium clarified.

Today though I got an invite to go to a Taiwanese Breakfast Club that Yu-Chen is organizing every other saturday during 8 weeks period. Today was the first one and I was ever so excited to attend. I got e-mailed a menu before hand:

Menu: Sweet Potato Congee; Spring Onion and Pickled Radish Omelette; Seaweed; Tofu with Dried Soybean; Peanuts; Dried Cabbage with Carrots.

The Image is from Yu-Chens blog, which I will put a link on here at the end of this post.

I had nice chats with people at the breakfast working in different industries. The residency space in CHinese Arts Centre is so cool. It's a portion of the whole space, next to the gallery, with a studio space and a kitchen, and the best part of it is a little upstairs bedroom. There is metal ladder leading up there and it is like a little attic room with a tiny window looking to the street. Somebody described it well saying that it is like a cabinet you get in an overnight train. The best thing about it is that I heard that it's got it's own built bathroom as well. I don't know why I am raving about that room so much. It just seems like such a amazing way to do work. It's isolated and public at the same time somehow. I would love to work that way some day for a while. I think I will apply next year to do a residence.

There is a lot of thoughts in my head at the moment about being an artist and learning to be a designer as well. Both of the worlds are so attractive to me. I enjoy doing both kind of work, but I just have to find a balance and really have to master my time management. I also have to stop feeling guilty about not doing the other thing when doing the other thing, it's like having two lovers at the same time... or I don't know, two siamese cats who both want to be your favorite (?!)

My biggest inspirations and the things that I feel connected in the art world at the moment are

The Chinese Arts Centre

www.chineseartscentre.org

and Yu-Chen:

http://yuchenwang.com/blog/
http://yuchenwang.com/

Me and Yu-Chen share an interest in old machinery and one of my "to-do-list" has "Go to the Musem of Science and Industry" as Yu-Chen told me all about the old knitting and other industrial textiles machines that are there at the moment. It sounds amazing!

I also want to put my friend Joel in here, even thought I think he deserves his own post. He is amazing photographer and one of the most influential and closest(even though he lives in a different continent) people that I have in my life. Because of him I often question my existence as an artist and think about what paths to take. Hopefully I have more time to write about Joel soon.

http://www.joeljagerroos.com/

http://www.theresejoel.com/

Kisukiskis

Valpuri

Learning at the CAC (Chinese Arts Centre)

2011-03-14T14:40:00.000-07:00

Samples for Emma to see:

2011-03-03T07:06:00.000-08:00

The punch card is made from the book KnitMaster Volume 4. It was funny though, as the pattern in the book, advices you to punch around the holes that you are actually meant to punch to create the pattern. Which means that the pattern card comes out negative. So I was a bit confused first, when the background color became the pattern color and the second color became the main color. If that made any sense to any of you. What I did, and will do in the future though, is make sure that when I knit with this punch card, I will change the main color in the 2. feeder and the decoration color in to the first feeder. And that way I get continuous pattern, instead of a stripe. Okay I have probably bored the mug out of you now.

These samples are made for a dress that I am designing for my friend Emma. She showed me a model of a dress she wanted, I made a mock up (that will be in the previous post with the test shots for the spring collection). And then we looked out some patterns together and Emma picked this funky retro one!! (Everything in that book is retro though, but this one is screaming retro, especially with the colors I used!) I hope the grey color gives the contemporary effect for it.

Testshots and PHoto Shop playing

2011-03-03T04:58:00.000-08:00

Dedicated for Sophie and Gareth:

The spring collection has been under construction and now me and some other creatives are planning to set up another photo shoot for the garments I have produced since January. On wednesday I had a fitting and I took test shots with 3 beautiful women who have kindly offered to model this collection for me. I have also recently set up Photo Shop in my fancy laptop (yeah I know, I didn't have it before, but in my defense I used in school! ... also I struggle with this high tech computer stuff to set it up, yes shame on me), and I just couldn't resist having a little play with the photos last night. I really enjoyed it, haven't really touched Photo Shop since I left university. The Photo Shopping of the photos might not be up to everybody's high professional standards as I tend to like playing with the contrasts and color mainly, so the ones with a critical eye, turn away now. But I tell you this much, if you do, you going to miss all the beauty that it is in these girls (and the knitwear). These photos are just tests and a little glimpse of what will be coming up in a couple of weeks.

The Black Bolero, 100 % lambswool

The Black Top with Phone Motif, 100 % Lambswool, Lambswool with acrylic blend

Blue Dress "Mock-up", 100 % Acrylic "Designed for Emma"

The Hedgehodge Top, 100 % Acrylic

The Grey Top with Cat Motif, 100 % Merino, 100 % Lambswool, Lambswool with acrylic blend

The Jumpsuit, 100 % Acrylic

Thank you for the lovely models, Gemma, Sandra and Leonore, for coming to the fitting. I am looking forward to working with you!

With Love

Valpuri

Short films are good therapy for a sunday flu

2011-02-27T13:16:00.000-08:00

Knit and Natter from clive tonge on Vimeo.

Sunday...

