Knitting Nancy-vest

The second vest consists of tubes made on the knitting Nancy machine. I had experimented with this earlier on in the semester inspire by Anna Clifton’s work. The loops I made with the knitting Nancy tool were too flimsy so I had to seek an option to make it look full. I used this tubing, which is called crinoline used in millinery. Nowhere in Melbourne had any in stock so I had to order it from Sydney and it just arrived in time!!

Hand knitted underwear.

Knitted high waist undies

Here are images of the progress of the undies.

It will be worn with the looped vest and made with the black knitting machine knit.

ARGH THE VEST!

Here are the loops prepared before hand sewing them all together to form the vest.

The loops were a nightmare to turn through, as I didn’t want any raw edges underneath, therefore they had to be turned inside out to the right side, but because the tubes are soooo thick it was so hard to turn through. One piece took about half an hour just to turn through. I tried all methods with a broom stick to even hitting it against the table. In the end I persisted and this is what I achieved.

Loop vest progress.

The steps involved in making one of the loops.

vested up?

My third garment is a vest, it rather sculptural consiting of knitted panels.. Inspired by this sample I did earlier on in the semester.

I wanted to get a rough idea how the strips would sit on the body and how long I would need to knit the pieces and join them together. Above is a rough calico toile.

machine knit The cut and sew method

Yesterday I used the domestic knitting machine, at first it started playing up, dropping stitches and created a tough tension. It didn’t help that I was getting frustrated because it was my final, but when Aly suggested give it some loving it then ran smoothly. I was only able to cast on a few stitches width wise, instead of the whole width of the machine, therefore I had to knit up such a long piece. Here is a photo of the piece I knitted and laying up and cutting out.

other inspirations

My brother is currently in London working over there, and his housemate is studying fashion at CSM central saint martins.

He attended the central saint martins graduate show, unfortunately he didn’t take photos of the students collections but he sent me link from this blog- http://www.fashion156.com/blog.php?entry=1466&issue=13

It is so interesting to see other students interpretations and final collections, and I cant wait till our assessment. Craft is such a unique thing, and throughout this semester you could see how all 12? of us interpreted craft.

Going through the blog I came across some images of the Nottingham Trent show and was blown away by these pictures by Emma Philpo crocheted pieces.

http://www.fashion156.com/blog.php?issue=13c

Yarn Barn

Today I went to yarn barn out in Coburg. Yarn barn is a family owned and operated business that has been established for over 10 years. They sell a wide range of hand knitting, machine knitting, felting and weaving supplies. It was a small shop compared to what I was imagining it to be, with lots yarn and machinery. The man was a great help and knew what I wanted straight away and he spun the yarn onto two spools straight away when I was there, it only took about 10 minutes or so.






Here is what I ended up getting! So now I’m ready to hit up the knitting machine!

toile 2 done

Over the past few weeks I have been working on my second design, the dress, here is the toile version (photos are very hard to see detail, photos are dark and crappy)

Overall I’m happy with the result, the sleeves aren’t as structural as I hoped they were but can’t help it with the knit. On the sleeves I tried two method, one with cast off on the lower edge and the other is casted on edge, the casted on edge give the wearer more freedom to move however looks very ugly as it curls up, originally I was going to go with this method but over the past few days in making my final I have chosen to go with the casted on edge its a little more restricting but looks much neater.

The elastic panels have been such a nightmare to knit!! Took my about 4 hrs just to knit the centre back panel. But I think it worked out well in the end. No pain, no gain!. My hands are literally killing me now!

knitting away like crazy