The Collection of the Knitting & Crochet Guild of the UK: A Critical Review of Its Usages

Abstract

This position paper aims to bring attention to the unique collection of the Knitting & Crochet Guild (KCG) of the United Kingdom (UK), describing its composition, current and potential uses as a resource for research and study.The article begins by stating its methodological and critical framework: these are informed by feminist research practice, underpinned by soft systems and situational analysis approaches to collecting and analysing data. First, the content of the KCG Collection is outlined as are its location and origins. Second, the current usages of the Collection: its audiences, and the ways in which it is made available to these audiences are described. Finally, a review is made of these interactions and key issues identified.The article describes and evaluates the ways in which the KCG Collection is currently accessed in both ‘real life’ and ‘virtually’. Access to the Collection itself is limited by its location but small groups can be accommodated by appointment. Items are taken out in trunk shows across the UK, and displays mounted at consumer textile events across the UK. Online, the Collection has several locations and the effectiveness of these will be assessed. Audiences for the Collection will be described; these range from University of Huddersfield textile students, to KCG members and other leisure makers and crafters.The Collection can be argued to embody domestic gendered production and to therefore stand as a material record of former economic situations, pre-globalisation, when hand labor at home was a significant provider of clothing and other domestic textiles. The textiles in the Collection are a testimony to the skill and creativity of many women, considered ‘ordinary’, making for family but also, at times, for monetary reward.