2011-02-20T08:56:00.000-08:00

Nice Sundays everyone. I haven't been updating my blog as often as I would like. I have quite a few things on my plate at the moment. All good things. I started a work placement in a beautiful knitting studio and shop called MakePiece:

http://www.makepiece.com/

I am learning new techniques with a designer and trying to learn and experience how it is for them to run this small business.

Makepiece is a label with ethics. They have their own sheep, they use domestic knitting machines (that doesn't use electric, same as me).

Tonight MakePiece will be on BBC 1 on countryfile. I am excited to watch that!

Another thing that I will start tomorrow is a workshop artist training scheme at the Chinese Arts Centre.

http://www.chinese-arts-centre.org/

The current exhibition there is "The Human Error" that is about the interaction between humans and machines.

"HUMAN ERROR Trailer from Household on Vimeo.

For the exhibition at Chinese Arts Centre, Household have created works that explore the relationship between machines and their users. The smooth operation of our daily lives relies heavily on the assistance of various machines. Technology makes our life easy but frustrates us when it lets us down. The exhibition highlights our reliance on machines to complete daily tasks and emphasises the potential for human error.

The artists have a specific interest in the use of machines in mass production; photocopiers, printers and scanners, which all work to speed up and streamline our work. We easily forget how we managed without these machines before we invented them. Household will produce large scale interactive sculptures, which invite visitors to cooperate in order to make them work. The machines will overcomplicate simple tasks and require a minimum of two or more visitors to run them, encouraging human error. Visitors are encouraged to bring friends or collaborate with other people in order to complete the tasks. The collaboration necessary to operate the machines follows the ethos of Household projects.

The show will open with a week of demonstrations led by the artists. For the duration of the show, video instruction, manuals and diagrams will be left as instructions for visitors to carry out the tasks themselves. The "machines" designed by Household will be suitable for users of all ages.

To guarantee you place on the workshops, please place a booking via Eventbrite using the links below:

Human Error Machines Demonstration with Household artists
Saturday, 19 February 2011
2PM http://human-error-demonstration1.eventbrite.com"

The introduction is from the website:http://www.chinese-arts-centre.org/ from the part "What's on?"

Bye for now, I will get better with this updating, that is a promise to myself!

HUMAN ERROR Trailer from Household on Vimeo.

New Samples and two new pieces.

2011-01-18T09:23:00.000-08:00

Hello folks!
It has been quiet in this space since last time when I published the images of the collection that came out on November. I had a little bit of a Christmas break, and after that I couldn't wait to get back to my studio.

I have been working on some more summery stuff, and I have this idea of different kinds of tops with a fair isle pattern on the bottom, and lace or cable at the top. I am very into retro motifs at the moments, they are cute and cool at the same time!

Here is some samples that I made earlier this week:

Here is some texture samples that I made in December:

I also made a jumpsuit, but the first version needs some adjustments. It looked good on my friend Olivia, but I didn't have my camera on me when she tried it on. So the first images of it, are presented this more modest way. (See Emma in disguise in one of them, it was an accident, but a funny one!)

In more detail:

Here is the most recent and for me very exciting things that I am working on. The samples at the start of this post are different variations and ideas that I want to make clothes on. It is a glimpse of my next collection. I hope you find it retro and contemporary at the same time.

Close up:

Feel free to write your feedback in the box below. Not in Chinese though please ;)

For more, watch this space !!

V

Fashion Photo Shoot Collection November 2010 Purlpuri

2010-12-10T07:22:00.000-08:00

Black Cardigan with lace and cable pattern

Black, pink and brown Cardigan with variations of lace patterns

Grey Cardigan with Black, Pink and White Fair Isle Pattern

Black Tunic with Fair Isle Pattern

Knitted Black Rose

Knitted Sequin Leggings

Knitwear by Valpuri Vihriala
Everything else knitted by hand except the Tunic and the Rose I did with my Toyota K950 single bed Knitting Machine
Designs inspired by Manchester, Elle and Vogue Knitting

Photographer and set designer: Nic Chapman

Models in Order of Appearance: Sandra
Vee
Katie

Make up: Nic Chapman

Styling: Valpuri and Nic

Special thanks goes to everyone really. The models that made everything really easy, were ready for anything and didn't complain about the horrific cold weather we had on the day of the photoshoot. Amazing stuff.

Another Special thanks goes to Nic whose advice and opinions were gold and who made me see a lot of details in the whole process that I didn't think of.

Thanks Thanks, I am excited but also utterly nervous about the feedback. Thanks.

Thanks !

Samples and upcoming portfolio

2010-10-27T13:23:00.001-07:00

I am working on a new collection at the moment, still couple of finishing things for it to do. Here is just a little taste what garments is going to go into the portfolio. The Images are going to be taken all again, with models and such, if some of you wonders. I have never been good at waiting the end result, so I am just going to put these documentations on for you to have a little peek!

Here this one is a Lace Shrug. I am in two minds if it is going to have a little button at the front or not. I have a certain idea, what I want the button to look like and I am not sure if I have found it yet.

