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A knitted wallhanging was made by 8 women who met once a month at the Sheep River Library in Turner Valley (now part of Diamond Valley) for about 2 hours (one of them had choir practice on that day – same location – so was nearby, not with us). Some worked on their panels at that time, and then completed them at home or elsewhere; while juggling a multitude of activities that made up their lives. Their ages ranged from between 50 and 85; and they came from Calgary, Millarville, Turner Valley + Black Diamond (now Diamond Valley), Okotoks, and High River.
The inspiration came from the natural beauty found across Canada; within Alberta; and in our own backyards. The brief was to use the colours indigo and amber somewhere in their pieces; to represent wide open Prairie skies and wheat fields; or waterways we were familiar with -- the Bow and Elbow Rivers, Sheep River, Highwood River, and Three Point Creek; and vegetation that showed seasonal colours. We were to use the linen stitch to make the background panels; for it’s tight weave to give the wallhanging strength to hold embellishments and have a firm structure. Each person made what they wanted to – some made 1 panel, and others made up to 3 or more; depending on how much time they had to devote to the project.
Once completed; the pieces were gathered up and one person added more panels to make a rectangle shape, i-chord for visual movement, -- then sewed it all together using whipstitch, and knit whatever was missing. (Honestly; she volunteered to do all that because of her love for making such structures).
Describing what we’d created; in order to come up with a title; took some back-and-forth communication. One person suggested several titles up front, that were so good that the chosen one was amongst them, and readily picked out. What exactly did we make? It was concluded this way:
“Titles for art don’t have to be literally interpreted. We all see something different, and others will also.
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Loose Ends: Telling Stories with our Hands
From Concept to Conclusion; this project took a year to complete
(February 2025-January 2026).
No, it’s not a tapestry, but knitting is a form of weaving – in, out, over, under – to form a fabric. And a wallhanging does lie flat against a wall; same as a tapestry. “Loose Ends” denotes something that was unfinished and is now completed; as in sewing up the loose ends or tails, if you will. Since this is a collaboration and many styles (methods and techniques) are represented; I think tapestry could apply. And Tales or Yarns or Stories refer to the same thing – what people do when they gather together – they tell each other stories – about their craft, families, and lives. Also, we meet in a library where we’re surrounded by books that do the same thing.”
There was much humour that ensued whenever we got together; and one person stated so well, something that might be asked by an observer who cared about such things. How many stitches went into this project? This is what she said:
“I was just thinking it might (be) fun to put a “Fun Fact” in the blurb. You could bring out your calculator and by figuring how many stitches there are in a square inch, extrapolate to the whole tapestry and then multiply by 1.5 (or whatever you think is right) to account for the additional stitches in our embellishments. It was knit “one stitch at a time” by many hands. This estimate might be an impressive number!” She then went on to conclude that a rough estimate might be 100,000 stitches (give or take a 1,000). Let’s just say -- there were a lot!