Jersey (city lights on wet night)

This jersey was commissioned by donor Alan Gibson in 1985: 'The idea was city lights reflecting on a wet night'. Lee Andersen and her knitter Jean Rees put his idea into practice. He wore it in the second half of the 1980s.

Lee Andersen was at the forefront of the 1980s knitting revolution in New Zealand. She and her 'stable' of home-based knitters created innovative and inventive jerseys - they were bold, colourful, imaginative, and sometimes even three-dimensional, and were hugely successful. She pushed the boundaries of colour, texture, patterning, and combined other textile techniques. She challenged her knitters and treated them as professionals - she paid them well, and acknowledged them on her swing tags. Knitters were supplied with a drawing and the yarns, and it was up to them how to create the final product.

Andersen published a very successful book You Knit Unique in 1985, which led to invitations to teach in the United States.