I kindly made Olivia to briefly model this for me.

This one is a cardigan in progress, the last piece for the portfolio. It is nearly ready,-all I really need to do for it now is to sew the seems and iron it. The first one is a sample piece, but after the sample I decided the colors differently. I really like how it is a traditional cardigan, but the colors makes it more contemporary. I am very in love with it and can't wait to see how it looks on a model.

This piece is another one of my favorites. It is one of the two machine knitted garments in this collection (the accessory is the other one), but at the same time it is a first garment ever that I have knitted with the machine. Yeah I know, I have knitted a whole toilet cubicle with the machine, and many samples, but this is the first garment. It is knitted with very thin yarn. When I was on the fair isle pattern on it, I was holding my breath so that it would go all smoothly. The material is 80 % lambs wool 20 % acrylic. So very soft.

Here is Consta modeling it for me in our studio. What a babe.

This last one again, I made Olivia wear. This garment is actually one of the older ones, but it ties the collection nicely together.

And here Olivia shows us all a dance move.

All of my garments in this collection are different from each other, but they all have something that connects them together. Nearly all of them have some combining colors. I have used black, pink and grey for all of them. Couple of them are Fair Isle patterned garments and couple of them are lace patterned garments. The sequin leggings will go with the collection, as the Fair Isle cardigan is grey as well. I have also made a sample piece of a accessory for the collection. I don't have a picture of it yet, but if you are really inpatient to see it, go to the Craft Centre in Manchester, it the second shop on the left, ground floor.

The proper photo shoot for the portfolio is going to happen in November, that is soon!

My studio

2010-10-27T09:31:00.001-07:00

Hello!

I thought it is the time of showing what my studio looks like. I moved in there on August, and together with the girls whom I am sharing the studio with we moved a wall (!) so that we had a bigger space. Just quickly saying that the wall wasn't really like a concrete wall, it was more like, hand made wall board that was screwed onto the floor, so don't ask me to do anything like that in your houses (you probably weren't going to, anyway).

Here is my corner

And I think you have met Leila before

And here is the rest of the space, that the others use. The cutting tables, manikins and industrial sewing machines belongs to my "housemates".

I am sharing the studio with 4 other ladies, all of them has very interesting projects going on, and they are good experienced designers.

Go and see:

Sara's work in:

http://saralichouhan.com/synopsis.aspx

Consta's work in: (the website isn't working yet, but coming soon)

http://www.constanzefriedrichs.co.u

Silvia's work in:

http://www.mysewingbox.com

Silvia and Consta are also doing fashion courses, (hopefully I have a little knitting slice there somewhere) and I truly recommend that if you are thinking such things to do yourself, contact them! Believe you me, they are good! Go and see what kind of courses they offer in:

http://www.stitchcraftmanchester.co.uk

Hen is not only a dressmaker, but she is also a musician, go and listen:

http://www.myspace.com/silverclubuk

And here is a little treat at the end. This is Hen's other band Sister's of Transistors, the costumes are made by Consta and Silvia:

Yes. Life is good in the studio :)

Helen wears my jumper! :)

2010-10-20T04:03:00.000-07:00

I just want to show you all this ace picture of my friend Helen. The same one that did the crochet Monster. She has her promotion pictures taken by talented Miss Chapman. And I am so very flattered that she chose to wear a jumper that I knitted in her promo pictures.

Image from: http://helenmakes.blogspot.com/2010/10/look-at-me.html

Teaching Knitting

2010-10-19T14:42:00.001-07:00

Happy Mondays Everyone!

I am carrying on my list of all the updates I want to do for this blog. One of them is that I give knitting tutorials. Here is Liz, whom I teach to use her very own Brother Knitting Machine.

Liz has 3 knitting machines lying around and she wanted to be taught how to use them. Me and Liz met in Burnley, when I was making knitted tea cosies with Rachael and some other ladies. To remind you about this project http://purlpuri.blogspot.com/2010/06/open-shop-project-in-burnley-knitted.html

These are the things that I have taught Liz to do: Cast on (manual), plain knitting (jersey stitch), increasing and decreasing, open cast off and casting off manually so that the piece wont unravel. Last week we had a go with punch cards, hoping to be able to complete fair Isle, but the machine is old and seems to read the rows of knitting in her own terms, so hopefully we get it fixed soon. Liz also has couple of other knitting machines, which I am hoping to get set up with her.

Here is Liz's Brother Machine that we set up together.

If you would like to get a tutorial from me on a knitting machine, please e-mail me: rusakkokeitto@hotmail.com for enquiries. I
can help you to set up your own machine, teach the basics and design a simple garment with you to get you started. I am also going to start giving lessons in my own studio in the near future. I have experience in using single bed machines brands including Toyota, Silver Reed, Brother, Zippy Plus and KnitMaster.

