Events
Typographic Knitting: A Stitch-by-Stitch Introduction
with Rüdiger Schlömer
- Date
- Time
Learn typeknitting in this online workshop. Depending on your knitting skills, time frame, and personal motivation, you can learn to knit anything–from a monogram, name tag, instagram meme, poster, scarf, pullover, or blanket. You can use these skills as a visual plug-in to make tactile lettering, as a textile technique to actually produce objects and clothes, or simply as a typographic meditation.
In this online workshop of 4 sessions over two weekends (June 4, 5, 11 & 12) you will get an overview of different typeknitting methods, with possible connection points to your personal knitting and graphic design projects. You will learn which typefaces can be knitted without getting tangled, and get to know different ways to plan and execute your individual typographic knitting projects.
The knitting will be done using techniques like slip-stitches, mosaic knitting, and patchwork knitting. After a basic overview, we will focus on fundamental approaches to construct single letters. We will explore ways to plan and knit single letterforms and repeat patterns in different scales, getting you ready to develop patterns of your own.
Learning Outcomes
- Understand the basics of several knitting techniques and their typographic potential
- Knit prototypic letterforms as a basis for individual modification
- Design and knit your own repeat patterns
- Learn helpful workarounds to plan and prototype your own typographic knitting project
Required Knitting Skills
- Casting on, Knit & Purl, Binding off
Required Materials
- Round knitting needles (3.5–4.5 mm)
- Crochet hook
- Wool yarn in 3 colors of strong contrast (e.g. blue/white/orange)
- Graph paper A4 (8.5" x 11") or A3 (11" x 17", tabloid size)
- Text markers in different colors (e.g. yellow/blue)
- Camera, phone or scanner to capture your work
Preparation
- Participants will receive an exercise-PDF and tutorial video links via email two (2) weeks in advance of the workshop
Diversity & Equity Scholarship
Diversity and Equity are important to all of us at Letterform Archive, and we are committed to increasing opportunities for underrepresented groups within the type and design communities.
We are offering one BIPOC/Equity scholarship seat in this workshop.
To apply for this scholarship, please complete and submit to us the short form linked here at least a week prior to the start of the workshop.
Rüdiger Schlömer
Rüdiger Schlömer is a graphic designer, educator, and book author based in Zürich, Switzerland. He studied Visual Communication in Aachen, and Art in Context in Berlin, Germany, and has been working in the field of museum scenography, signage, and books for over 15 years.
With Typographic Knitting, or Typeknitting, he explores the graphic potential of various hand knitting techniques, opening a dialogue between digital typography and the analog craft of knitting. His book Typographic Knitting: From Pixel to Pattern received a Certificate of Typographic Excellence from the Type Directors Club NY, was nominated for the Design Prize Switzerland and appeared in magazines such as Vogue Knitting, The Knitter, and Make. It was translated into English and French.
Over the past years Rüdiger has held several Typeknitting workshops in the Netherlands, Japan, Switzerland, France and at design schools like Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle, Germany and Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest Textile Department, Hungary. He is currently working on several custom Typeknitting typefaces, with the aim to enable knitters to type individual text patterns on their own.
