First year Knit workshops

Ive recently started doing the first year knit workshops with David, which have been going really well but ive felt that i didn't have a lot of confidence when talking to the students. 

But David wasn't there for one of the workshops, so i had to take it on my own, which i was at first really stressed about, but i went and i am so glad i did it!

I was go much more confident on my own without David there watching me.

I felt like i connected with the students well and i made sure everyone understood what i was showing them and if they didn't i would show them one on one.

Also when doing the workshops with David i had found myself that if i was the students what would i want and i have made myself in my technician folder some photos of the knitting machines and what each button does / means and also how to thread up the yarn tensioner. In previous workshops i had said to david i think they would find it helpful to have some takeaway sheets so that they feel they can come back and get started on the machine on there own but David didn't take to the idea so they didn't get the hand out. 

But with the workshop on my own i decided that i would print these out and they would have helpful sheets to take away with them so they felt they could come back. I asked everyone if they would find it helpful / would like them and they all said yes so thats what i did.

I showed all the students the basics i.e cast on / off, tensions stripes, colour change etc

Over all i think that the workshop went really well and i really enjoyed engaging with the students. 

Ive found now that the students will come and find me just to show me there samples and things they have made, which i love as it makes me feel like ive taught them a skill and i love that!

This is something i really want to carry on and would love to go into as a career and feel it is important to show students every discipline there is and i feel it is important for them to have someone that they can ask/ get support from in each area.

Shima Seiki

Ive been lucky enough to be given the chance to go to Shima Seiki in Derby to do there week long basic knit training course. 

On the course it was me and another man who worked at John Smedley's 

The course was very full on, but as the week went on i got my head around it. 

On the course for the first 3 days we were on the Apex programming software which is like a very complex photoshop. 

To use the shima machines you have to programme everything on the Apex system.

The image above you can see is one of the first patterns, we were told the basics and just had a play around with patterns on the screen to see what we could do. 

Each of the colours at the bottom of the screen is a different action for the knitting machine to do, i.e the red background means front bed knit and the green means back bed knit and the red and green stripes at the bottom are for a 2x2 rib.

The coloured lines either side are called option lines which again each line is a different command to the machine so for example option line R3 means yarn carrier change which you would put if you wanted to change carrier to have a change of colour. 

For the first 3 days we were being taught all about what the different colours and option lines can do so it was very intense but i soon got the hang of it. To test us we were given knitted swatches and we were asked to make that swatch on the computer and then knit it. 

I found this quite easy as i am used to looking at knit structures so i was able to work out how they were made and reproduce them.

We were then shown how to thread the knitting machine, we were using the SVR122 machine which is a 7 gauge machine. 

Above are all the tension and yarn feeders that go into the machine and through to the carriers.

The yarn is threaded above though the yarn carriers.

These are some of my sample pieces which i had made from looking at an already knitted swatch.

Above you can see ive zoomed in so you can see what each colour means. This was a sample jumper front so you can see ive had to do the shaping with the colour white and purple but tell the machine to transfer a stitch to the left to create the shape.

Once we had got the hang of this we were allowed to make our own swatches and knit them on the machine, which was amazing to really get to grips with what the machine could do. 

Above is my certificate from shima to say ive passed the knit course which i am so proud and happy to have done and also met everyone at shima who have been amazingly helpful

Dye Kitchen

Ive decided for this project to dye my own yarns, ive chosen to use combed cotton as i wanted to use a yarn i hadn't used much before.

With the advise of Yasmin we decided for the colours i wanted it would be good to try the cold dyes, which i hadn't ever used. 

The first colour i wanted to get was a florescent so i mixed lime green and some yellow together to get the colour i wanted.

With the cold dyes you have to have the dye with salt into the water all measured out, then add the yarn leave for half an hour stirring occasionally once the half an hour is up remove the yarn from the dye bath and add the measured soda ash which is a fixative, wait until that dissolves and add the yarn back into the dye for another half an hour and then wash.

 Below are the colours fresh out of the dye ready to be washed 

 The grey was a little more blue than i wanted but i am still happy with the final colours 

I really liked doing the cold dyes and i think I'm going to try this process with some wool and also a thicker cotton 

Below are the final colour that ive put onto cones ready to knit, i may have to double up the cotton to use for some double bed knitting but i am also going to order some thicker cotton to dye as well, as this cotton is a little to fine for what i want to do but i should of tested it before i dyed it all but i can still use it for some single bed knitting.

Derby day 3

Today at Derby there weren't many students so me and Charlie had the job of sorting and putting away a lot of donated yarn. 

We had to sort it all into different colours on put it all out of the shelves. It was good to be able to do this as i was able to really look at the yarns and discover different types of yarn that i would like it use.

I then had some spare time which i was allowed to use the machines, so i went onto the dubied and learnt some new techniques. 

These are to two pieces ive made on the dubied and im really happy with how they have come out. 

Ive used a John Smedly merino yarn and an uppingham yarns lambswool

The top piece is stripes and then a simple cam patterning

The one below is a pile technique which creates little loops on the surface of the knitting

Waterproof Knits

Though our recent Team project I wanted to make some different fabric and use different yarns to what i would normally. 

I also wanted to try some print with my knitting but I know I don't like screen printing as its to messy and takes to long. So I thought I would give sublimation printing, for this I had to knit with polyester yarn so that the inks with go onto my knitting.  

With this I rang Fairfield yarns and asked him what yarns he had and he sent me out a polyester yarn. I wanted to do more photography work within this project as its something i haven't really used before but i know i love to do. 

This was the image i started with from flowers i got from the garden

I then went onto photoshop and played around with different effects and skills i had been taught

I really like how these came out and think that they went with our theme which was British Bohemian really well

I then sublimated these onto my knitting 

I then had to think how can i make knitting work for an outdoor tent context so i thought about making it waterproof, so i got some clear pvc and heat pressed it onto my knitting, i didn't know if this would work or not, but it did. 

Fashion Collaboration

Our current project is a collaboration with some Fashion students 

We have been given a Box and asked to put things in it that we think is going to be fashion in 2036

Our group decided with the idea of smart fabric and technology and fashion becoming one

We then thought how can we produce our ideas in such a short amount of time, so we booked the photography room and used a mannequin and some fabric we brought and projected light and images onto this in the dark

I really like how some of our photos have come out and we now have some staff to move forward with