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Rachel John broke records by knitting with a 1000 strands simultaneously! Watch as they set up the event and the actual event itself which took place at the Southhill Park Unravel Textiles exhibition in October of 2006.

Rachel writes,

It is a challenge for all of us to take the waste products that our society produces and to put it to good use. This video was made in order to stimulate that process.

No yarn was wasted in the making of this installation - the yarn will be put to good use when the piece has finished circulating as a 1st in the world example of taking multi strand to the limits. - - - - -

Over half the yarn in the installation was deemed as waste for shredding - this is normally made into felted pads which is then used in applications such as padding/stuffing for sofas, mattresses etc. - - - - - -

The rest of the yarn was out of fashion yarn that was sitting on the manufacturers shelves. None of the yarn was of the good to best quality that stuff is kept for very practical purposes. - - - - - -

In the making of this we were taking the waste yarn and turning it in to a mattress without the need for reprocessing. - - - - - -

We are very eco conscious and would never waste materials as a matter of course. All trimmings - no matter how small - are collected for use as filler for a variety of purposes such as cushions, so not even a centimetre of yarn is considered waste in this studio. - - - - - -

We also have what we call a spinners collection of fibres. We were very inspired by a lady from New Zealand who collected every single hair, every bit of fibre, all possible spinning material and when her stash was enough she would spin it in to yarn. She would then use the yarn in the normal way. The work she produced was wonderful and always, always practical. She never bought yarn she always made it from sweepings. - - - - - - -