First came Frankie Knuckles pioneering house music. 

Then Fatboy Slim played to a quarter of a million people on Brighton Beach.

Now DJ Kelley D has created a new craze which is sweeping the nation’s dancefloors – Rave Knitting.

Rave Knitting involves wrapping neon yarn around everyone on the dancefloor to join them together.

Kelley started movement in the summer, and Tab founders Jack Rivlin and George Marangos-Gilks were among the first to get tangled in Kelley’s web, at Glastonbury.

George said: “Kelley D is a groove and a gas. Everyone should send her money and other fine things.”

She explained her vision, which you can experience first-hand when she supports The 2 Bears in London this week.

Kelley said: “What rave knitting does is stop us taking life too seriously. Sometimes you can go clubbing and it all gets too deep and too cool.

“Rave knitting reminds us of the good old days of raving where people did bonkers things, where we were one crowd, united in the music having a laugh with our mates and everyone else around us.

“It’s such a simple thing, a ball of wool. But when you start rave knitting it does magical things.”

Kelley added: “In a world that is disconnected and technology rules supreme, we need to remind ourselves of the importance of the here and now.

“As we move further into the virtual world rave knitting enables us to reconnect with each other and proves that the most important relationship in life is the connection between one human to another.

“Rave knitting starts with a thread bringing us back together, stitch by stitch, thread by thread, one person at a time.”

Kelley’s rave knitting is the warm up act for The 2 Bears, playing at Tufnell Park Dome this Thursday.

My Story, by Kelley D

I’m renowned in my group of friends for always coming up with mad ideas and putting on bonkers performances for friends birthdays or weddings.

I take old game shows and put a bonkers twist on things. From ‘Deal or no deal’ to ‘This is your life’, I create naughty adult versions for my friends’ eyes only.

As you can see I’m always messing around and coming up with crazy ideas especially when I’m out raving or cracking on back at somebodies house. So, one night after clubbing we went back to an after party at a friend’s house where I discovered an old knitting bag in the spare room.

As a joke I wrapped myself in several balls of wool and came back into the room mummified in wool with a pair of needles shouting ‘knit one, purl one.’ I then proceeded to knit people together and that’s literally how the Rave Knitting craze started. The whole room immediately came alive.

Shortly after this party I was then asked to provide the entertainment for the birthday of this legendary character in the dance scene called Nathan Detroit. I thought why not do something that could include my Rave Knitting character.

I came up with The GenerNathan Game – a wacky version of the generation game. One of the rounds was Rave Knitting. Again I went all out, providing title music, graphics, lights, and sound effects.

Afterwards Joe Goddard and Raf from The 2 Bears came up to me and said “Kelley this is the funniest thing I’ve ever seen since Vic and Bob, you need to do this” I was like “Really? Wow!”

I then spent the whole night knitting people together on the dancefloor, it was amazing, it helped break down people’s barriers and brought people together like a social lubricant.

A couple of days after the party I got a phone call by someone who was there and they said “I loved what you were doing and how you brought the room together would you be interested in hosting my tent at Farr” and that was the beginning.

The minute I decided to say “Fuck it, lets give it a go” was the minute doors started opening for me, within in two months I was booked for Glastonbury, Farr, and Eastern Electrics. Now I’m going on tour with The 2 Bears as their warm-up act, which is mind blowing.

For The 2 Bears I’ve devised a show called The Raveathon, which is basically a 25 minute show where I teach people how to rave and have a good time. The show culminates in a huge Rave Knitting session at the end where we knit each other together in Neon Wool.

Rave knitting is here.