Spread the word for me lovely people! :)

Artyarn Workshops: Fusion Knitting and Just So festival

2010-10-19T14:40:00.001-07:00

I am couple of months late with this update, but this is one of the things I was up to in August. Artyarn is a Manchester based company, founded and run by an artist Rachael Elwell. She has literally invented a knitting dream, her career in knitting is admirable I must say. Anyhow, I work with Rachael, Artyarn, every now and then, and here is couple of the things Artyarn does (and believe you me, it is just tiny little part of all the projects there is):

We went to an event in Leeds, which was Girl Guides 100th year anniversary. I was thinking that it was just going to be small gathering of girl guides in some little park in Leeds. But no. It was an international festival, with 10 000 of them! It was a amazing. The project that Artyarn had set for the festival, was that everyone was to knit a square, and then bring it to the workshop where the knitted squares where to be sewn together. It was a tiring couple of days, as there was so many squares to choose from. There was literally so many knitted squares, that we couldn't have fitted them in Rachael's car, even if she was the only person in it. Im not even joking. The lovely thing that I learnt at the workshop was, how initiative, skillful and hard-working the girl guides were. They certainly weren't "all thumbs" (a saying that I recently learnt from..erm Desperate Housewives). They just took the needles and got on with it, even the littlest ones. I was very impressed.

Please go and see more images and more information about this project in: http://artyarn-fusionknitting.blogspot.com/ The images above belongs to the website: http://artyarn.blogspot.com/2010/08/fusion-festival-girl-guiding-centenary.html

Another workshop that I was helping with Artyarn on August, was JUST SO- festival. A festival for families. It was the loveliest weekend that we spent knitting by day, and having some beer and chinese food by night. Here is me showing a little'len how to knit:

Image from: http://artyarn.blogspot.com/2010/08/just-so-festival-2010.html

Please Also visit: http://www.justsofestival.org.uk/

Post Uni Blues

2010-10-19T14:03:00.000-07:00

Dear All,

As you can see, I haven't updated my blog for months. That is so naughty of me. Luckily I have been around with some projects. After the degree show and all the hard work and the last squeezes for the University Deadlines, I think I, and all of us on the course, needed a break. I went to a really lovely holiday to Finland, and the summer there was absolutely amazing. Not a care in the world- for two weeks. After coming back to the rainy Manchester, I must admit my moods were pretty down. The step to the real world started immediately the next day after landing back to UK. Ringing to job centre and the council, Im not going to bore you with the details. The money that I really wanted to use for buying a camera (I am borrowing one at the moment, thank you Riku!), that would have helped me on my blogging and things, all went to rent and bills.

Well. The good news is, that I already knew where I was going to head next. I am currently renting a studio with 4 other very talented girls, all designers. We moved in on August. I am so lucky to work amongst these people, as they have more experience than me, and their advice might just get me closer to what I want.I already knew about the studio in May, so it made all panicking about the future all a bit easier. I was actually looking forward to just to knit what ever I wanted, setting out my own rules and no needing to justify every stitch. Just knitting with the flow. I mean, I did enjoy my final piece- the knitted toilet, but it took me so long to make, that I had about 10 ideas whilst I was making it, and was suffering as I wanted to finish that piece first.

I feel that I am busy at the moment, but I always have this feeling if I am just kidding myself, saying that I am busy, but actually just doing things much slower than I should. I truly hope that I keep up with the blog, and of course especially I hope that I keep up with my work.

Crochet monster of me!!

2010-06-08T04:46:00.000-07:00

Here is a crochet monster portrait of myself made by my friend and fellow yarn artist Helen. At the moment Helen is making crochet monsters from comissions. This one is mine!

See more Helens amazing work at: http://helenmakes.blogspot.com

Yeah!

Open shop Project in Burnley: Knitted teacozies.

2010-06-06T04:37:00.000-07:00

For couple of weekends I have gone to Burnley to knit with Artyarn. In open shop project, various artists are doing workshops in Lancashire area including Burnley. Artyarn has curated a community art project the "Knitted Teacozies" for Towneley Hall. Recession has left many retail outlet spaces empty and Art's council has funded different projects to take place in these spaces.
More information about the Open shop Project on:

http://artyarn-openshopproject.blogspot.com/

I found it so relaxing to just knit something small, a bit domestic and quirky for a change. I decided to knit a strawberry teacosy. I made the pattern up as I was going along, but would be good to do it again and write down the instructions. All the tea cozies are fun and innovative and are going to be exhibited in Townley Hall 17th of June.

The Knitted toilet.

2010-06-06T04:13:00.000-07:00

So on friday I finally finished this project that I thought was impossible to make until the minute it was ready. This piece required 80 individually knitted tuck stitch tiles for the wall, 16 small knitted tiles for border and 32 knitted tiles for the floor. I also tailored and knitted a close fit garment for a toilet, inside and out. So from easter to last friday intensive knitting and sewing has finally paid off. I am so happy about the result. I have my presentation and feedback coming soon. I hope that doesn't crush my lovely upbeat mood.

The piece is not supposed to be a toilet showroom, but a glimpse of somebody else toilet. A knitted alternative reality. Hopefully these pictures don't ruin the surprise for those coming to see the show. There is a lot of other amazing and interesting work to see all over campus.

