Winter 2021
Along with cave paintings, threads were amongst the
earliest transmitters of meaning.
–Anni Albers, On Weaving
A year ago in anticipation of moving storage from Brooklyn to Fiddlestyx in Northwest Connecticut, we made a reconnaissance visit to our storage space on Canal St. – where different chapters of our personal and creative lives were packed away in boxes. Starting with Janis’ knit archive, we pulled everything out and laid it on the floor to view. Then we moved on to the mountain of boxes containing production back stock of Butternut; a quirky collection of hand knit characters in the form of mittens, hats, dolls and pillows created in 2006.
A year later in preparation for the actual move, we invited mixed-media artist Caroline Levy to photograph and curate an exhibition of this work.
There were knit rabbits that were rabbits but also mittens. The “wearing” quality almost seemed to be secondary. Not to mention that each character came with a name: Nordic Nelly, Button Bess, Spotted Skunk, Pocket Boy, etc. Janis and I decided we could use wooden planks suspended across the room to create a simple jungle gym-esque set for the characters to play in. I wanted to create a space where the characters could hang, interact with each other, and create a scene and story for viewers to enjoy.
Butternut: Narratives at Play is up through Mid-March, viewing by sidewalk only. These back stock items want to find new homes! They’re available for purchase at discounted prices here on our Etsy ButternutKnitting page.
