The Nastily Knitted Balaklava wants to challenge the relationship between the male digital computing skills and the stereotypically crafty female activity of knitting, always depicted as a "Quick and Easy" activity in promotional flyers of the 60's. For the Nasty Women North East competition we were asked to propose a piece that would recognise and reward Nastiness in art and activism, but that would also fit an artist's head(Lady Kitt), so we made a Knitted Balaklava that you can wear while knitting. We thought, if its so easy you can surely do it with your eyes closed..

All and Everything is Naturally Related and Interconnected. – Ada Lovelace
The sentence on the hat is one of Ada Lovelace’s, the first computer programmer. The binary code of knitting, as well as computing, creates a beautiful symbol of the Western society’s obsession with dualites. As Sadie Plant puts it in Zeros+Ones (1998) ‘The yarn is neither metaphorical nor literal, but quite simply material, a gathering of threads which twist and turn through the history of computing, technology, the sciences and arts.’
The colours are carefully selected to celebrate the Suffragette movement.

The entry was part of an exhibition of proposals at Praxis Gallery, and was selected to participate in a Nasty Residency in Newcastle.