Today was all about the presentation....and thank goodness it is over.
It is amazing the way a twenty minute spot can actually blow everything out of the water for the preceding fortnight.
I think it went OK it all felt unreal, I seem to have developed a vocabulary that is all about my aesthetic and how process and practice are two parts of the same journey. It is strange the way a personal realisation about something as unromantic as knitting can actually be quite emotional to recognise.
I have missed feeling this about what I do..
Tuesday 7 December 2010
Tuesday 16 November 2010
Tick - Tock.....
The last month has been about....programming and a yarn hunt.
Sharon and I have spent about......23 programming hours trying to solve one problem. And it wasn't even an interesting one. Long story short...we had built the pattern to do a certain thing but at no point had we given any consideration to the pleat repeats if we held one edge, no real reason too it was just another element. However what we were treating as a repeat wasn't the same as what the programme thought was a repeat so when we inserted the held area it travelled so it was in the right place to begin with but gradually moved. On the screen it should of been correct but the economisers were having their say. It is now sorted but the problem was simply finding it.....sometimes it is the little things that trip you up.
Anyways the garment is as I type being knitted....so as long as nothing else goes wrong ...please let nothing happen....I will have my finished garment for my presentation in December, PHEW.
Now I need to sort out images for said presentation and find new yarn.....think I have but I am taking nothing for granted......and work out what I am going to do for the other 5 months of my M.A. as it is looking like I will have finished these garments by the end of February or beginning of March.....see that's what happens when you font load, you end up doing more...
Sharon and I have spent about......23 programming hours trying to solve one problem. And it wasn't even an interesting one. Long story short...we had built the pattern to do a certain thing but at no point had we given any consideration to the pleat repeats if we held one edge, no real reason too it was just another element. However what we were treating as a repeat wasn't the same as what the programme thought was a repeat so when we inserted the held area it travelled so it was in the right place to begin with but gradually moved. On the screen it should of been correct but the economisers were having their say. It is now sorted but the problem was simply finding it.....sometimes it is the little things that trip you up.
Anyways the garment is as I type being knitted....so as long as nothing else goes wrong ...please let nothing happen....I will have my finished garment for my presentation in December, PHEW.
Now I need to sort out images for said presentation and find new yarn.....think I have but I am taking nothing for granted......and work out what I am going to do for the other 5 months of my M.A. as it is looking like I will have finished these garments by the end of February or beginning of March.....see that's what happens when you font load, you end up doing more...
Saturday 16 October 2010
From Felt to Felted...
Well I have knitted down enough fabric to produce a toile in the real fabric.....and it is an enormous amout given I am constructing a gillet! Obviously after it is constructed and felted I should have a garment that fits........
The images show the fabric in strips before felting draped over a stairwell just to demonstrate the amount, put together before and after felting (on a double bed to give an idea of shrinkage) and finally pinned on the stand side by side with the felt fabric toile (as opposed to the felted knitted toile....stay with me)...
Wednesday 6 October 2010
JUM NAKAO/A COSTURA DO INVISÍVEL
JUM NAKAO/A COSTURA DO INVISÍVEL
At last I have found the designer who made the paper gowns I saw an image of in about January 2010.....so that's about 10 months of searching! Amazing to me how the sense of drama is what I am aiming for in my garments ...... and even though I saw one thumbnail when I was surfing the collection as a whole is spookily reflective of my own style. No man is an Island ....
At last I have found the designer who made the paper gowns I saw an image of in about January 2010.....so that's about 10 months of searching! Amazing to me how the sense of drama is what I am aiming for in my garments ...... and even though I saw one thumbnail when I was surfing the collection as a whole is spookily reflective of my own style. No man is an Island ....
Sunday 3 October 2010
So Long.......but the Work Continued....
It has been a long time since I have been here but I have been working hard. Most of the reflective work I have been doing has been in my journal and of course I have had the kids at home!! Term has now restarted so time to get you up to date...if you care.
