SPOTLIGHT X FRANKIEknitting it out
FOR MELBOURNE SONGSTRESS LAURA JEAN,
KNITTING IS MORE THAN JUST AN IDLE HOBBY.
IT’S AN ESSENTIAL PART OF MAKING MUSIC.
Words Luke Ryan Photo Stephanie Rose Wood
Over the course of four fiercely confessional and raw albums, Laura Jean has
developed a reputation for silky melodies and heart-wrenching songwriting.
But after the release of her most recent album, 2014’s self-titled Laura Jean,
she realised she needed something to get her back to her creative baseline.
The solution: a ball of yarn and a couple of knitting needles.
“Making Laura Jean was such a huge experience,” she says. “I just felt like
I needed to chill out before I could start thinking about what came next.”
Inspired by her grandma, a master knitter whose “ancestors were tailors”,
Laura had a friend teach her the basics and then set to. But even with dextrous
fingers honed by years of guitar playing, the early days were tough. “I really was
no good when I started,” she laughs. “But it wasn’t something I felt like I had
to immediately be a star at.” Over the course of weeks, then months, then
years, Laura refined her craft. “There are always a lot of missteps when you’re
learning to knit, but fortunately, when it comes to crafty things, I’m pretty patient.
I gradually added new skills, tried out different techniques – lacework, textured
work, shaping and turning. I just took it slow.”
But knitting was also helping Laura to find the intellectual and emotional space to
start writing her new album, Devotion. “Knitting is a wonderful thing to do if you
need to be creative,” she explains. “I always had my knitting bag under the desk
in my studio, and if I got sick of working on a song, I’d go and knit for 10 minutes,
then get back to it. It works because you can be occupied without being mentally
preoccupied. And that means your subconscious comes out of its hiding place
and starts to throw up these cool and strange ideas that your conscious mind isn’t
capable of.” (She’s onto something, too – research suggests people who take
time away from creative tasks come up with almost 50 per cent more ideas.)
Laura sees a lot of similarities between the music she makes and the things
she knits. “When you finish a song and you’re happy with it, it’s super-gratifying.
Knitting is like a minor version of that. You start with the kernel of an idea; you
keep making mistakes and having to go back to the start, and when it’s done
you get this beautiful feeling of satisfaction. I feel like I give my songs away,
and I always do the same with my knitting.”
Her studio isn’t the only place she brings out the yarn – it also makes an
appearance on public transport, at cafés, in parks. “It’s a bit embarrassing,”
she says, “but I’ve been going through a phase where I take my knitting
to see live music. I find it really hard to listen to music when I’m focusing
directly on it. The knitting helps distract me and lets the music come
through the side door of my brain.”
Asked what her greatest knitting achievement is, Laura answers without
hesitation: “A sock! It’s really hard to knit a sock. There are all these little
elements, and it’s really small, and you’ve got to be so onto it in regards
to counting stitches.” She smiles and turns philosophical. “It’s funny how
sometimes it’s not about the grandiosity of the thing, but just what you’ll
learn in the process of making it.”
Laura is knitting with the brand-new Abbey
Road yarn, available exclusively at Spotlight
stores around Australia. For this and more
crafty goodness, head to spotlightstores.com.