It's been a while...

Well, this year has been quite the rollercoaster.  I hadn't realised how long it had been since a proper blog post and its *about time* I gathered my thoughts over work, knit design and lockdown.

University work has been full of strange high and low points.  For the first time in my professional life, I went on strike to support the UCU in tackling the four fights of pay, workload, equality and casualisation.  Like thousands of early career researchers, I manage a patchwork of hourly paid gigs and wanted to do something to highlight how difficult this makes any kind of planning and progress (for individuals and institutions).  The strike then rolled into quarantine and I spent a frantic day back in Edinburgh College of Art, preparing to provide online teaching and support for the final seminars of the year.  Students got lots of email support and the marking season was upon us.

Research work gathered pace during this time - and I found myself in a strange position where I was fully employed over several contracts.  I completed an 8 month role supporting  interdisciplinary research for the VRinMind project across Edinburgh College of Art and the School of Health in Social Science, examining mindfulness practice and the use of VR and AR.  Despite the lockdown affecting well laid plans, we completed one paper published in the Design4Health proceedings and there is another literature review article waiting to be tweaked and reviewed.  I was lucky enough to keep working with the Co-I from that project on another 3 month investigation, exploring lots of literature, art and cultural imaginings connected to AI and robots.  These topics might seem tangential to my fields, although I see plenty of links with wellbeing, gender and design... and I am both a bloody thorough researcher and grateful for these short contract which helped put baked beans on the table.

Frank Langella in Jake Schreier's Robot and Frank

During this time I continued my work for Lab4Living at Sheffield Hallam University, working on research to support a future funding bid connected to The 100 Year Life and enjoying the precision and eye opening learning that comes with editing the Design4Health conference proceedings.

Textiles projects are waiting, suspended for the word to be safer - I am so lucky to have my University of Glasgow Visiting Library Fellowship  to look forward to, where I will research the business papers of a local wool manufacturer.  We were also delighted to be awarded a Pasold Fund grant to  gather a top team of textile researchers at Dunollie Castle Museum and Grounds, ready to explore and write about the Hope MacDougall collection.  This has had to be rescheduled, but will be wonderful in time.  However, thanks to the hard working ministrations of the Stitching Together Network team, I did manage to get a key goal for the year ticked, in publishing and article in their special issue for the Journal of Arts and Communities. This was a reflection on the ethics and methodologies in my PhD and related projects and I'm proud that it highlighted the importance of researcher and participant wellbeing.

And what of knitting?  I have been doing plenty of it... I have even made myself most of the bits of a number of garments (but only finished one of them).  Designing has been in abeyance - working a lot since the start of the year has meant pieces have been designed and tested but not written up for public consumption.  There are two more 'Women in the Stacks' librarian inspired shawls almost ready to go, plus two pairs of socks for charity projects, ready to raise more funds for Refuge and Mermaids.

However, many knitters will know that there have been recent issues with the web forum Ravelry and a redesign which has not taken into account accessibility issues for people with visual and neurological conditions.  Like many others, I had hoped that the owners of the site would listen to the community and make necessary changes (or even just acknowledge the pain and danger it had caused), but it seems this isn't going to happen.  I find using the site now extremely difficult and I can't ask knitters to navigate it in case it causes them harm.  I have therefore moved all patterns for sale to the Payhip platform, including a new shawl - inspired by el grandbaby - which raises funds for Refuge.

Norah's Shawl 

I think I have removed links to Ravelry on here - I don't want someone to click through and find themselves in an unsafe space.  If I've missed anything, please let me know.

Other self-nurturing craft has been a balm, with more and more spinning on the wheel and by spindle.  I've also been enjoying the challenge of 100 Days Project Scotland again this summer, with a square inch of blackwork embroidery completed every day.   One of the highlights was to be part of another person's project, as Edinburgh College of Art student Pilar Garcia de Leaniz is undertaking 100 ECA portraits - mine illustrates the top of this page.

These joys, plus the occasional lockdown stereotype of an amazing loaf of sourdough can be found on Instagram @knitrospective.

See you there?