Today Angharad Thomas and Barbara Smith from The Knitting & Crochet Guild (Lee Mills Archive) visited us in University in order to explain more about the Lee Mills Archive brief and what could be achieved should we choose to work on this brief. The archive itself was explained in more detail and I was amazed by the volume of items within the collection. Based in a warehouse it contains the largest collection of Knitting & Crochet publications in the country dating from 1910. This section of the archive includes rare publications such as The Lady's World Fancy Work Book which provides insight into social history through advertisements etc. As a embroiderer who came into the Textiles course during the second year I have absolutely no experience of knitting or crochet (unless we count a painful fifteen minutes when I was four and my grandmother tried to teach me to knit a sleeping bag for one of my teddy bears. Needless to say my short attention span got the better of her and my grandmother sent me off to play with my bears while she made it for me). Therefore I found today's visit very informative and my knowledge of historical knit has been widened, continuing to widen my knowledge of this area of textiles could be one advantage if I chose to partake in this brief. The textile area of the archive includes a astonishing 1000 knitted and 2000 crochet items. Some items brought in were available for us to look at closely wearing white gloves due to their age and delicacy. It was explained to us that The Guild required us to sort through the archive categorising items and pattern leaflets, scanning front covers and cataloging leaflets. I feel that this would be very difficult to achieve without even a basic knowledge of knitting and crochet and so I do not feel I would be able to contribute to this project as comprehensively as I would like, especially having seen the passion that Angharad and Barbara have for the collection. Having considered that it is a team project I feel I would fair better if I chose a brief which played to my individual strengths so I could contribute fully to the team effort, in the Lee Mills Archive I feel my lack of knowledge would slow the progress of the team down. Therefor I'm ruling this one out for me!
Rowena Chantler was also due to come and speak to us today about the Penistone Line Partnership in order to broaden our knowledge of the aims of the brief and what we could achieve, however unfortunately she was unable to make it. Instead Claire presented her powerpoint. It was highlighted within the presentation that encouraging customers to travel on the Penistone Line during off-peak times was a key aim of the project as this would potentially allow the company to have trains running more frequently along this route. Previous projects which have taken place on the Penistone Line were mentioned including music trains, community notice boards, guided walks and textile craft projects. The possibility of working with Mount Pleasant School was discussed in further detail and we were informed that a local Scouts group along with Moor End Academy are interested in taking part in the project. I think the idea of working with groups in the wider community is very exciting and it allows a real community feel to be embedded within the project which could be particularly effective in the Tour de France aspect of the project if a 'welcome' display were to be created.
At the moment I'm swinging towards the Home Starter Pack project as it screams 'making a difference' to me as it helps individuals through a exciting and potentially difficult time of their life. However I'm very taken with the idea of working with groups in the wider community which the Penistone Line Partnership allows. Next week when we visit Inn Churches (the charity which provides the Home Starter Packs) I will see how open to working with different community groups the project is and whether this could be involved as a strong theme within the project.
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