We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Linette Knight a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Linette , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I’ve been a creative since a child. My parents always had me involved in art related activities and I absolutely loved it! I’ve worked many jobs from hospitality to sous chef. None of which made me feel as good about myself or good about what I do. Also, being a three-time recipient of arthritis, (rheumatoid, psoriatic, and Osteo arthritis) dictated how I was performing in the workplace when I found crochet I found meditation and peace, and in that I found a new way of creating art with fiber, as well as teaching what I’ve learned and fallen passionately in love with, to others.

Linette , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

So let me just reintroduce myself…

Hi! My name is Linette Knight. I’m a crochet mixed media artist in residence at Golden Belt Artists studios, Durham. I’ve been crocheting for, give or take 18 years. However, I’ve been a creative all my life. My first medium was actually pop cycle sticks. Unlike most kids. I couldn’t just make stick figures. I had to go so much bigger then just picture frames or tiny houses. I had to create the house, furniture, trees, and land too.

I really started crocheting mainly for health\meditative purposes. I was diagnosed at a young age with three types of arthritis, Rheumatoid, Psoriatic, and Osteoarthritis. I mainly just delt with stiffness and rashes in the early stages, but pain later became more pronounced as three spikes on my spine developed and began to grow. i needed an outlet for dealing with the pain and depression that came with always feeling tired, and after years of trying different thing, I phased myself into meditation, but felt as if I needed more direction.

One day a friend showed me a few stitches and I was hooked. In all senses of the word! I was making all kinds of things from hats, scarves, socks, and dolls. My passion really belongs to fashion design, so I gave making sweaters and tops a try and that turned into a love for making crochet dresses. All the while I thought that I just had a fondness for yarn, but something more was happening. When creating a body of crochet tapestry, counting stitches is almost a must. I could see that counting in the patterns calmed my mind and my body. So I did some reading and found that practicing crochet and anything like it, such as knitting, macromere, etc… actually calms the synapsis in the brain, allowing for full body relaxation. The added bonus is accomplishing a finished product. One that I myself could enjoy or share with others.

This is when I decided that there are plenty of people out there just like me needing an outlet and I love sharing knowledge and connecting community. I started working with Crocheted Olek with Love Across the USA, The museum of Art (Raleigh), Artspace, and so many more in efforts to share with anyone who wanted to learn and I’m still doing it today.

I’m currently a resident at Golden Belt Arts (Durham) creating Crochet mixed media Art on a variety of surfaces. Every spring I teach summer camp, worked with the Health and Human resources department of Durham in a campaign against Stigmas of HIV, and I have been a vendor at The Coco Drip Festival for Black-women owned small business for two years now as House of Eloise Design named after my great grandmother. My mother being an artist of many disciplines sparked the notion of us selling our Art on marketable items like. tea\coffee cups, t-shirts and more. The absolute best part of what I do is teaching every spring at Artpsace art camp, to middle schoolers and up. Helping them deal with every day issues like, ADD, ADHD, depression, and some just needing an outlet for their creative ambitions. I also Teach private crochet lessons and would love to do more work with autistic children.

I really think that what makes what I do so different, is the new concept of art execution that I’ve embraced. Thinking outside the box when creating a piece of art. using fibers and all sorts of materials to make a statement or tell a story. I also incorporate messages of healing. Sharing my story through the people, places, and spaces that have influenced me through my journey. Showing that an artist passion is a safe space to be vulnerable and heal.

I really just want clients, followers, and fans to know that I’m not just another person with a story filled with trauma and adversity, but a person who has over come those negative things and created something positive through a passion for creating. That growing in your creative space is the best way to heal and connect with community, making that community just as strong as crochet stitches when made into a tapestry.

So in creating this new space for myself I found that it’s ok to explore and return to some previous love affairs with Fashion Design. Combing the love for beautiful fabrics, upcycled creativity, and crochet. In this new chapter I was just recently blessed to collaborate with like minded artists and friends to put on the first fashion show I’ve been apart of in years. I also stretched my leadership wings a bit with a pretty fabulous design team in creating Golden Belt Arts first wearable Art fashion show experience/Music showcase and honestly I could be more proud of how it all turned out. What a night! it’s been two days and I’m still a buzz!

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I just started to really sell my crochet wears at different markets and festivals when I received a message from a friend. She said that this well known crochet artist and yarn bomber by the name Crocheted Olek, was in town installing one of her exhibits at, what was then Flanders Gallery. She went on to tell me that she had just posted on social media that she needed some skilled crocheters who could help install her exhibition. So I rushed down to the Gallery and introduced myself. Olek looked at me with a skeptical glare and put me to work on connecting crochet tapestry pieces to a farm tractor. I truly was completely besides myself trying to figure out how in the world I was going to attack this thing. Then I started to remember I had done attachment stitches with granny squares plenty of time before. So I started working. Olek comes to inspect my work about an hour later and saw how quickly and precisely I had worked the tapestry. Her only concern was that it were a bit tight and she told me to loosen up a bit and I was good to go.. I worked all afternoon to get that tractor ready for that evenings exhibition.

That night was absolutely amazing! I was so proud of myself and the work that I had done. Olek was so happy with with my work that when she came back a few years later to install her installation mural of Nina Simone entitled ” Here Comes the Sun” she hired me to assist in the tutorial workshops created to help volunteers who didn’t know how to crochet and help organize those who know very well how to crochet.

To my surprise Olek was again very happy with my work, and quit impressed with my patients in teaching. After the project was over. Olek reached out to via email asking if I would be interested in traveling state to state creating billboard size murals of influential women in history. I was over the moon and said yes immediately.

Love Across the USA change everything for me. there was no way in the world I could go back to basic crochet and now after a handful of crochet murals and graphed samples. I was now officials a crochet artist and yarn bomber. Which suited me just fine, because I had a graffiti back ground helping my husband fill in his piece work on trains, planes, and buildings when we were dating. When it was time to come home I was asked by Raleigh Arts to create a yarn bombing project with Chavis Heights community center. Unfortunately, this was right when covid hit and we had to shut the project down. Fortunately, I now had a whole new outlook on what I wanted to do with Crochet and the whole experience set me forward in a whole new and exciting direction.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being an Artist\creative first is the community that I help build. The children I teach and positively influence. The older generation that I connect with through stories of yarn and creative mishaps. The volunteers that I teach and watch grown in a new skill and take what they learn out into the world. All of these connections make a tapestry of diverse community. Each person connecting to the next sharing their stories, making friends and creating Art that will influence for generations to come. A colorful and strong tapestry of stitches.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.houseofeloisedesign.com/
• Instagram: House_of_eloise_1913

Image Credits

Fashion show photos by Ernesto Brett Dennison

Models in order
1. Atigre Farmer
2. Gloria Hwang (Glo)
3. Carrie Daniels

Thank you for all your love, support, and amazing work! love Linette Knight