I have been making headway with toiles so that is fantastic, it means the fabric now has a form that can be worn. The process has been a little tortuous as I only had very small pieces to work from so in a way it has been design by photography. Luckily this works well on the stand as I can take my images home and stitch them together in my imagination and on the computer and make a whole garment out of snapshot.
From the images I generate a pattern based on repeats of the fabric and then make a garment out of felt in order to try it out. If this works I will then be able to make a toile in the yarn by programming the machine to produce lengths and attaching them together appropriately.
I have toiled two garments and am currently finishing a third and my first real fabric toile is knitted and waiting to be put together.
I have been making headway with toiles so that is fantastic, it means the fabric now has a form that can be worn. The process has been a little tortuous as I only had very small pieces to work from so in a way it has been design by photography. Luckily this works well on the stand as I can take my images home and stitch them together in my imagination and on the computer and make a whole garment out of snapshot.
From the images I generate a pattern based on repeats of the fabric and then make a garment out of felt in order to try it out. If this works I will then be able to make a toile in the yarn by programming the machine to produce lengths and attaching them together appropriately.
I have toiled two garments and am currently finishing a third and my first real fabric toile is knitted and waiting to be put together.
Wednesday 30 June 2010
Kinks in the Process
The 3D fabric is so nearly right it hurts!! Another session on Friday should see it finished in it's current form. In the next month or so there is a new Shima with a wider bed arriving and I want to switch across to that next term. This is for two reasons, the new machine is a finer gauge and I'd like to see this knitted in silk and the wider bed means I will be able to be more adventurous with the final design as I will have so much more fabric to play with. That said I may use the narrow panels to construct a garment just to explore the complications in designing around the machines limitations.
I am making interesting headway with designs to accommodate the pleated linen fabric. It's hard not to revert to designing on paper so I am using photos printed in grayscale to work on top of. I have also bought some fabric that I am hoping will be perfect for one of the garments....now all I have to do is get the garment right.
New yarn cards should be arriving this week so lots to think about.
Sunday 13 June 2010
Working with linen and Whole Garment.
The last couple of weeks have been spent working with two different aproaches.
I have spent a lot of time pleating and finishing a large piece of linen so I have a panel large enough to manipulate on the stand. Previous I had been working with smaller pieces but they didn't allow the flexibility to drape on a body. I have also spent a lot of time programming to try and form a 3D length of kitting.
The large piece of linen has yielded results that have pushed me forward on garment design. I photographed the mocked up garment shapes and then put the photos on a light-box and traced over them to help think about how I could form dresses, skirts etc that draw on the potential of the shapes. Again this was not a way of working I have ever indulged in before. The benefits in the process were that I wasn't designing front and back views and then putting in seams so I could make up a garment. This method allowed me to work on a side view, or the area around the waist or bust in isolation and then move forward into a garment that takes the form more fully into consideration.
As for the 3D length of knitting I am learning an awful lot about how the Shimas' brain interprets my commands. The design system itself is very good at telling you what it doesn't like however still allows me to ignore the issues it thinks are there if I believe I have already put something else into the programme to counteract potential problems. It is like learning any language in as much as although there may be a real word or phrase for what you want to say sometimes you need to invent your own slag to really hit the nail on the head. This week I hope to actually solve the outstanding problems so I can start sampling in a variety of yarns to try and identify the perfect one for the fabric.
I have spent a lot of time pleating and finishing a large piece of linen so I have a panel large enough to manipulate on the stand. Previous I had been working with smaller pieces but they didn't allow the flexibility to drape on a body. I have also spent a lot of time programming to try and form a 3D length of kitting.
The large piece of linen has yielded results that have pushed me forward on garment design. I photographed the mocked up garment shapes and then put the photos on a light-box and traced over them to help think about how I could form dresses, skirts etc that draw on the potential of the shapes. Again this was not a way of working I have ever indulged in before. The benefits in the process were that I wasn't designing front and back views and then putting in seams so I could make up a garment. This method allowed me to work on a side view, or the area around the waist or bust in isolation and then move forward into a garment that takes the form more fully into consideration.