Interactive Arts Degree Show 2010
Friday 18th June
6.00 pm
Holden Gallery

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=125641360784094&ref=ts

The things to do list.

2010-06-03T00:00:00.001-07:00

I have been missing updating my blog for a while as it has been very busy with the final piece for the degree show. I have done 80 wall tiles, nearly 32 floor tiles (I have 5 left to do and I am going to do them this morning). I found a toilet from my street which was a part of a whole bathroom set actually. Even thought it was suggested, I decided I don't want to have somebody else's old bathroom in my back garden just to wait that I might do something with it some day. So I just took the toilet. I think the neighbors thought me asking for that was weird enough. I spotted the toilet in the middle of the night, but didn't want to be a thief, so I slipped a note to their mailbox, introducing myself as an artist and inquired if it was possible for me to collect the toilet the next day. And they got back to me via phone and my housemate and boyfriend assisted to get the thing in the garden. So that is the story of the toilet. After manic cleaning with all sorts of poisons and rubber gloves I started to work on it. The last weeks as I have been feeling like a taylor, -for a toilet. I truly hope that my future clients will be humans.

Now waiting for the final piece images, I will share the some pictures with the work in progress. It has been progressed more since then, but if I share those images now, then maybe the end result is not going to be so exciting to see!

The rest of today's plan is to follow my things to do list which is:

Knit 5 tiles
Plan and knit details (toilet paper, toilet roll holder)
Go to University
Sew tiles on to foam board
Planning and making mechanism
Calculate how much velcro I need (and preparing to pay myself sick for it, I can't believe how expensive it is outside of the University!)

So, quite a few things to do. See you later!

Hello!

2010-05-05T02:05:00.000-07:00

Haven't been writing here for a while as I have been working on one piece, which is going to be big! Anyhow, I thought it would be good to update even a little bit so here is a photo how my tiling career is coming along.

Some finished fashion items

2010-04-20T08:07:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Here is some images from recent knitted garments I have made. There is Neil with his gray jumper, with cable (comissioned knitwear).

Neil is wearing his gray jumper in Grindsmith Cafe, run by him and Ben. The best coffee in town, all fair trade and also working as a gallery. Find Grindsmith on Hilton Street, Northern Quarter, Manchester. The next art preview is going to be next Monday. More information: http://www.grindsmith.com/.

Next garment is very bright red Scandi Jumper with colour pattern. I love it! It is available to buy. Contact me if you would like it. I am wanting to take more images of it, so that the style of it is all visible.

And there is the Sequin Leggins. Very much fun for me to make, but they need slight adjustments, or if you are a tiny girl with very little legs, you might like them. Not available for sale.

That is all for now, hopefully I have some time to make lots more!

Knitted tiles at the Moonfish Gallery

2010-03-27T04:15:00.000-07:00

"Test will be a group show consisting of various artists with diverse and unique takes on all their individual fields. They will all be exhibiting their new and exciting lines of work in preparation for their up and coming degree show. The pieces will express this transitory stage in the artists work, displaying strong ideas that will manifest these ideas into the surrounding space of the Easa HQ." -Curator Dafydd Jones

My piece is done with my knitting machine (Leila). The tiles are all 15cm by 15cm.

Exhibition is going on until 31st of March.

Saturday project

2010-03-20T06:06:00.000-07:00

Samples

2010-03-19T05:32:00.001-07:00

These samples are made with the knitting machines at the university, and I chose to present them as tiles. Here are.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Meet Leila!

2010-03-19T05:07:00.000-07:00

Before Leila arrived, I had to make a few re-arrangements in my house. There was a piano in the corner of the living room, well we just had to get rid of that, thank you Laura for picking it up :) I did like to play with it sometimes, but it was driving my housemates mad, as I can only play one song, which is Gary Numan's "Are friends electric". Yeah it is a brilliant song, but I was playing it constantly one weekend from 11 am from the morning until 2 in the afternoon, and then had a little lunch break, carried on until 10 pm. Nice isn't it. I was just so excited as I learned the song from youtube, that I wanted to keep playing it so I wont forget it. Anyway, Leila. After the piano went, I moved some furniture out from my room to the living room, emptied one corner which had all sorts of old crap from the people who haven't lived in this house for years. Then, finally I got a desk in my room (thank you Konrad), and then one Sunday, couple of weeks ago, after I was teaching a knitting workshop with Rachael at the Town Hall (international women's day), Leila arrived.

Leila is a Toyota KS 950. At the university I have been using Zippy Plus, Knitmaster and Silver Reel, when learning to knit. So there was a little new learning process with Leila at the start. A bit of frustration here and there. But I have gone trough quite a lot of stuck stitches with Leila, she is very good with that. And I am pretty impressed with myself that I managed to put the machine together. At the moment I am concentrating on an art project, but hopefully soon I get to try to make a garment with a machine, as I haven't done more than samples so far. I also have a double bed Toyota Ribber, but I thought I might need to go trough some tutorial at the University to use double bed domestic machine, as I have only used it couple of times a year ago. I think it is a good idea to learn the single bed Toyota first.

