The moment I saw the welcoming and peaceful yarn forest that was Andy’s “booth” at Vogue Knitting Live (VKL) in NYC, I knew this was a person I wanted to get to know, and an artist I wanted to share. I was happily surprised to find we have Knit the Rainbow in common – Andy as a Board Member, and me as volunteer staff.
So when it came time to choose a yarn artist to interview for our Pride issue of Crochet Foundry, there was really no question, I knew Andy was my first choice.
NOTE: This interview was originally published in the June 2024 edition of Crochet Foundry Magazine.
Welcome to the Crochet Foundry Community, Andy, we’re looking forward to learning more about you and your art. Tell us a little about who you are and what you do.
Hi! I’m Andy Stowers Forest, any pronouns are fine with me! I’m an artist, advocate, and researcher from Tallahassee, Florida, based in Manhattan. Outside art, I do anti-trafficking research and educate others about human trafficking using a combination of research and my own lived experience. It’s really tough work, and art is what helps keep me grounded through it. I use yarn to knit and crochet landscapes from places I miss, as well as creating some more abstract pieces. I’m deeply invested in creating sustainably to reduce the demand for production in the already exploitative fiber industry, and love to use art as a way to do so beautifully.
When we met at Vogue Knitting Live in NYC, your display area was a beautiful yarn forest. I really just wanted to walk right in, curl up, and crochet all day. Is all your yarn art tree themed, or do you have other themes you work with?
I love making art that depicts trees, but all of my art (even the trees) are really about home/belonging. Trees are an important part of that to me: I grew up in Tallahassee, Florida, where there are live oak trees everywhere. When I moved to NYC in 2021, I missed those trees so much I started trying to represent them in art. I made the first few tree pieces wholly from local to-NYC businesses, and that was my way of helping myself see that I COULD make a representation of something that felt like home out of what I have here…and it helped me show folks from NYC that there was beauty where I was from too.
Some of my art depicts mountains, rivers, words, or is totally abstracted! I use each project as a meditative opportunity to think about themes of home/belonging from a slightly different angle. At Vogue Knitting Live, I made sure my artist placard was really explicit about where I was from and how that informs my work: here in NYC, people have a lot of inaccurate stereotypes about Southerners. There are definitely issues in state governments throughout the South, but I see a lot of beauty in the people and places and wanted to project that sense of home and belonging. A few North Carolinians said the yarn forest made them feel at home, and a few New Yorkers said it gave them a sense of calm…so I think that’s a success.
I’ve been really surprised by the fact that people do seem to understand and connect to the art, especially the trees. A few years ago I sold a piece depicting a live oak to a client from Mexico: it turned out live oak trees grow where they’re from in Mexico, too! They bought it because it reminded them of home…that was just so beautiful. Making this art creates opportunities to learn about other people’s homes and connect on a level I didn’t think would be possible.
When did you first begin to create yarn art, and when did you decide this was something you were going to share with the world?
I learned to crochet and knit as a kid and found them incredibly calming. In 2019, while in a hostile work environment, I picked it back up to help manage my stress. But…I lived in Florida and there weren’t many practical wearables I could make, so I started experimenting with crochet and knit art.
When I moved to NYC in the summer of 2021, it was a tough time because I was moving to avoid harmful legislation that was being rolled out in Florida to limit what trans people can do. Many times, people expressed disdain for Southerners in the same breath as they expressed “support” for LGBTQ people in Southern states. It was painful because I see so much beauty in where I’m from, and it felt like people from everywhere else had given up on us…I started sharing my art because I wanted there to be another narrative out there about what it means to be a trans Floridian who loves and sees the beauty in our landscapes.
The tree was a really important motif in that, because live oak trees have an unusual trait that allows them to continue forming new branches/changing their structure substantially well into adulthood. I thought about that a lot over my transition, and it was really a source of comfort. I want other people to see traditional skills and people from the South as complex and nuanced individuals who deserve good governments and are not beyond saving… but I also had no art background and was working 100% in research, so it didn’t seem realistic that I WOULD be able to share that art.
Through meeting Austin of Knit the Rainbow, going on the Kelly Clarkson Show with him, and later meeting other LGBTQ artists (especially Joe Conforti, an artist who’s really lifted up my work), I realized I did have something valuable enough to touch other people and started trying to share more.
In the summer of 2022 I got invited to a huge weekend-long party on Fire Island…I had to go for professional reasons but was so stressed out that I brought along a small knitting project I was working on. I was planning to mount the finished fabric onto a board when I finished it as an art piece, and brought this project around the party the whole weekend. Joe Conforti saw me working on it and asked if I would be part of his upcoming show. I was totally shocked by that, but said yes…and ended up receiving such positive comments at the show that I started sharing art with others more.
Where do you get all the yarn and other supplies?
Honestly, the problem isn’t getting materials, it’s figuring out what to do with them.
I occasionally buy a specific skein or two from Knitty City (my LYS), but almost all of it comes from other crafters who have yarn they can’t use. A lot of that came initially from the Buy Nothing Project, where neighbors can request or offer unwanted items from the neighborhood Buy Nothing Facebook page (this is national, not just NYC!). Knit the Rainbow gets a lot of unsolicited yarn donations, and I get a lot of those passed on to me. Beyond that, word has gotten out that I’ll take pretty much any yarn or random materials…at this point, I’ve arrived home to find yarn packages unexpectedly on my doorstep more than once…not just from NYC but as far away as California. It’s been amazing, because I was able to give several neighbors and friends yarn for their first few projects, which let them learn for free.
