By-Product

 “By-Product” is a length of red and pink wool, which was at one point knitted into a long roll, measuring roughly 20" (50cm) in diameter and 15" (40cm) in height. When unrolled, it equalled approximately 15" (40cm) width x 600" (15m) length.

Knitting can provide a socially acceptable means for autistic people to self-regulate excess energy, the repetitive movement is pleasurable and calming. Handling the tactile wool is also very soft and comforting. It feels really good. Most people who see the knitting assume that the long roll of knitted wool is the end product, but in fact it is only a byproduct of this self-regulation.

In its current form it is a large pile of squiggly yarn. This artwork incorporates a single rib stitch, which is a single knit followed by a purl, repeated over. Each row had 60 stitches, making it 50cm wide. This stitch keeps the knitting flat, which makes it easier to roll up.

The artwork was knitted over the course of two years, on public transport, in class, during lectures, at gigs, at the pub, at weddings, at rehearsals and many more places.

Unravelling the work takes away its practical use in a conventional sense and presents it for what it is: wool which has been manipulated repetitively. The wool holds memory, the memory of excess energy, and its squiggly form is testament to what it has been used for. It was unravelled over two and a half hours in the studio. Unravelling the work was just as pleasurable and repetitive as the knitting, and although it was a different process it still had the repetitive, tactile quality that felt really good for self-regulation.

The pile of squiggly wool states that the process of knitting is purely about self-regulation with a pleasurable material

Live performance