Abstract

Abstract:

This article presents an interview with Maija Nygren, a knitwear designer and educator based in Edinburgh. Nygren has been passionate about textiles since the age of five, when her Finnish grandmother taught her to crochet. She is the founder and leader of Almaborealis, an experimental knitwear lab where she creates educational, child-centred kids’ textiles which embrace local and ethical production. In 2022, she led a workshop series titled “What Are We Wearing” in association with the UK Crafts Council’s fiftieth anniversary. In this interview, Nygren discusses the development and design of her pedagogic workshops and Puzzleware craft kits for children, the pleasures of working with natural fibres such as wool, and theories of play and materiality, including those of Friedrich Froebel and Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, in relation to textiles. She also positions craft skills as a human right for children. The interview has been lightly edited for clarity and concision.

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