Dubied Knitting

For our latest project i wanted to try and use the dubied knitting machine to do some fine gauge knitting and to get more experience on it 

Since ive been looking at the Barcelona Pavilion i wanted to use stripes and also pockets within some of my pieces as Mies van der Rohe designed some chairs ( shown below ) which looked at the thought it seems like little pockets that are padded so i wanted to try and use the same effect within my work.

I also am using stripes within my pieces to relate to the lines and structures within the Pavilion 

In these images i have arranged all the needles into a pattern of low and high butts so above you can see when move the cams into the middle on the carriage it knits the high butts only to start to form the pockets

Here i have knitted a few more rows to get bigger pockets so i can stuff them with filling to make them padded

Above are the pockets when i began to stuff them once i have stuffed them all i put the cams but to normal and knit 2 rows to close the pockets and seal the padding in

The piece is above when it is still on the machine you can see the padded sections and I've also done some stripes and also cam patterning which are the little squares

This is the finished piece of knitting you can see the padded areas and also the stripes and cam patterning, overall i am happy with the piece and feel it relates to my context

Above is the other side of the knitting as you can see where the cam patterning was it is a wavy stripe which i really like the effect of

Teaching Poppy to Knit again

Poppy had asked me if i would help her to learn to machine knit again and i was really pleased when she asked me as i love being able to help people 

Poppy just wanted to be reminded on how to do everything like cast on, knit and cast off just to get the hang of the basics. It was good for me to test how i am at properly teaching people and what methods of knitting work best for beginners 

I started with the simple e wrap cast on which is a process of wrapping the yarn around each needle in a looping motion

Once she had done the start 10 rows she could hang on the weights and begin to knit which all went smoothly. 

Showing Poppy how to knit showed me that i can teach people how to knit and to just trust myself and believe that i have the ability to do so. 

Once she had knitted a few rows and become confident with the machine i was able to show her how to cast off, which for most people is the most confusing part 

I found it was best to show how to do a few and talk through each step so that she could get a hang of me doing it then once she was happy i was there to talk her through each step but not take over and this worked really well as she soon got it but just needed me there to reminded her what step she was up to.

I really enjoyed doing this for poppy and showing her how to knit again and it is defiantly something i want to carry on doing and help more people 

Derby day 2

Today was my second day at Derby and I was working with Kay the course leader and we were with the third year knitters doing tutorials and I was able to join in and share my thoughts and also share techniques that I felt would help the students move forward with there work. 

I found this really interesting to see students work and be able to share my knowledge with them.  

I also got to have a go on the dubied again which was good as I have been able to gain confidence with the machine already so I'm looking forward to using it when I get back to Norwich.  

Above is also the chunky knitting machine which i was able to watch how to use it today while kay was showing some students some techniques. Its all exactly the same as a standard gauge machine but just bigger needles and carriage. With this machine you are able to get a really nice hand knit affect.

 The two images shown above and below are some bits I've done on the dubied using a technique called cam patterning where you use the cam leavers to create the cots on one side and the stripes on the other, 

I like that fabric that the dubied creates as it is double cloth fabric therefore it has a nice body to it and also has two sides which you can make to different patterns on each side. 

Derby University

Recently I contacted Derby University to ask if I was able to go and use their shima seiki knitting machines as at Norwich we have very limited knitting facilities, so to my happiness they said I could. 

I visited them on Friday and met Kay the course leader and also John who was the man who does everything with the Shima machines.  

Firstly i got shown around all the bits in the Britannia Mill, where they have screen printing, Ceramics, Weave, and Knit. It was amazing to see just how much they had there and the range of equipment that was available, they must of had around 30 little table top weaving looms and two digital ones and one big digital one. 

Below is the big digital weaving loom

 Above is one of the special knitting machines that knits in a circle ( can't remember what it was called)

 

Below is the Shima knitting machines, the closest one is a chunky more hand knit feel machine and the far one is a very very fine gauge which you could knit things like monofilament on

 It threads up much like a dubied knitting machine but its very fiddly to do 

 Here you can see some of my work coming off it, this is a pattern i had already made myself and John loaded in into the special shima computers first to tell the machine what i wanted i.e stitches, double bed, single bed etc.

 

What i loved most about the knitting that comes off was the fact it was double sided some you couldn't see any floats and it had my pattern on both sides which made it a great fabric and something you basically wouldn't have to do anything to.

 

There were loads of different amazing yarns that the University had as well and I loved the one above, it was very much like a towel type yarn. 

Above is my samples that i got off the machines and i love the towel yarn one, it was just such a different yarn to what I'm used to using and it turned out great. 

I'm defiantly going to go back and keep in contact with Derby as they were such a great help to me and really opened my eyes to shima and also different types of knitting machines and all the possibilities that there are out there for me.

Dubied

With my current knitting i wanted to try and use the Dubied a bit more as some of the yarns i am using are quite fine which would be perfect for Dubied knitting as its fine gauge.

When i was on the Dubied i was trying out lots of different yarns and seeing what they did when knitted together, like wool and cotton and also bamboo.

I really liked the ripple stitch as it went really well with my fashion project of structure and it was the first 3D knit i had done which i was really happy with. 

The only thing with the Dubied is it very temperamental and it does just drop stitches and if my eye wasn't on it all the time i would miss the dropped stitches.

So i mainly used the Dubied to experiment and try out new yarns and new stitches and techniques and i also struggled as we only have one Dubied and was having to share it with another student so time available was limited