As for the 3D length of knitting I am learning an awful lot about how the Shimas' brain interprets my commands. The design system itself is very good at telling you what it doesn't like however still allows me to ignore the issues it thinks are there if I believe I have already put something else into the programme to counteract potential problems. It is like learning any language in as much as although there may be a real word or phrase for what you want to say sometimes you need to invent your own slag to really hit the nail on the head. This week I hope to actually solve the outstanding problems so I can start sampling in a variety of yarns to try and identify the perfect one for the fabric.
Tuesday 1 June 2010
OH Late Again....
Last tutorial went well ....... we have the MO! I am finally off and running.
The pleats constructed by painstaking and laborious hand crochet through linen (yes this really is what my life has come to...) are ringing the right bells. There is also a lot to go at with knitting into leather......and into mesh.
Each fabric has it's own personality, the linen is feminine, leather edgy and the mesh sporty so there are three potential directions to follow......
Added to this I have the pure knit route on power and that makes 4! I am starting to think in term of 4 garments or outfits each separate but following the same line of enquiry. This could be possible if time allows.
As for now I am starting on the linen, large piece of fabric pleated and then shaped around the body from there I will do some flatwork based on the photos......
Monday 17 May 2010
Sunday 16 May 2010
Process and Practice.....
OK this is going to be pretentious!! I want to try and examine the relationship between the process and the practice that is shaping my project going forward.
I am at a tipping point. The first year is coming to an end and the work I am producing is testing the bounds of what I understand to be knitwear. In so far as I understood it the definition was pretty straightforward knitwear being wear that was knitted!! No surprises there then....But it is changing.
You don't describe garments constructed of woven textiles but assembled by sewing as Sew Wear so it it valid to describe garments constructed of woven textiles but constructed by Knitting as being different? I am thinking about this as I seem in some ways to be approaching my Chimera method but I am not sure it is easy to give it a label....which is understandable...
These garments will be part woven and part knit but the method of construction will rely on knitting....not sewing. I am thinking of this method along the lines of tailoring. Tailored garments have their own identity, they are not cut and sew they are Tailored.....because their construction draws from a specific area of expertise. So I am thinking about what my garments are....and I don't have a name. But they are knitwear in as far as the knit component is more than just a way of construction. It is inherent in the life of the process, the way they will be conceived and the form they will take.
For now although unsatisfactory it will have to do by way of explanation. I am trusting that as I continue everything will balance a little more and the what and the why will even out....
Clear as MUD!!
I am at a tipping point. The first year is coming to an end and the work I am producing is testing the bounds of what I understand to be knitwear. In so far as I understood it the definition was pretty straightforward knitwear being wear that was knitted!! No surprises there then....But it is changing.
You don't describe garments constructed of woven textiles but assembled by sewing as Sew Wear so it it valid to describe garments constructed of woven textiles but constructed by Knitting as being different? I am thinking about this as I seem in some ways to be approaching my Chimera method but I am not sure it is easy to give it a label....which is understandable...
These garments will be part woven and part knit but the method of construction will rely on knitting....not sewing. I am thinking of this method along the lines of tailoring. Tailored garments have their own identity, they are not cut and sew they are Tailored.....because their construction draws from a specific area of expertise. So I am thinking about what my garments are....and I don't have a name. But they are knitwear in as far as the knit component is more than just a way of construction. It is inherent in the life of the process, the way they will be conceived and the form they will take.
For now although unsatisfactory it will have to do by way of explanation. I am trusting that as I continue everything will balance a little more and the what and the why will even out....
Clear as MUD!!
Sunday 25 April 2010
Some Good.....Some Other
I am still working on the Knitting into fabric concept. Sometimes it feels like a really good idea, something challenging, something new...but at others I do wonder if these monstrosities will ever become something of interest let alone beauty.
I am working on doing the whole thing tone on tone.....using colour is distracting me from the process....I will give it another month (in my mind at least....) flogging dead horses is not on my agenda.
