UNIT X: LINES OF ENQUIRY

The third week of Unit X is where I feel I finally grasped the feel for knitting, throughout this week I became more confident on the machines and I was able to experiment with a range of techniques both for my technical file and general sampling ideas which I have included in my sketch book.
I have continued to use the same yarns in relation to my colour palette, whilst introducing a couple of new colours to add excitement as I felt I had restricting myself to a simple palette in the previous week. 

Over the Easter holidays, I began researching further contextually to broaden my project. Mark Fast in particular is one knitwear designer which strongly inspired my designing.

Mark Fast SS/09 Knitwear
        Collection

Mark Fast SS/09 Knitwear
        Collection

Mark Fast produces very cob web inspired collections, mainly using one colour within his collections, he is able to produce very skilled finished structures.

Working with strong influences from Mark Fast I began to develop my understanding of using the knit machines. After having such a long Easter break it was hard to remember all the technical information. I felt like I had reached a dead end within my project and so I began to further my drawings and mark makings from the research I had found through the holidays, in particular at the Whitworth Gallery. By reflecting over my research, I spend the rest of the third week completing my technical file samples where I was surprisingly intrigued by how I could manipulate my samples using the hooking up technique.

In the fourth week, I started to reflect on the samples I had made so far, as I wanted my edges for my garment to have structure and movement, I began focusing on using the hooking up technique, incorporating lace holes and also the laddering technique. I personally find lace holes and hooking up to be a juxtaposition when knitted together. It is really interesting how two completely different techniques can effectively work together when using the correct yarns. Within my experimental samples, I have used a white acrylic yarn with a selection of dark and light sheer yarns, the difference in yarn qualities correspond really well with the techniques and I feel that if I continue to experiment with these yarns I could end up creating some interesting passimentory samples.

       Ladder experimenting with acrylics
               and merchandised cotton yarns

 

Experimenting with hooking up yarns- creating
                                                   textural movement

 

Overall, over the past two weeks I feel that my line of enquiry has developed and I am interestingly sampling to produce edges within a fashion context. I personally feel like within the next two weeks, I need to focus on my context more as I feel that now I understand the techniques I am intending to use, the nature of the edging will start to become apparent. At first I had complications with hooking up as a couple of the yarns I was using did not agree with the machine due to yarn qualities and machine tension settings, resulting in the sample falling off the machine half way through however, I feel that I have become more confident in this area.

The next two weeks of this project are going to be busy however, I am looking forward to begin creating final samples using my chosen knit techniques. I am excited to no longer sample within a range of techniques and instead focus on the context, using chosen yarns from samples that previously worked well. I would like to introduce wire and elastic within my passimentory samples, as I feel that using these materials will sculpture and create 3D textural movements in relation to my drawings and research.