Derby day 4

Derby day 4, Today i was in a session with Kay ( course leader ) and Harriet ( fashion technician ) and the first year students. 

In this me and Harriet were there to help student if they got stuck and needed some help but to also advise on designs and what we thought would work and wouldn't. 

I enjoyed helping them but i did find it all a bit daunting at first as i didn't feel i was skilled enough to help them, but to my surprise in most cases i was and i was able to put fallen off knitting back onto the machine and also pick up dropped stitches and re - knit them and make the piece knitting normally again, 

But also in some cases i doubted myself and asked Kay to fix it but when she started doing it, i realised i knew how to do it, i just didn't have the confidence in myself to just go with my first thoughts. 

Today i was also able to watch in on some of the first years being taught how to use the linker properly, which was great as i have the more basic one at home but wasn't ever shown 100% how to use it so it was good to be able to see that i was doing it correctly.

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

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 day 1

For the next week I'm going to be on work placement being a technician at Derby University in the textiles department with Knit & Weave. 

Today was my first day which consisted of cleaning and making sure all the domestic machines are in working order and free from knotted up yarn. This was great for me to learn how to do this properly so i can help with the machines back at Norwich and also my own. 

I then got to use the Dubied knitting machines where i was shown by the technician charlie how to use it as i hadn't had much experience with the one at Norwich so it was great to use. 

 

From day one i have learnt a lot about maintaining the machines and the importance of making sure they are all kept in working order. 

Product Photography

As I'm now a partner on Not on the high street i have been busy setting up my online shop with them. 

There were lots of important processes that i had to go through and from doing them all i have learnt a lot about things i need to learn and steps i have to take to make for a good business. 

So one thing i needed to do was update my product photos to fit in with the NOTHS site, so I've been busy knitting up samples and asked Esther to help me model the products. 

From doing this i have also learnt a lot about photography and what makes a good quality photo and i am happy with how they have come out....... 

From doing these all myself i have really learnt a lot about good product photographs, and also how i can easily do things myself without having to pay a professional to do it.

Shima Seiki visit

While i was at Derby University John was kind enough to ring Shima Seiki in Donington for me to go and visit them.



When I arrived there i was shown around the show room of fabrics and then shown into a room with their knitting machines

There were loads of different fabrics and garments in the showroom and i loved the structure of some of the pieces

 The things that were made on a whole garment knitting machine were amazing as the machine is able to knit the garments as one whole piece without any seams at all

 I was lucky enough to be able to have a look on my own through all the garments and fabrics which was great to be able to see all the yarns that had been used within them

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.