Yarns are the threads that bind us. Spun from animal fibres, farmed from nature, innovated in labs or unravelled from waste, they are currently at the forefront of contemporary culture with the exciting return of creative knitwear and crochet — simultaneously an expression of craft, resilience and protest but also a trendy way to combat the onslaught of digital technology and intelligence. Come learn more about how yarns relate to identity, circularity, diversity, empowerment, environment and social change. Now, more than ever, we will savor their federating power and celebrate the knit of togetherness.

Curated by Philip Fimmano as part of New York Textile Month, this special online conference brings together speakers from around the globe, continuing our dedication to textile creativity and education by offering this exciting program free to all students and teaching faculty. 

An international lineup of speakers features Li Edelkoort, Philip Fimmano, students from Polimoda’s Farm to Fabric to Fashion Masters, and many more. The event also includes the announcement of the 2023 Dorothy Waxman International Textile Design Prize, proudly supported by Mohawk Group. 

Program

9:00 AM THE KNIT OF TOGETHERNESS

Philip Fimmano, co-founder, of Talking Textiles

9:05 AM SWADDLING: Autumn/Winter 2024–25

Li Edelkoort, trend forecaster 

9:40 AM CONSCIOUS CASHMERE

Charlotte Björklund, founder, Linnea Lund

10:00 AM FARM TO YARN

Polimoda Textile Masters Second Year Students: Georgia Pfaff, Priya Deep, Marinela Yzellari & Sabrina Stadlobe

10:20 AM FAIR ISLE KNITTING

Helen Wyld, Senior Curator of Historic Textiles, Global Arts, Cultures & Design, National Museums Scotland

10:40 AM MAXHOSA AFRICA

Laduma Ngxokolo, fashion designer

11:00 AM ANDEAN KNITTING

Aymar Ccopacatty, artist

11:20 AM WOOL FIBERS

Hasnain Lilani, Co-Founder of Datini Fibres in conversation with Cynthia Hathaway, Woolmarch

11:40 AM REVOLUTION & KNITTING

Amy Twigger Holroyd, Associate Professor of Fashion & Sustainability, Nottingham Trent University 

12:00 PM MENDING & KNITTING

Celia Pym, artist

12:20 PM OPEN SOURCE KNITTING

Ruth Herring, knitwear & crochet designer

12:45 PM SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT 

Dorothy Waxman International Textile Design Prize Announcement with Royce Epstein, Mohawk Group

1:00 PM approximate end

General Admission: $50

Students & Faculty:  FREE (please register with your institution email)

In December 2023 I will have an exhibition "Reaching Hands". I am working on my knitwear collection of sweaters, accessories and knitted jewelry with collaboration of Japanese ceramic artist. The round shapes like pom pons, polka dot patterns and shape of hands like glove/pockets, mittens are incorporated in knitwear. Reaching hands through the globe for collaborations and creativity is a concept of the exhibit. For my jewelry pieces I am using round ceramic tiles for embellishment of knitted bracelets, bags, necklaces.

In this event, I would be very happy to share my work process of creating this collection with textile artists. The knitwear exhibition is taking place in December 2023 in small gallery of Kyoto, Japan. I will post the link to live event on my social media GalinaCarrollDesigns. Next year I would like to bring Japanese textile artists to New York and share their work here with possible collaboration between two countries.

Learn More www.Galinacarroll.com

@galinacarrolldesigns

Galina Carroll Russian/American is a knitwear designer and fiber artist. She has long and cozy relationship with textiles and fiber. Number of years she worked as a freelance and full time sweater designer for companies: Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan, Anthropologie, Gap, Abercrombie & Fitch and others. For last 18 years she design for private clients, her store on Etsy and knitting magazines: Vogue Knitting, Rowan, Knit 1, Creative Knitting, Knitters and other publications.

Simone Elizabeth Saunders (she/her) is a textile artist based in Mohkinstsis – Calgary, Canada. She holds a B.F.A. with Distinction from the Alberta University of Arts in 2020. Her textiles are hand tufted in the medium of rug-making using a punch needle and tufting machine. Saunders explores themes of the diaspora, ancestorship, and Black womanhood. Her colorful textiles highlight motifs and iconography from her Jamaican heritage and engage with sociocultural factors reclaiming power from oppressive ideologies. Currently, Saunders is exploring the iconography of the famed high Renaissance era Unicorn Tapestries and Art Nouveau advertising through a contemporary Black feminist lens.

Register for Simone Elizabeth’s Saunder’s talk that will be held on Tuesday, September 26, 2023 at 7 pm Eastern by visiting the American Tapestry Alliance's website. A Zoom link will be included with registration confirmation and a reminder will be sent out at least 24 hours prior to the talk.

