Prick Your Finger Accounts Aries 2013
to Aries 2014 - Shetland Spindrift wool
We described Prick Your Finger, 2007-2015, as an experimental yarn shop and gallery, but really it was a protest piece in the form of a shop. Every person who came through the door was an activist in their own unique way. The frustrating thing was not being able to explain to everyone the importance of their contribution. More importantly the collective contribution. I was so proud of the accounts, and wished I could publish them like Gordon Matta Clark did with his café called 'Food'. Every week there was a minor miracle to note. I started writing the accounts in Zodiac signs instead of months, and thinking of ways to illustrate the collective mood swings of knitters. I wanted to leave a record of this extraordinary time, but I was also aware that it was impossible to document the complexities of such a kooky business.
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Towards the end of the shop's life I was in a think tank with the V&A Research Institute and we talked about Object lessons; how to read an object. I had been looking at bronze age dodecahedrons, of which there were quite a few in museums, but their use has never been confirmed.
I was sure they must be about women's work as they tended to be buried with women. This is my object lesson in knitted accounting of knitting spending! A twelve pointed dodecahedron, each month split into 4 weeks and columns accounting for teaching, yarn and materials, art works and socially engaged projects. Numbers in Roman numerals because its the fastest way to stitch. It was always so exciting to have it next to the till and stitch in the new numbers as the totals arrived, but of course no one really asked about it, and really it was a punctuation mark at the end of a business which quit while it was ahead. Hopefully in the future it could tell an unbelievable story about a time when the hand made was under valued. For now it sits safely in my freezer.