One thing to come out of this is just how hard it is to unlearn a way of working. I have mentioned before the tension that exists between the part of my brain that designs garments to sell...the part of me that kept me fed and with a roof over my head I suppose! And the designer that wanted.....still wants to test herself. This is hard part as without that dissatisfaction that drove me back, The sense of disappointment really in my own work whether it sold or not, I will have no finished MA project. And yet it is that part of the work I find it impossible to control or submit too...
So for now I continue, back to the stand and back to the books....looking for what the process will reveal and how I can use it.
As for the good.....really good I had an amazing visit to John Smedley. I have never seen such a complete operation and there was nothing abstract in the way the company functions. The in house testing was very interesting and exacting, I had never seen it used to that extent.....Also the dying the finishing plant. They had state of the art Whole Garment machines running next to old FF machines that required bar-loading.....skills that are rare these days. Again the point came up about designers are not technically enough minded also the old problem of Kitchen Sink Designing. The tension in a heritage brand must be quite difficult at times given designers always feel the pull of doing it because you can.....and yet sometimes you do need to hold back!! They even had one Technician/Knitter who was a woman which is still rare as hens teeth.
One thought to come out of this and also the New York interview is should Universities be offering a PGC in Knitwear Technology.....a kind of Pass-Plus for Knitwear designers. I think it is a seductive thought and in a world where industry link-ups are seen as key in generating external funding and Post Grad take-up I think it could be worth examining...
I am working on doing the whole thing tone on tone.....using colour is distracting me from the process....I will give it another month (in my mind at least....) flogging dead horses is not on my agenda.
One thing to come out of this is just how hard it is to unlearn a way of working. I have mentioned before the tension that exists between the part of my brain that designs garments to sell...the part of me that kept me fed and with a roof over my head I suppose! And the designer that wanted.....still wants to test herself. This is hard part as without that dissatisfaction that drove me back, The sense of disappointment really in my own work whether it sold or not, I will have no finished MA project. And yet it is that part of the work I find it impossible to control or submit too...
So for now I continue, back to the stand and back to the books....looking for what the process will reveal and how I can use it.
As for the good.....really good I had an amazing visit to John Smedley. I have never seen such a complete operation and there was nothing abstract in the way the company functions. The in house testing was very interesting and exacting, I had never seen it used to that extent.....Also the dying the finishing plant. They had state of the art Whole Garment machines running next to old FF machines that required bar-loading.....skills that are rare these days. Again the point came up about designers are not technically enough minded also the old problem of Kitchen Sink Designing. The tension in a heritage brand must be quite difficult at times given designers always feel the pull of doing it because you can.....and yet sometimes you do need to hold back!! They even had one Technician/Knitter who was a woman which is still rare as hens teeth.
One thought to come out of this and also the New York interview is should Universities be offering a PGC in Knitwear Technology.....a kind of Pass-Plus for Knitwear designers. I think it is a seductive thought and in a world where industry link-ups are seen as key in generating external funding and Post Grad take-up I think it could be worth examining...
Thursday 25 March 2010
Question: Why Can't I Post These on Time...?
Answer: Because I keep putting off one thing to panic about another...
OK Since my last post I have had two meetings with my supervisor and all is well...
I am exploring knitting into (oh yes) wovens and will produce a garment during the next term to further develop the idea...there it is...written on the BLOG so it will happen!
The Shima development is taking a short holiday as the 4th year BA need to get their collections out and I know what that feels like so I am taking a step back while they panic.
Ditto Dubied for a few weeks too and concentrating on reading some texts on the current and historic state of the industry......and technology.
I also have my trip to John Smedley looming which I am looking forward to....technology in context. The questionnaires are now coming in so I will have a chance to start pulling that together and thinking about next year....and I now have some provisional dates for Montse Stanley ....end of May hopefully.
This is a boring page as the last few weeks have been about thinking as much as doing and it is hard to demonstrate how much this is affecting everything at the moment on the page....There are as many forks in the road at the moment as paths to take and it feels like I am hacking my way through inch by inch. Luckily the work is acting as it's own guide so forward we go...
OK Since my last post I have had two meetings with my supervisor and all is well...