Now look at Leila, isn't she a beauty!

Something from the past

2010-03-19T04:55:00.000-07:00

As a third year student, you come to think about the future a lot. What are you going to do when University is over? I wish I could just live in the student world forever, never facing the real world. Lately I have been thinking a lot about what I want to do after, I don't want to pigeon hole myself. I like making garments with knitting, and I also like doing art things. These images what I am putting up, are old, but they are here to remind myself that I should start to think about the next collection as well. All the garments on images is hand-knitted by me. The models are myself and Paul, and the photos are taken by me. I actually produced these images for portfolio purpose, that is why I still probably have them. Have a lidl look !

Crochet Balls in a tea pot.

2010-02-09T07:18:00.000-08:00

Is it the time to tidy up my studio?

2010-02-09T07:15:00.000-08:00

Learning the domestic knitting machine

2010-02-09T05:00:00.000-08:00

I took an induction on knitting machines last year, but had few hand knitting projects going on so I didn't get that into it. Actually, that was a little lie there, the real reason why I didn't get into it was because I found it so damn hard! As quite skilled hand knitter it was very frustrating to try to work out the machine as the result of the samples weren't tidy or beautiful. It is more difficult to control the piece of knitting when you are working on a machine, than if you have them on your hands. Imagine you have 70 stitches on the needles of your hand knitting, when using a machine, these 70 stitches are on all individual needles and when the knit feeder goes trough them, they all push forward and open up to take on the new loops. In this process if the yarn is wrong size, or if any of the setting of the machine has set wrong, it drops out the stitches, and that makes the machine user in less of control.

In machine knitting it is important that everything is set up right. The yarn size, threading has to be set right, casting on has to be done in the right way, the buttons has to be in the right position and the speed and the pressure has to be controlled when pushing the feeder trough the bed of the needles. It is definitely wrong to say that knitting with domestic machine would be cheating, as there is as much to learn as in hand knitting. After learning the methods and developing a relationship (and some patience) it is very rewarding and saves you time.

I have been using domestic machine "Zippy Plus" (a japanese beauty) at the university. I was stuck with my work for a while, but then decided that now is the perfect time to learn what there is to learn about the knitting machine. And that did get me back into work and I am very enthusiastic again. I feel so much happier that I am accomplishing a new area in knitting. The technician (Sue) at the Knitting room has been very helpful-what a cool job she has "Knitting technician"! It is good that she is helping me and telling me what there is to learn before I will buy my own machine.

In the single bed domestic knitting machine I have been learning the following stitches and functions: Fair isle (the colorful patterns), Tuck stitch (the blue and the ochre color samples) and lace. I am very interested to learn cable as well, but I will have to wait until next week as I am going to London tomorrow!

Knitted Roll Performance

2010-01-29T08:31:00.000-08:00

Dear Readers,

A couple of weeks ago I gathered some of my fellow students for a performance. I used the knitted Roll, which has been mentioned in the Post on Friday 9th October 2009 and Monday 18th January 2010. I have been receiving few strips for the knitted Roll from some lovely knitters. Unfortunately I have been having some problems uploading my images to the blogger, so I am sorry for the delay of the images. These images are taken by Elizabeth (thank you Elizabeth), I will probably add the images which I have taken later as well.

This project is still going on, as long as we can complete a whole mile worth of knitting. So I will still happily receive more strips.

That Monday was a lot of fun, but very cold standing outside, when we were doing the performance.

I would like to give special thanks for the following people:

1. Assistant of the project:

Caiti Berry

Cameras:

Elizabeth Ralph

Valpuri Vihriala

Video Cameras:

Richard Howe

Knitters:

Odacascat

Molly the woodtagger

Valpuri Vihriala

Jesus Masso Valdes

Justyna Stula

Roll Models:

Gaz Travis

Eddie Williams

Georgie Dixon

Marcin Wozniak

Runa Begum

Laura Burke

Ryan Higgins

Helen Austin

Kay Woodley

Miriam Baynes

Daniel Watson

Samantha Kelly

Olivia Glasser

James Moffat

Sakis Caramanlis

Rhys Fagan

Patrick Mcguire

Without you I could have not make the performance happen. Now I am thinking more things to do with the Roll, and of course grow it, suggestions are welcome.

With Love

Purlpuri

Whoa!

2010-01-26T10:48:00.000-08:00

Check this out, it is amazing. I have been feeling a little bit stuck lately with my work. The best cure for that is to research and look for an inspiration, and this one was pretty much the highlight of my day!

Back to life!

2010-01-18T13:48:00.000-08:00

Ok, christmas is over and the snow what was first so nicely treating Manchester, before it turned to mush and then horrible ice, where you couldn't even walk on, is gone. It is time to get back to work and produce things again. I have been knitting a jumper and the sequin leggins are ready, altought they need some adjustments. Few things needs to be photographed and then I can update the blog with new lovely images again.

To remind you about the knitted roll project, I will put up few images about a little performance I did with it. It is a while ago, but I realized that I have not shared these images with you, so I may as well.

