Giant Knitting Nancy by Superblue - Inspiration - SYD 003

One of my 2011 New Year's resolutions (well, the only one, to be honest) was to learn how to knit. I never learned this craft as a child.  I remember my mum trying to show me how but refusing to go on teaching me because I did not take it serious enough. Sorry Mum! How could I not take knitting seriously? I did however have a knitting nancy and made long cords - but can't remember what I used them for.

Years later, on a different continent I was looking for a knitting nancy, because I wanted to make some I-cord necklaces (I-cord is the cord that you make with a knitting nancy if you take your knitting seriously! And using a knitting nancy is called french knitting - tres chic!).

I first tried to find one online, with very little success. See, in German Nancy is called Liesl (Strickliesl to be precise), and 'knitting liesl' does not get you many useful hits on the interweb search machines. Once I found out I was looking for Nancy (and not Liesl) it turned out any old Spotlight is selling what I was looking for and I ended up buying this rather ugly example of a nancy.

On my quest to make 2011 the year I learned to knit, I picked up a VOGUEknitting magazine the other week and came across this:

The Giant Knitting Nancy

image by Superblue

"Knitting + architecture in a public space? That's for me!", I thought. You can't get much more serious with your knitting than that! Superblue, a London based design practice, created the Giant Knitting Nancy in collaboration with Sculptor Dan Preston, and Jewellery Designer Holly Packer for the London Festival of Architecture in 2010.

image by Superblue

The seating sculpture was created by everyone who wanted to participate. It consist of the ever growing i-cord knitted 'on site',  inflatable balls, that can be used as seats, are inserted into the knitted tube. Located in Jubilee Park in the middle of Canary Warf it attracted a lot of lunch time office workers (above). Knit your own park bench, then enjoy a sunny summer's lunch with others. They took the nancy to the beach as well - looks like even more fun. I would love to find a knitting nancy on one of Sydneys many beaches.

image by Superblue

Check out their web page or facebook page for more great projects. It looks like superblue are having lots of fun at work - I am a little bit jealous.

If you want to know more about knitting nancies, have a look at this comprehensive post  by Wayne Smith on every knitting nancy known to man. While you are at it check out Waynes main page for everything from lightsabers to growing your own chocolate. (Sorry this is bit random)