I am exploring knitting into (oh yes) wovens and will produce a garment during the next term to further develop the idea...there it is...written on the BLOG so it will happen!
The Shima development is taking a short holiday as the 4th year BA need to get their collections out and I know what that feels like so I am taking a step back while they panic.
Ditto Dubied for a few weeks too and concentrating on reading some texts on the current and historic state of the industry......and technology.
I also have my trip to John Smedley looming which I am looking forward to....technology in context. The questionnaires are now coming in so I will have a chance to start pulling that together and thinking about next year....and I now have some provisional dates for Montse Stanley ....end of May hopefully.
This is a boring page as the last few weeks have been about thinking as much as doing and it is hard to demonstrate how much this is affecting everything at the moment on the page....There are as many forks in the road at the moment as paths to take and it feels like I am hacking my way through inch by inch. Luckily the work is acting as it's own guide so forward we go...
Sunday 28 February 2010
Quick one now....long one next time!
Right ....this should have been done three weeks ago but preparing for New York seemed to take up most of my spare time!
What have I been doing since my meeting with Julie?
Mostly I have been looking at the way I want my work to progress and working out the best time for a visit to Southampton ( it would be better this term but will have to be next).
I have a date pinned down to visit John Smedley and watch production and after a very good N.Y. trip feel confident in the research I am doing. The F.I.T. exhibition was especially pertinent as it seemed to have every garment I have referenced as being important in viewing knitwear differently......although few of them were knitted!!
I've also begun my interviews and got a humdinger with frank views on how untechnical many knitwear designers are these days due to the fact sampling is done elsewhere, a direct result of the decline of manufacturing in the west. All good stuff.
Next weekI am returning to the stand to look at refining shape futher and after my meeting next week I should have more to say and a focus for next term.
What have I been doing since my meeting with Julie?
Mostly I have been looking at the way I want my work to progress and working out the best time for a visit to Southampton ( it would be better this term but will have to be next).
I have a date pinned down to visit John Smedley and watch production and after a very good N.Y. trip feel confident in the research I am doing. The F.I.T. exhibition was especially pertinent as it seemed to have every garment I have referenced as being important in viewing knitwear differently......although few of them were knitted!!
I've also begun my interviews and got a humdinger with frank views on how untechnical many knitwear designers are these days due to the fact sampling is done elsewhere, a direct result of the decline of manufacturing in the west. All good stuff.
Next weekI am returning to the stand to look at refining shape futher and after my meeting next week I should have more to say and a focus for next term.
Wednesday 27 January 2010
Just a thought....
I have just spent two days trying not to be precious about how I explore my ideas......just can't do it!
Monday 18 January 2010
Tardy blogger finds focus...
What a difference a month makes. After doing what I know and producing what I expected I finally totally relinquished control and went with instinct.
The photos are of Toiles (of a sort) produced with the intent of seeing what happens when I twist and fold. I wasn't thinking about how I could knit it just how it behaved.
Alongside I also looked at shapes that were not obvious choices for producing knitted fabrics, so we have triangles within circles. Again the potential for shape suggests how they can be used as garment components.
Next on the agenda is exploring in a non precious way on paper how I can develop these ideas.....most of my documentation is thorough but possibly too finished. The problem with this is it doesn't really enable the person looking at it to work out how I arrived at the finished idea. Too many years spent in industry ...........
Next blog should be around 8th February........lets see where I am by then!!
The photos are of Toiles (of a sort) produced with the intent of seeing what happens when I twist and fold. I wasn't thinking about how I could knit it just how it behaved.
Alongside I also looked at shapes that were not obvious choices for producing knitted fabrics, so we have triangles within circles. Again the potential for shape suggests how they can be used as garment components.
Next on the agenda is exploring in a non precious way on paper how I can develop these ideas.....most of my documentation is thorough but possibly too finished. The problem with this is it doesn't really enable the person looking at it to work out how I arrived at the finished idea. Too many years spent in industry ...........
Next blog should be around 8th February........lets see where I am by then!!
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