Learn More americantapestryalliance.org

@americantapestryalliance

The American Tapestry Alliance (ATA) is engaged in a wide range of educational, exhibition, outreach and promotional programs. Our programs serve to promote contemporary tapestry as an art form, sponsor and develop exhibitions to support contemporary tapestry artists, promote educational opportunities within the tapestry field, and provide a network for tapestry artists.

Featuring: Mikko Lassila – Director, New Businesses at UPM, Milja Hannu-Kuure – Managing Director at Brightplus Oy, Olli Kähkönen – Co-Founder & CEO at Nordic Bioproducts Group Oy, Joonas Sirviö – Co-founder & CEO at Granulous

Hosted By: Dr. Gayatri Keskar, VP of Research, Material ConneXion

Are you ready to embark on a circular journey towards a fossil-free future? Business Finland and the Consulate General of Finland, New York, are excited to invite you to an exclusive webinar in collaboration with Material ConneXion, where we'll explore how nature-inspired and nature-derived innovations are creating a positive impact in the world.

With its rich, abundant forest resources and commitment to innovation, Finland is well-positioned to harness the power of responsibly sourced and processed renewable feedstocks for developing ecological products. This presentation provides a glimpse into current barriers to the adoption of biomaterials and how these Finnish companies are seamlessly integrating natural and recycled inputs drawn from the forest and agricultural sectors using green chemistry to create safe, high-performance, low-impact materials that address modern needs in packaging and textiles, among other sectors. Let’s work together to harmonize a resourceful, nature-centric approach with cutting-edge technology to steer the consumer goods industry toward a resilient future based on sustainable practices and renewable value propositions.

Are you ready to embark on a circular journey towards a fossil-free future? Business Finland and the Consulate General of Finland, New York, are excited to invite you to an exclusive webinar in collaboration with Material ConneXion, where we'll explore how nature-inspired and nature-derived innovations are creating a positive impact in the world.

Learn more @finlandnewyork @materialconnexion @businessfinland,materialconnexion.com, finlandabroad.fi, www.businessfinland.fi

The Consulate General of Finland in New York promotes Finland’s commercial interests, works on improving the operational conditions for the Finnish cultural agents, and strengthens Finland’s national brand through the means of public diplomacy.

Starting with foraging ethics, you will together with Botanical Colors discuss how to identify dye sources and extract their color. You will then transmute those dyes into shelf-stable lake pigments, expanding their potential application to paints, crayons, and pastels. Natalie will focus on the invasive plants of the northeast US, but participants will learn to extrapolate our basic recipe to any dye plant. You’ll discuss the chemistry controlling vibrancy and opacity, and in Botanical Colors’ second session learn to turn our finished pigments into watercolors and pastels. The artist’s materials made from the boisterous plants around us root our craft to place, and locate beauty even within vilified but resilient local plants.

Join Botanical Colors for Invasive and Ruderal Local Color With Natalie Stopka. Did you know that color is all around you, even underfoot? Natalie will explore the pigment potential of these ruderal (a plant growing on waste ground or among refuse) and invasive plants to make lake pigments.

Learn More botanicalcolors.com

@botanicalcolors

Botanical Colors offers natural dyes and education to textile and fiber arts artisans around the world. We support regional farmers, organic farming, regenerative soil and are forever excited creating new plant-based colors out of our Seattle-based studio.

Disability Hacks is a webinar series presented by Intertwine Arts and hosted by Ja’el Batyah and Chiaki O’Brien, that will explore the intersections of disabilities and the textile arts. Our speakers will draw from personal experiences to discuss supports that aid budding weavers with disabilities, as well as highlight the various chronic conditions that people commonly experience within a lifecycle. We will also talk about the creative process, and how it can be built to be accessible from the ground up, to promote everyone’s creativity.

SAORI Artist and studio owner Chiaki O’Brien will present with Ja'el, a weaving artist in the SAORI style and a special guest, to share experiences creating textile art with adults, highlighting the unique aesthetics and creation processes, as well as the adjustments made for the varied disabilities that appear within an adult audience.

Join us for a panel-style discussion exploring the intersections of disability, textiles, and teaching.

Learn More www.intertwinearts.org

The mission of Intertwine Arts is to inspire creativity, joy, and self-confidence through free-form weaving for people of all ages with disabilities or chronic illness.

Please join Colorado-based textile and botanical dye artist Maki Teshima for a virtual hands-on workshop to participate in the Musubi // Connections project. All you need is an old t-shirt and Maki will teach you how to upcycle a strip of fabric from the t-shirt into your very own kanou musubi ("wishing knot"). No prior experience is needed to weave your dreams come true!

Learn more www.tomorrowisalwaysnew.com

The virtual hands-on workshop will be at 8pm EST, 6pm Mountain Time, 5pm LA time.

A Farm to Fabric story of a family mohair farm in the South Africa desert and how we nurture our raw materials into textile road maps of where we have come from and how we wish to tread into tomorrow. Each step of the to process is hand-made by woman artisans in remote areas of the country using traditional skills to make one-off pieces.

