Events
Typographic Knitting For Beginners: Knit Hello!
with Rüdiger Schlömer
Learn how to write with wool and plan your next holiday knitting project using the typefaces Knit Hello, Knit Grotesk, and other hand knitting fonts.
- Date
- Time
Over two weekends (Saturday-Sunday, November 2, 3, 16, 17), learn to knit a monogram, name tag, instagram meme, poster, scarf, pullover, or blanket during this online typeknitting workshop. Use your skills as a visual plug-in to create tactile lettering and produce objects and clothes, or simply as a typographic meditation.
First, attendees will get an overview of various knitting methods and look for connection points to personal knitting and graphic design projects. All participants will begin with the typeface Knit Hello which was developed specifically for beginners in typographic knitting. Knitting and sketching exercises will be done using techniques like slip-stitches, mosaic knitting, and illusion knitting. After basic introduction, we will experiment with word and pattern layouts as well as modifying or constructing letterforms. We will also sketch and knit single letterforms and repeat patterns in different scales, helping you 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 Materials
- Wool yarn in 3 colors of strong contrast (e.g. black, white, red)
- Knitting needles
- 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
Diversity and 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, typeknitter, 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 exhibitions, 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 talked at Inscript Festival and Berlin Letters and gave 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 developing a collection of Typeknitting typefaces, with the aim to enable knitters to write with wool: Knit Grotesk, which was released by the Swiss type foundry Nouvelle Noire, and its newest follow up, Knit Hello.