To me, it’s way more fun to ask my community what they don’t want and turn THAT into something than it would be to purchase new yarn. My perspective is that the most sustainable yarn choice is “whatever was otherwise going to sit and rot unused in someone’s closet,” be it mohair or acrylic. People sometimes assume I’d never want scraps or synthetics, but those yarns have more colorfastness and durability than some other options, and I delight in getting to use the very end of someone else’s meticulously saved Red Heart leftovers. Almost all of the yarn I use is yarn that had been sitting unused, and it’s really thrilling to get to use it.
I know you crochet and knit, do you do any other yarn or thread arts – such as weaving or macramé?
Crocheting and knitting are the main ones, but I learned a surprising range of basic needlecraft skills as a kid. Sewing, beading, weaving, macramé, even dyeing…I already had a vocabulary and conceptual understanding of the basics, and learned myself new skills whenever I needed to know slightly more to achieve the right look for a project.
Where does your inspiration come from?
I think there’s a big difference to me between visual inspiration and inspiration to keep persevering.
Visual inspiration comes to me from all over the place. It’s kind of funny but my visual inspiration for the yarn forest was the animatronic forest in the waiting area for the E.T. ride at Universal Studios Orlando.
The inspiration to persevere comes from the women who taught me how to knit, crochet, sew, bead, embroider…etc. I learned mostly from my mom and grandma as well as other people who were part of our religious community. So many of them got sucked into a predatory extremist environment because there weren’t other contexts that lifted up the things that were culturally relevant to them or placed importance on crafts predominantly made by women. I think so many people get stuck in predatory environments because they don’t realize they can still use all of those traditional skills wherever they are. And at the same time, so many people who are not from environments like this look down on people raised in these contexts because they don’t realize that we have skills passed down from our families.
I don’t have a relationship with my mom or grandma because of their dangerous religious beliefs, but in doing advocacy for people indoctrinated into violent extremism, there are a lot of gaps in the kinds of services they need to be able to leave. For me when I was making the choice to leave that community, it was hard to feel that some of my more traditional skills wouldn’t have a place in the outside world, and a lot of my art is working to show that it does. People from these backgrounds often feel that we are not valuable, and I persevere in art to show others that we CAN escape from these environments while still holding onto culturally relevant and traditional skills. Being able to transform those skills into something positive is what keeps me going.
Additionally, my mom and a lot of other women have experienced exploitation of their labor around craft. We already have so much fiber in circulation around the world and there are so many issues with labor rights in its production. Part of what I want to accomplish is to show people that you can make beautiful art with whatever random supplies you can find within your own community rather than placing additional strain on an already exploitative production system.
What is your favorite part of being a yarn artist?
I love being able to express myself! I’m absolutely terrible at most other visual arts, and it was a real game-changer to realize that same type of expression could happen solely through yarn.
ALSO…I don’t correct mistakes in my pieces. People sometimes notice them and realize they, too, can make art without it needing to be perfect. That always brings me so much joy.
What would you say to aspiring yarn artists who aren’t sure how or if they should share their creations with the world?
Find your why! It was really hard for me to share my art until I understood why I was doing it. When I realized that I was making this art to start conversations that could help other people in situations like the one I was in, it became a lot easier to share.
I kind of think all crocheters and knitters, not just those who intentionally make art pieces, can get a little obsessive about mistakes. It always felt like my art wasn’t good enough until Joe Conforti asked me why I was making it, and I explained my inspiration. I realized that the message could still get across even if I didn’t execute everything perfectly, and that was really freeing. As soon as I understood why I felt this was important and the impact I wanted it to have, it became much easier to put myself out there while knowing I didn’t have a perfect product.
At VKL I bought a small canvas from you with a little yarn, wire, and bead tree over it. That tree has lived on my desk from the day I brought it home, and it always makes me smile. It’s my own personal tree in my basement studio and I love it. What do you want your art to bring to those who see it and those who buy it?
A lot of us are very disconnected from nature and where we came from. For me, the tree art is about connecting to that, and I would hope other people are able to connect to that too.
Also, I find a lot of the things I need for my art within my neighborhood or from community members. I want other people to be able to look at my art and remember that many of the things we need to live sustainably are already there right around us: trees in the forest can actually exchange nutrients and help each other… if we want to live in a sustainable and kind world, human beings have to remember that we can do the same thing.
This is our June Pride issue, what does it mean to you to be part of the Pride issue?
So much. As a kid whose wardrobe came from thrift shops and hand-me-downs, I often could not buy or even find clothing that fit the way I wanted to express myself. Crocheting and knitting became a way to make things for myself that fit the way I wanted to be seen by the world. For a long time, I really didn’t think that LGBTQ people even had a place in fiber arts, because people reacted to me and what I made in strange ways.
After I transitioned, I even stopped crocheting or knitting, because people reacted with more confusion to seeing a man knit than seeing a woman knit. It felt like I would be seen as more feminine if I kept going with fiber art, and I struggled to feel pride in my skills. It wasn’t till I got on Instagram and saw Vincent Williams, Xandy Peters, and Louis Boria’s fiber work that I started to realize that. Being in this issue is an amazing opportunity to provide the representation I didn’t have, but it’s also a cool opportunity for me to realize how far I’ve come in my own confidence around these skills. I actually got to meet all three of those guys who helped me feel confident in my fiber art at VKL…it’s a strange and amazing experience to actually be able to feel pride in my work AND the fiber community.
And of course, please tell us all the ways we can follow you on social media, and/or view your creations.
I’m on Instagram @andysforest and @apostatefibers. I post a range of things there, from disability advocacy to knitting to research. I’ll also be at VK Live again next year, and do lectures and workshops on request–just reach out to my Instagram!