I hope you all had a good christmas and new years eve! My solutions is to work hard, eat well and try to take everything out of these coming months!

Drawings

2009-12-04T12:58:00.000-08:00

Recently I have been taking on drawing again. I think every artists should keep up with their drawing skills as it does fade away when its not practiced regularly. I noticed that my skills are a bit rusty after a long period of focusing on learning different mediums. It is weird how I have been studying art at the university for several years now and actually haven't practiced drawing. It seems that many artists have taken drawing back in to their practice. I have always enjoyed drawing and I am glad that I started it properly again. Many of the drawings I show in this post are based on things what I seem to "doodle" on the corner of notes in the lectures or other things I draw when I am just passing time. I have plans to print these on fabric with silk screen, pillow cases maybe,-saying this I have just revealed what my christmas presents to some people might be, but I hope they are so good that it wont matter that I spoiled the surprise!

Here I want to put a comment what my tutor said which was : "It is a little bit like knitting". It has been very time consuming and detailed, but that seems to be the thing I love doing.

Crochet balls!

2009-12-04T12:22:00.000-08:00

For a while I have been obsessively crocheting these different color balls. I didn't know the purpose for these when I started, and I have several different ideas what might come out of them. What I do know that I want to make a lot of them and then when there is a lot, they are having a life on their own.

I want to learn to do stop motion animation, so I think these crochet balls are going to be my first experiment what comes to that. So far I have taken a series of images of them and over the weekend I am going to have some fun with them.

Enjoy the colors!

Jumpers in the Cavendish Gallery.

2009-12-04T11:48:00.000-08:00

Hello again,

It has been so busy couple of weeks, and months actually, that I have not been able to update the blog. I have also being producing more work, and only today got around to start taking photos of it. Im going to do a few updates with what is going on, just today, I hope everybody enjoys to see the images as much as I have been enjoying making them.

First in this post, I am going to talk a little bit about how the jumper project is getting on. It is definitely growing and it is getting really heavy. I needed some help to carry it from my studio to the exhibition building, which luckily was only cross the road. I am really happy how many people have been donating their jumpers for me. It has been a big help and I am also touched by the fact that so many people seem to care about my work.

In this bit would be nice to thank the people who have been donating their jumpers for me so far:

Georgie Dixon

Abigail Webster

Jennifer Lawler

Faye Scott-Harrington

Hazel Jones

Pets in Need for Vets (charity)

Tony Holiday

Today I have been putting the jumpers up in the Cavendish Gallery, where it is available to view from Monday. I put the jumpers inside walls so that a person can actually walk in it. It is a soft, warm (a bit smelly) atmosphere as some of the jumpers are a bit old, but it is really cosy. As I was putting the jumpers up today at the gallery, I felt like I wanted to have a nap in there, wrapped in a massive jumper collage. As the project has been involving the audience from the start, I want it to be exhibited as that the audience can experience it and climb in it and feel it. This is the second time now that the jumpers are exhibited, and I am excited to hear the feedback. I am still collecting more jumpers and see how big it is going to be in a few months time!

I hope as many people who can, go and see the actual piece in the Cavendish Gallery, but for those who are not going, can enjoy the pictures.

Development with the jumper project

2009-11-08T08:45:00.000-08:00

Here is some more images after I sewed some more jumpers together on friday. I have to start think about the space where I want to show it, of which space I want to fill with them. It means that I have to start being a bit more constructive which shape the jumper collage is going to take. It has been exhibited at the university, and that was a good test to see how it works when it is hung up.

Thank you so much for the people who have contributed their jumpers for me! I need more, so if you have some jumpers, actually all sort of knitted items (such as scarfs or socks or anything, the little pieces are good for filling the odd caps here and there) can I please have them!

Kisukiskis.

Temporary Autonomous Arts

2009-11-07T06:46:00.000-08:00

Manchester have been buzzing since Wednesday as a crowd of innovative people have been organizing the Temporary Autonomous Arts event. The old abandoned big primary school building has been taken over for all sorts of hippie and art activities. I have been enjoying my time there mainly crocheting things and painting on the walls. It is so cool to paint on the walls, you are so rarely aloud to do it, so it's like a treat!! I wish I could just go to TAA every day, but, they will be gone by Sunday. If you haven't been there yet, you should definitely go.

Here is plenty of pictures about little puppy falling asleep, couple of my paintings on the wall (Im not worried about the quality of the art work itself, it was fun!), people cooking, playing and knitting. Check out the junk fashion show preparations, and especially that blue rose on Phil's outfit as I made it. Rest of the outfit was knitted with plastic bags by Janine.

Find out more info and the secret(!) location:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=124455261174&ref=ts

http://forbiddenartsmanchester.org.uk/

Leonardo Da Vinci in the Museum of Science and Industry

2009-11-07T05:06:00.000-08:00

The Museum of Science and Industry is having an exhibition " Da Vinci- The Genius" on 14th of November 2009- 13th of June 2010. The theme is about Da Vinci's inventions, more information about the exhibition on:

http://www.mosi.org.uk/whats-on/da-vinci---the-genius/exhibition-themes

Here is my contribution to the exhibition, the piece is going to be photographed again for the show.

