The Knitting Salon is a flexible mobile environment that has been designed to be used in galleries and public spaces as an arena for sharing knitting skills and conversations.
As part of the project Trevor Pitt commissioned knitting groups from across the UK to make a bespoke Salon Bench that would become part of The Knitting Salon. So far, benches have been made in Birmingham, Bristol, Devon, London, Milton Keynes, Newcastle-Gateshead, Northampton and Talgarth.
Following a set of instructions each bench has been customised by a group using a variety of knitting and felting techniques. The wool for the benches has been locally sourced and chosen to reflect the location and the people creating it. The yarns have been either hand spun from the fleeces of a local flock of sheep or processed by a specialist company in the UK.
Trevor Pitt collaborated on the design of the mobile salon with Kate Pemberton, a Birmingham based artist with an international reputation for electronic and textile-based contemporary art. The design and construction of The Knitting Salon was produced with support from Birmingham based arts organisation, Craftspace.
To date 8 Salon Benches have been made:
Salon Bench Northampton, led by Abi Jackson
Salon Bench Milton Keynes, led by Tracey Clarke
Salon Bench Roving Devon, led by Carolyn Morton
Salon Bench Newcastle-Gateshead, led by Joss Wrigg
Salon Bench Talgarth, led by Ann Rowson
Salon Bench London, led by Prick Your Finger
Salon Bench Birmingham, led by Trevor Pitt