Learn More www.francesvh.com

@francesv.h_mohair

Frances van Hasselt is a designer and entrepreneur focusing on mohair textiles. She collaborates with a team of women artisans in rural communities, weaving a story about the origins of textiles, simultaneously allowing the natural environment to inform every aspect of their design and making process.

Raised on a mohair farm in the Karoo desert, van Hasselt has a deep affinity for this natural fibre.

Her role in creating an inclusive, sustainable supply chain specifically adapted to the eco-system of the South African textile industry earned her a Mandela Washington Fellowship

We invite you to join us in a dance between threads and needles. This connection prompts introspection into your identity and relationship with the "second skin" you wear daily – your clothes. The ultimate goal of this journey is self-repair as we engage in the act of mending.

Throughout the event, we will explore diverse repair techniques while delving into profound conversations about this intimate process of fixing and restoring items that define us or hold significance. Moreover, we will discuss how these efforts contribute to the larger tapestry of societal restoration.

Until now, Club de Costura has collaborated with district schools, foundations, and museums, but today, our focus shifts towards healing a part of ourselves while perpetuating a message of transformation and rejuvenation.

Please remember to have a piece of clothing on hand for mending – whether it's worn socks, a cherished sweater, or your favorite t-shirt – alongside a sewing needle and thread of your preference.

Join us in redefining the art of repair!

Learn More www.onglarem.com

"La REM" (La Reparación Está en la Moda) is a Colombian NGO focused on repairing the impacts of the fashion industry, through human interconnections. Our aim is to approach repair from three perspectives: Our relationship with our clothes through daily mindfulness, mending social fabric through mending textiles in the community, and the restoration of environmental and social damage caused by the textile industry. Founded in 2019 by Gabriela Jaramillo alongside an interdisciplinary team, La REM has engaged in various national platforms, including the first Sello de Moda Sostenible, the Peace and Reconciliation Runway in Kennedy, Bogota 2021, and the activism initiative "Mi Cuerpo es Territorio de Paz".

The concept of a circular economy is central to the work at Parsons Healthy Materials Lab. When goods stay in use for longer we avoid adding to the landfill and increasing the carbon emissions associated with creating new things. Repair allows us to keep goods, materials, and spaces in use for as long as possible. Changing processes and mindsets are necessary to repair our objects, spaces, and systems in the transition to a circular economy. Step one is knowing where to start. If you’re interested in exploring repair at a small scale join us for a hands-on repair workshop based on the ancient art of Boro, a Japanese method of repairing textiles, and discover ways of mending your clothes and expressing creativity through stitching. All you’ll need is a needle and thread, fabric swatches, and a textile that needs to be repaired. No experience necessary.

This hands-on workshop will be led by Catherine Murphy, and assisted by Jess Thies. They are both researchers at HML with backgrounds in textiles.

Learn More www.healthymaterialslab.org

@healthymaterialslab

Parsons Healthy Materials Lab is a Design Research Lab at Parsons School of Design focused on putting human and environmental health at the center of every design decision. Repair is the perfect low-carbon response to current environmental concerns by reducing waste and contributing to a circular economy. Parsons Healthy Materials Lab is funded by a grant to build the capacity of the affordable housing sector nationwide, to use healthier building materials in new and existing housing developments. With a dedicated team of design researchers, faculty, and student researchers, we work every day to creatively raise awareness of the impacts materials can have on our lives… and equip designers and architects with knowledge to repair and build healthier places for all people to live.

Stories have always been told at quilting bees: stories of legacy, of resistance, and of community care. This autumn we invite you to join Dr. Sharbreon Plummer and Dr. Jess Bailey as they re-imagine the quilting bee, creating an online space in which to learn about the rich and diverse histories of patchwork in North America while perhaps making your own quilt. Across six lectures featuring a range of writers, researchers, and quilters, you will learn why and how artists in this tradition are so connected to quilt histories. Guests will share their knowledge and experience of topics that are integral to how we understand quilting in the past and in our present such as through a deeper consideration of materials, diaspora, indigenous knowledge, and queering quilt legacies. Participants will leave with a renewed understanding of both the diversity and vitality of quilt histories in passing down artistic traditions. While we hope you will join us for the full duration of the class, you are also welcome to sign up for individual lectures on topics that interest you.

Quilters make in order to know. This virtual quilt history lecturer series would not be complete without an opportunity to both discuss the stories we hear and make more quilts. While enrollment in the People’s Quilting Bee lectures series is unlimited, Dr. Sharbreon Plummer will be guiding an intimate group through the processes of making a quilt while exploring our relationship to materials, storytelling and communal creativity. She will facilitate discussions that blend the heart, mind and hands, showcasing how quilts are a tool for self discovery and archive the beauty of our humanity.