Tairawhiti Arts – Art & Culture from the East Coast of Aotearoa New Zealand

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Amanda Daube

Wainui Beach

Te Arawa / Ngati whakaue / Te Atiawa

Amanda Daube’s grandmother taught her to knit when she was just a young girl. Her grandmother was a trained hairstylist and beautician, as well as  an avid follower of fashion.  “She paid great attention to dress and  was always beautifully made up, believing a touch of lipstick fixed everything!” says Amanda.  Her grandmother fed the young Amanda’s appreciation for clothing, by importing enormous catalogues containing the latest fashions from London , from which she would order  garments to inspire. At the same time Amanda’s Victorian great grandmother also worked away on small projects using the skills she herself passed down.

Amanda has continued the tradition of following overseas fashion trends, ordering in magazines, spending time at good knitting websites and researching the Egyptian origins of knitting to feed her adult imagination and also as a way to take the basic stitches she learnt as a child to a higher  level. This has opened up her creativity to a much broader range of items that she can now design and create.

“I just love it. I love the medium, it’s so varied. You can  so easily create something beautiful  with just a ball of wool.  I love all the stitches and the way they  emerge. I love the methodical detail. You are always having to count and keep the pattern up and I find it very meditative.”  Amanda considers it keeps her out of too much mischief as well, due to her being so engrossed in her work. She believes that with knitting, it is the very act of undertaking everything  from the beginning to completion, and accomplishing it all   by hand,  that makes it so special.

Amanda would like to eventually facilitate ‘Funky Knitting” classes  in Gisborne, espousing a new approach to knitting. An international revolution having “funked up” knitting in recent years. She doesn’t crochet yet, but also doesn’t discount the possibility of that taking hold at some point.

Amanda can work to patterns or design garments from scratch. She describes her work as “Modern Knitting with a Twist and an Edge”.

To contact Amanda please email: mididaube@xtra.co.nz

This post is tagged Amanda Daube, classes, Garments, Gisborne, hats, knitting