Iris Steensma - printmaker: Fragments of Memory
Size: 30 x 10 cm MY MOTHER KNITTED SWIMMING COSTUMES
My mother knitted, she could knit and read a book at the same time. The needles, both tucked under her arms, clicked continuously. She unravelled the old to create the new. If you grew out of a jumper, it was turned into something larger. Not only did she knit jumpers, she also knitted warm winter underwear. And when the war finished and it was safe to go back to the beaches my mother knitted swimming costumes. She knitted them to fit, measuring the first few rows on the needles tightly around the bits of body. Whatever new item of clothing she knitted it always started off tight, elbows could hardly be bent when wearing a new jumper. And swimming costumes - one leap into the cold, salty water and they shrunk. The beach, a trip on the tram with a tin bucket and spade, sand and uncomfortable scratching and itching, that was a 1946 summer.
Two block Linocut
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