2021 Big Knit
Woven
WOVEN in Kirklees
WOVEN in Kirklees is a festival that happens across Kirklees every other year. Established in 2019, the Festival has helped communities across Kirklees celebrate its textile heritage and find out more about the future of textiles in the region and wider afield.
2019
In 2019, the first festival focused on showcasing Kirklees’ textile talent!
Artists hosted open studios, organisations in the industry opened their doors to the public, and the Festival was able to commission local works for presentation across the district.
2021
In 2021, WOVEN worked through COVID-19 to ensure that the textile community could stay connected and developed ‘Go & See’ as a series of online introductions to some of the district’s STITCH HEROS, allowing us all to Go & See without leaving the house.
https://woveninkirklees.co.uk/online/go-see-craft-panel/
More information on this can be found in our talks tab in resources: https://woveninkirklees.co.uk/online/
Also in 2021, we wanted to ensure the textile community could work together and support each other, and so, following on from small Yarn Bombs in 2019, we invited knitters and crochet-lovers[MOU1] to take part in a BIG KNIT. After a public vote, it was decided to be ambitious and Yarn Bomb the iconic Huddersfield train station.
14,000 squares were made by people from around the world and brought together to make the joyful celebration that was the Big Knit. Subsequently the Friends of Batley train station got involved and covered their station with colourful designs by schools and groups.
Big Knit was made possible with the talent and support from Gill Bond (Wild about Wool) and Sandra Nesbit (Ravelry). Want to have a go at creating some of the designs developed for the the iconic Big Knit Rainbow Rays project? Head here:
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/the-rainbow-rays/patterns
2023
In 2023, WOVEN focused on sustainability with a drive to repair and reuse!
Two major strands of work supported Kirklees communities to consider how to bring new life to garments, Growing Colour Together, which explored using natural dyes, Mission to Mend, which celebrated the skill of mending.
Growing colours together
Growing Colour Together is more than a project – it is a movement to get more people involved in growing and dyeing using plant-based matter.
The fashion industry uses high levels of chemicals and water in the colouring of our clothing, and WOVEN wants people to slow down, take time to think about colour, how you make colour, how it is ok for colour to fade and change, and how to enjoy the process of colour throughout natural dyeing.
We have lots of resources on the website to help you make a start with what plants to grow, when, and how to turn those plants and many more into stains and dyes.
https://woveninkirklees.co.uk/projects/growing-colour-together/
As part of the 2023 festival, Growing Colour Together also created an artist-in-residency programme in which seven artists worked across three core areas of Kirklees to support the development of Colour Gardens and make beautiful new works of art for each area, using natural dyes.
Discover the films surrounding each of these projects, here:
YOUTUBE PLAYLISTA great way to get to know the project is to watch our award-winning documentary introduction film:
A project by WOVEN in Kirklees, supported by The Space.
Mission to Mend
2023 saw a revitalisation of ‘Make Do and Mend’ with a contemporary twist!
Visible mending, spinning and repair took to the road across Kirklees in a roadshow. Mission to Mend appeared in five locations across the district to engage with the local community helping them to explore the skills required for mending, talk about the history of making do and mending, as well as the importance these skills bring to individuals, and the need to care for clothing to save the planet.
Watch the Mission to Mend film here
WOVEN in Kirklees Festival 2023
If you would like to get a flavour of the 2023 festival here is the WOVEN official festival film with a number of highlight films:
YOUTUBE PLAYLISTEvery child challenge
Every Child Challenge was developed as a way to support every family in Kirklees to have a go at stitching to mend, offering five simple challenges to undertake to instil core stitching skills in children for the future.
Try the challenges today:
https://woveninkirklees.co.uk/online/
STRUT
In 2023 we kicked started the festival in style asking community groups to consider fashion and identity, what your clothes say about you, and to STRUT their stuff on a catwalk in Dewsbury! The event attracted over 5,000 people across the day watching the fashion show, as well as making their own fashion statements.
STRUT was a great way to bring together a community which boomed during the textile industry in the 1960s and 70s, and to reflect on how textile plays an influence in their lives today.
https://woveninkirklees.co.uk/case-study/strut/
SAVE THE DATE
Planning is underway for the 2025 WOVEN in Kirklees Festival!
Next Year we are going all-out to celebrate our communities who make the festival happen! Dates for the Festival are the 1 – 30 June 2025, with events happening across Kirklees.
There will be a mix of talks, tours, workshops, industry openings, makers markets and swaps. Don’t miss out sign up for the newsletter now!
https://woveninkirklees.co.uk