Around the Web

Our monthly selection of the best bits from around the web.

Source from left to right: knit for victory, knitting now and then.

Before to become the James Bond we all loved, Roger Moore used to model knitting patterns for several knitwear companies in Yorkshire. Of course looking at a beautiful knit is always pleasant, but when it is modeled by young Roger Moore, it’s simply ravishing!
This photo of Roger casually smoking a pipe in his cabled cardigan, is probably one of our favourite.

The Knitting Pattern Play by Deborah Nash, follows Purl, an aristocrat waiting to be sentenced in the aftermath of the French Revolution. In her deathbed reveries, she imagined herself begging the Tricoteuses – here standing as allegories of the Three Fates -to give her back her life of leisure and privileges. Written in 2012, the play was originally performed at Goldsmith College in 2013 and has since been developed with further research on the Versailles court and the Reign of Terror. The new production will take place at Theatre 503 (London) this November, and the creative team is currently looking for support to insure they’ll be able to pay all the performers and artists involved in the creation of the play.

In return for their contributions, donators are offered various rewards including knitting patterns, research scrapbooks or even their very own Knitting Pattern show! For more information about the Knitting Pattern Play and how to make a donation, have a look at their Kick Starter campaign.

Fun facts about the French Revolution, there really were groups of women knitting by the guillotine during public executions. The role of working class women has been pivotal to the success of the Revolution, as it’s only after they marched to Versailles on the 5th of October 1789, that Louis the XVI and the rest of the royal family returned to Paris, leading to the downfall of the French monarchy. Following their success, market women regularly took part in meetings at the National Convention, attended political gatherings and public executions. As many of them we’re knitting or sewing while attending those events, they were soon named ‘Les Tricoteuses’ – The Knitters. The legend says they would have been knitting the famous Phrygian Hat, symbol of the French Revolution altogether.