{ robyn love }
2010
As part of Wave Hill's Winter Residency Program, I opened my studio to the public twice a week in January and February 2010. Visitors were welcome to card, spin, and knit wool that I dyed using natural materials. Over the course of six weeks, more than 50 skeins of yarn were created and given to visitors with the understanding that they would use the yarn to knit or felt a hat that would be exhibited later at Wave Hill House. Over 53 hats were returned and put on view. A hat exchange between all the participants was held on the last day of the exhibition so that each person who knit a hat, received a hat (but not their own).
When I started this project, I thought one of the key components would be the trust between me, as the maker of the yarn, and the knitters, who had no real obligation to return with a hat. But somehow that issue seems a small point, almost beside the point. The real point, as it turns out, is the experience of making the yarn together. Even the hats are beside the point. Everyone is enjoying seeing them come back, and some people are doing great things, but they are like little pieces of candy after a great meal. The meal, as it turns out, is being there together.
(photograph by Stephanie Lindquist)