crafts
’ n i h c t i B s chin’ tit
Knit one, purl one, look out! We meet three women who are taking knitting to the next level with projects that are a million miles from twee baby blankets or genteel cardigans
P
aula Sharpe, Clare Sams, and Samia Khalaf Tossio have thrown the knitting rule book out the window with their incredible creations. They’re having fun, they’re making public
statements and supporting good causes with their work and they are urging more people to pick up needles and crochet hooks – or even use their fingers - to get wild and woolly.
Paula
get involved in knitting and crochet: “It’s such an
Thanks to social media, Paula Sharpe, 51, has
easy thing to do and if you need inspiration, the
embraced yarn-bombing. This is the often-
internet is full of examples.”
She says yarn-bombing is an accessible way to
anarchic outdoor art of wrapping things such as
Her proudest yarn-bombing
trees, bollards, bridges, park benches and bike
achievement was the result of an
racks. It turns the idea of graffiti on its head. The
open-minded vicar and the help
movement is believed to have started when a
of creativi-Tea, her craft group.
woman in Houston covered her shop door handle
“My local church needed funds
with a specially adapted tea-cosy. And there is
and the vicar very bravely said,
often a serious message – yarn-bombing aims
‘I trust you’,” Paula recalls. “My
to reclaim public places and is synonymous with
imagination went wild, we raised
feminism, as traditionally ‘female’ arts reclaim
over £3,000 for church repairs and
space dominated by men.
more than 4,000 people visited our
“I saw some pictures on Instagram of yarn-
little church to see the yarn bomb.
bombing abroad and then my mind went into
I was so proud. “In the future, I
overdrive,” she says. “I am very creative and from that
would love to yarn-bomb my village, making a trail
moment, I had to have a book at the side of the bed
around the village for people to follow,” she says.
because I would wake in the night with an idea.”
@PaulaSharpe
Clare
December 2002 in Hackney, where she used to live. “I love creating unique designs that tell a story,”
Clare, 47, a textile artist and avid knitter, holds the Guinness World Record for creating the world’s
The rise of YouTube tutorials has made it easier
largest crochet hook. She is thrilled that knitting has
for more people to get stitching, even if there has
grown in popularity in the past 20 years when she
been no family history of passing knitting skills
would stand out as the only young person knitting
down the generations. And during the pandemic,
on a train.
plenty of people with time on their hands decided
Her work breaks down traditional knitting
“I think that over the past year, there’s been even
rustling up winter
more uptake, as people have looked for something
woollies, she has used
to do while on furlough or lockdown,” says Clare. As well as YouTube tutorials and plentiful online
f riezes of street scenes,
resources for self-taught knitters, Clare advises joining
or reproduce common
a local group: “Learning with others is always easier
sights. Her designs
than trying to learn on your own.”
include a knitted
S I LV E R M A G A Z I N E ISSUE #ONE
to give wool a whirl.
barriers. Instead of
knitting to create
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she says.
“It’s an amazing way to improve well-being, to
pigeon stealing crisps
create a lovely safe space to work,” she says. “People
f rom an abandoned
seem to enjoy getting together and knitting. It makes
packet and scenes of a
an instant community.”
siege that occurred in
www.claresams.co.uk
