Hi, I’m Geraldine Warner. I set up Museum Knits in 2023, partly as a way to combine my greatest passions (knitting, museums and telling stories) and partly as a response to the difficult times we find ourselves in.
The concept behind Museum Knits is to offer a different way to engage with arts organisations and their stories. I hope it will bring little known tales into the light as well as offering increasingly under-funded organisations a small way to add to their meagre pots. Every pattern is offered as a pdf digital download (from the museum websites) and as an A5 printed booklet (both from the museum shops and websites) – the museums are given a percentage of the profits, so it’s a great way for knitters (and you’d be surprised at how many there are) to support their favourite places!
Art and creating in all their forms lift us out of ourselves, give us ways to see and hear other stories and narratives and respond to them, often with recognition and compassion, sometimes with shock and awe (and everything in between). They connect us all. If we lose our museums and art organisations, we lose a large part of ourselves and our means to come across new ideas beyond our own experience. Even the places with difficult stories to tell, with difficult histories, objects or people at their heart … even they have something we can learn from.
I’ve worked in media and arts organisations all my working life (including Sadler’s Wells, National Trust and Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft), and throughout it all knitting has remained my constant and seen me through some difficult times. I’ve also written knitting books under my own name (Knit Back in Time, Vintage Knits and Protest Knits) and under the pseudonym Trixie von Purl (Pride & Preju-Knits and Knit Your Own Kama Sutra).