Knitting, Watching Cronenberg
I’m a huge fan of David Cronenberg’s movies. The Village Voice once called him “the most audacious and challenging narrative director in the English-speaking world” [1], and I can only agree. Watching Cronenberg movies like Crash (1995) and eXistenZ (1999) totally got me hooked to the body horror genre and his work.
Recently I stumbled upon a film on Netflix again, Cosmopolis. First, I was surprised how much of Cronenberg’s visual language this movie incorporated. As soon as the credits showed it was clear why: It’s a Cronenberg film. (Silly me.) I realised that I hadn’t watched his newer work at all. I continued with Maps to the Stars, A History of Violence and re-watched some of his older films, The Fly, Videodrome and Naked Lunch.
Watching Cronenberg Movies … While Knitting Shawls
After all this input I decided to create a shawl knitting pattern collection inspired by watching Cronenberg movies, and to dedicate one shawl to one of his movies. After having worked with the talented Canadian dyer Deborah Ogden from Yarn Indulgences so productively in the Plant Anatomy project and realising they’re both Canadian, I also knew which yarns to use. Coming up with a project name was easy, too: I was knitting and watching Cronenberg, so I named it Watching Cronenberg.
So here we go.
The Knitting, Watching Cronenberg shawl pattern collection consists of the following patterns:
- Allegra (eXistenZ)
- Maps to the Stars
- The Fly
- Cosmopolis
- Videodrome
- Crash
- A Dangerous Method
The pattern for Allegra has been finished and is available for download. The other six patterns will become available in autumn and winter 2018 (information below will be updated accordingly).
Allegra (eXistenZ)
Allegra is a vortex (cornucopia) shawl knitting pattern designed for Yarn Indulgences Zed Merino. The colour used in the sample shawl is Envy, readily available on all the Yarn Indulgences yarn bases.
Image sources:
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Director_DAVID_CRONENBERG_of_the_film_%27Spider%27_during_the_Toronto_International_Film_Festival.jpg (retrieved July 25, 2018)
[1] J. Hoberman (May 17, 2005). “Historical Oversight”. The Village Voice. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved May 18, 2011.