Knitters unite to yarn-bomb Substation

SINGAPORE - Expect to see two pillars outside The Substation in Armenian Street wrapped in bright-coloured yarn in September. The installation work is to mark the arts centre's 24th anniversary.

The Substation has teamed up with home-grown craft duo Momshoo - made up of Mrs Lim Chau Lee, 55, and her daughter, Shu Ning, 24, - to hold "knitting parties", where yarn pieces created by participants will make up the installation.

These individual yarn pieces will then be put together by the duo.

Ms Nur Khairiyah Ramli, 27, programme manager at The Substation who initiated the project, says: "The Substation has always had a strong focus on community and we wanted our anniversary celebrations to reflect this. Working with Momshoo has enabled us to reach out to the crafting community in Singapore to work on a project on this scale for the first time."

She adds: "We are thrilled with the way these knitting parties have brought together people of all ages. The sessions have brought a very warm and vibrant energy to The Substation."

The arts centre had also used its building as part of an installation work in 2012, when Singapore artists Grace Tan and Randy Chan covered the building's facade with a black-and-white weave of PVC vinyl strips.

Two knitting parties lasting four hours each, held over the past weekend, saw about 50 people participating. There will be another six sessions spread over this month and next month.

"We thought something like this would be nice to bring people together," Ms Lim says. "Craft is able to bring different people together as you are working on a common task. After a while, even strangers warm up to one another."

She says participants have free rein over the patterns they knit.

Momshoo will also knit tubular structures that resemble pipes and these will extend from the pillars into the foyer of The Substation.

She was inspired by "yarn-bombing" works overseas - which involve using colourful knitted or crocheted yarn in street art - and wanted to try it in Singapore with the theme Transition that was given to her.

"The title of the installation, In The Pipeline, connotes that The Substation is in transition and is represented by the pipes," she explains. "We wanted to bring out that colourful, vibrant vibe as it is a place that generates ideas. That's why we use very bright colours."

Momshoo, a label that began in 2009, started selling its products on Etsy, a website where people can sell their handmade products. It also does consignments with shops such as The Redundant Shop in Everton Park and Cat Socrates at Bras Basah Complex.

The installation will be completed in mid- August, in time for The Substation's anniversary celebration, Septfest.

Momshoo will need all the help they can get, as they estimate that knitting all the pieces required to cover the two 4.5m-tall pillars would take experienced knitters about 500 man-hours.

But the duo are happy to see people new to knitting come through their doors, and are willing to spend time teaching them the basics of knitting.

"The main thing is for everybody to have fun. Knitting is a meditative process so it forces you to slow down and make things stitch by stitch," says Ms Lim, a former visual communications student at Nanyang Technological University. "I would like to have more people know about and learn knitting. This is a good platform to spread it."

She learnt to knit from her mother when she was in primary school and went on to pick up amigurumi, which is to knit dolls and items.

One participant who is new to knitting is Ms Scarlett Lim, 23. The practice trainee at a law firm learnt about the knitting parties as she was on The Substation's mailing list.

"I have wanted to learn how to knit since I was a child. I bought a book but it was confusing so I didn't get down to trying it," she says. "The Substation said I could join the knitting parties even though I had no experience, so I decided to go and learn how to knit."

She adds: "It's very exciting to know that your work is part of a collaborative effort, even if it's only a small piece. You know you have contributed to something that will be impressive."

For Ms Wong Pei Ling, who has been knitting for more than 20 years, this is not the first time she is knitting for a good cause.

The 38-year-old community worker once knitted beanies that she donated to premature babies in a hospital as part of an initiative by a craft studio owner she knew.

"I'm looking forward to seeing how all the pieces will look like together and how The Substation will look like wrapped in knitted pieces," she says. "I've heard a lot about yarn-bombing overseas and I'm really excited to see it in Singapore."

This article was published on April 11 in The Straits Times.

Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.