It's a Cross bow!!

Houses and Cats

2009-11-06T02:27:00.000-08:00

Hello all,

It has been a while that I have actually had the time to update my blog. There has been dissertation handing ins, new projects at the University (such as Leonardo Da Vinci Project for the Museum of Science and Industry, but about that in a weeks time). There is also such an exciting thing going on in Manchester as TAA (Temporary Autonomous Arts) which has taken my time and interest, I am still on process to make things in there and photographing the happenings, so that as well, is going to be its own chapter in few days.

I thought, I would put some crafty things up, which I have made earlier this year. They were all actually a part of the exhibition called "These Thursdays" (in Salford, From Space) where the theme was shopping. My work, including these knitted pieces was design a re-package for products that already where in the supermarket. I set this concept for myself, when I was thinking what to do for the theme shopping. I decided to go shopping, and then I bought cheap things from the Supermarket and designed fancy packaging for them and that then added more value for the pieces.

The houses and the cat are all packaging for tea.

Balaclava Images

2009-10-24T07:41:00.001-07:00

HI again,

I wish I had the time to update this blog more often. I thought that it would be good to put some of my older work here as well, better to put it in this point when the blog is only started recently,

These images are from last February, when I did a project with knitted balaclavas. I wanted to knit something what I can wear, but at the same time I came up with an idea with a surreal photography project. If you like these check out Leigh Bowery's work as well. The contextual side of these works is all about identity and creating identities which aren't necessary recognizable to any specific groups.

Thanks goes to Richard taking the pink mask images of me and

Thanks goes to Roshine for the beautiful and skillful face-painting and taking some of the images of me, and also for the fun afternoons we had with this project.

I hope you enjoy the images.

Regards

Valpuri

Sequin leggins

2009-10-16T11:06:00.000-07:00

I am designing sequin leggins at the moment as well. Here, I hope you enjoy the images...

Jump in to a jumper. I mean in 4. All 4 of you, all at once!

2009-10-16T10:29:00.001-07:00

Hello Again!

I have been wanting to update this blog all week, but I have been having some technical problems to upload a video, which is a slideshow of my last and this year's work. It caused me a lot of stress, and I will overcome it in some point when I have the time to go back to it, but meaning while, I decided that I don't want that to stop me to put some more exciting stuff on.

At the moment I am collecting woolly jumpers, or anything that is knitted with yarn material, even machine knits. It is going to be a part of a bigger piece and collection of work what is still in progress. I have been sewing the jumpers together, meaning to only construct a surface, but when I had sewn four jumpers together, I thought of, what would it look like if there was people wearing it at the same time.

It was very fun afternoon, please look at the photographs.

Big thank you goes to my lovely models

Jennifer Lowler

Elizabeth Ralph

Ellie Greenwood

Lawrence Crompton

PS. Has to be said, that a Manchester band called Doris and the Jumpers, is looking to wear one big jumper, with three head holes in it. We might work together on that.

2009-10-09T06:17:00.000-07:00

Dear Readers,

I started a project about a year ago,where I wanted to try to knit the distance between Oxford Road and Piccadilly.I had just moved to Manchester and I was trying to illustrate my feelings about it within these two localized points in the city. It was a part of my course work for the artcourse I am doing. However, knitting the same thing day after day, as much as I enjoyed it,seemed pointless when there was so many different projects to participate on, and when all the equipment to experimental are available in the university,so I left this project aside for a while.

I have always wanted to go forward with this project,but I am struggling with time and I was wondering, for my academic statement for the project,what other dimensions does it have? As working with Artyarn, I have discovered new ideas to go forward with this labour intensive and ambitious craft. Especially when creating very big pieces,like this big knitted roll.

So I am now asking, if you the readers, would like to contribute for this project?

The roll at the moment is approximately 40 metres long, so about 960 metres of knitting to go. The piece is about 13 cm wide,knitted with 7 mm needles with 18 stitches and two double knitting yarns at the same time.The pattern is just knitting on both sides. This doesn't mean that participants have to knit with the same materials, just trying to give the idea of the thickness of the material. Acrylic yarn was colourful and cheap enough to work for this project, and as the piece is going to be rolled on the street to measure, I didn't want to use the most dearest of materials.

Everyone who contributes should write their names on a little fabric tag and sew this on to their piece they are contributing, this way everybody gets credited for their effort. Only rules for what the piece should be like, is that its 12-15 cm wide and strong enough to be rolled on the street. This project is ongoing,until the whole distance between Oxford Road and Piccadilly has been knitted.

The project has gained some interest from the media already, such as BBC and North West Visions.

Contributions to:(with your name and where you are from, if wanted to be credited)

Valpuri Vihriala

E-mail me to the address below, and I will either send you the address to send the piece to, OR if you live locally,we can always meet up and you can hand me the piece that way.

More information: e-mail: rusakkokeitto@hotmail.com and mark the message "Knitted roll" as I am not opening messages which I don't know what they include. Please do not send images.