Gossip knit vest and sweater

Gossip is a craft and a kind of labour that women have used to create and sustain social networks for centuries. In spaces like quilting bees and sewing circles, gossip has been a form of resistance where women exchanged knowledge and wove their stories together both literally and metaphorically. There’s a deep connection between textiles, computing, and discourse.

Part of a larger Gossip research project, these textiles were machine-knit using both punchcards and by hacking the machine for manual fair-isle techniques. The double sided vest shows the icon and font set in-use in multiple sizes. The font derived from the conceptual idea around gossiping in women’s craft spaces, designed for piecing together in different optical sizes (resolutions), is realized here in two forms of wearable textiles.

All was knit in locally sourced wool and with self-drafted patterns.