Ohio Knitting Mills @ Lizard Lounge
by lisateso on 25/10/09 at 12:37 am
I had the wonderful fortune of having a free afternoon today – and found a GREAT use of this time: Visiting with Steve Tatar at his Ohio Knitting Mills show at Lizard Lounge in the Pearl. What a treat! Just walking into the store was amazing: vibrant colors, eye-candy textures and the patterns (gasp!) were to die for.
Literally, it was a treat. I think I said, out loud: can I really touch these? Every piece was so intricately perfect, the craftsmanship so detailed and the laborious process so obvious that the last thing I wanted to do was soil them with my touch… I finally managed to pet a few sweaters and sort through several piles of textured goodness, but felt most comfortable being inches away from them, focusing my lens and adjusting my light meter – affording them a respectful distance. Let me be clear about this: while I did afford a respectful distance, this does not mean I didn’t want to gather the entire lot and place them into my own little closet. I wanted every.last.item. Especially the orange sweater with massive wooden buttons!!
I had a chance to chat with Steve about his products and he said one thing that really stuck with me: At one point Cleveland, OH [I had incorrectly said Portland, OR in my original post] had 26 knitting mills. Now there aren’t even 26 in the entire nation. Wow. This man is single-handed-ly doing everything in his power to bring back this lost and extremely gorgeous art. He showed me a swatch book he brought all the way from Columbus with him. In it were swatches from the 30’s and 40’s of shirt patterns, sweater patterns, etc. The colors were ASTOUNDING and I had a really hard time believe shirts were actually made from these lovely little swatches. (The blue strip above is one of these swatches.)
It was very cool to see Lizard Lounge welcoming Ohio Knits into their space. The idea is perfect – quality craftsmanship, saucy skills, technically beautiful and aesthetically raw – these pieces and the philosophy of Lizard Lounge go hand in hand. Nice work guys. Also, the DJ rocked and it was super luxurious to be offered a mimosa. Twice.
Enjoy the photos below!
chris
Oct 25th, 2009
A design blog with photography actually taken by it’s owner.
A design blog with actual substantive writing.
A design blog with more to offer than eye candy.
Keep up the good work, Lis.
ethanollie
Oct 25th, 2009
a dj. and mimosas. to celebrate textiles.
finally someone has gotten it right
Steven
Oct 25th, 2009
So great to chat with you yesterday Lias- thanks for coming by, and THANK YOU for your beautiful photos and kind words! The show is held over for an extra day, sunday 25th for those who couldn’t get down to see us.
One correction: it was Cleveland, Ohio (where we are located) and not Portland that had 26 knitting mills. This very fair burg, and Oregon in general has a noble history of woven mills, though knitting textiles were less common in these parts. Btw- Ohio Knitting Mill produced a majority of the knitwear sold by Pendleton from the 1960’s until just a few years ago- we’re still friends with the Pendie folks. cheerio
lisateso
Oct 25th, 2009
Steve, thanks for the note!
I was wondering if I misheard the town name, my apologies… Thank you for the correction.
Hope today’s time at Lizard Lounge is just as wonderful as yesterdays.
Cheers