Knit wit

When we first walked into the Stitching Salon—a temporary city-sponsored space in the Loop that’s part of the Chicago Winter Delights program—we weren’t too surprised to find a group of women contributing to a large sweaterdress.

But what really caught our eye were a pair of four-foot-long knitting needles and “yarn” in the form of two supersize balls of plastic wrap. That’s when we realized that there are some unusual projects going on here—like the KnitFlix series, which shows craft-inspired films for viewers who are given light-up needles (the next screening is Thursday 25 at 6pm and features the short films “The Knitting Machine” and “Real Men Knit”). We decided to sit down with the man behind the jumbo creations, Pate (pronounced “Patty”) Conaway, to find out more about how he ended up with such crafty needles.

Conaway learned to knit in 1999 from a group of women living in the retirement home where he was working. He has since made a name for himself in stitching circles as the guy who knits against the rules—and thinks big. He says he began to push himself by using different kinds of materials, such as string, wire and plastic (he discovered a spool of plastic wrap at a thrift store and wondered what he could do with it). “As an artist, I asked myself, What if?” he says. “And then one day when I was getting materials, I found a knitting needle that was about 12 inches long, so I decided to start making my own 4-foot-long needles out of wood.”

Then he began to change the scale of his projects: Once, he started out making a basic washcloth, but it ended up being big enough for a queen-size bed. “The common question is, ‘Well, what are you going to do with this?’” Conaway says. “Because it’s knitted, people initially think that you’ve got to do something with it, but I’ve rendered [these pieces] useless, so now it’s a piece of art.”

In 2001, Conaway spent six weeks as an artist-in-residence at the Museum of Contemporary Art, where he hand-knitted two 9-foot-tall mittens, and slept in them one night (the right mitten is now at home, and the other is on tour). He also recently wove 7-foot-long plastic tails that were used by local avant-garde dance company the Seldoms in a choreographed performance piece in Millennium Park.

Conaway’s Stitching Salon project marks the first time he has allowed others to contribute to his work. Anyone can stop by, amateurs included, and seasoned knitters are always around to give a quick lesson—if you’re up to it. “Regular knitting is fine-motor skills, because you’re using your fingers,” he says. “But knitting with 4-foot-long needles is different, it’s like an upper-body workout.”

Catch Conaway at the Stitching Salon (72 E Randolph St), open through Feb 28 (Mon–Fri 10am–6pm; Sat 9am–5pm; Sun 10am–6pm). For more info, visit www.877chicago.com.