Knit Design
The journey behind my project, the conceptualising and the process of resreaching and experimenting in the knitaverse.
Moulage Draping Experimentation
On Thursday we spent our day at Amfi and did a
Moulage exercise. We used different second hand knit wear and used a mannequin to drape these different fabrics. Through cutting , lacing and layering the pieces in different ways I got very inspired to create shapes, dynamic lines and interesting open spaces.
I had a lot of fun with combining the different textures I combined and using yarns to add a visual intrigue. I also used the yarns to add a bit of an embroidery aspect as well. What I learned from this exercise i realized that the way I draped this made it very difficult to to take the piece off and then put it back on as well.
For the second experimentation I wanted to focus on the logistics and making something that is wearable compared to my first experimentation. I used chunkier knit fabrics to have a contrast to my first experiment. I used yarns to create a decorative embroidery instead of functional lacing.
Reflection:
What surprised you or what fascinated you the most?
The variety of looks, feels and dynamics you can create by draping, layering and lacing
What aspect of knitting that you learned about do you relate to from your standpoint as a designer?
The shapeability of knitwear and that you can make it tight fitting and body accentuating.
What piqued your curiosity the most?
The layering of different textures, I want to explore this part more and develop knit swatches for that.
What would you like to learn more about in the coming months in relation to your own process?
I would like to learn how to make my draping creations and ideas more wearable and easier to execute.
_____Knit Inspired Swatches_____
inspiring knits
inspired swatches
by Deisgner Ecke Faei
by unknow artist, found on Pinterest
by brand KTZ
Men's LFW, SS18
by Deisgner John Rocha
AW SS12/13
Design Sketch Ideas
Conceptualising
When looking at my drawings I noticed the clear contrast of lot of layering and open spaces. I found this contrast very intruiging since it is so unfunctional and almost ironic. This random combination of clothing types lead me to the association of the multiple extremes of the climate crisis, like extreme heat and extreme cold, drought and rising sea levels. These contrasting circumstances felt very connected to my drawings and inspired me to explore that concept further.
Layering vs Open Spaces
I gathered intriguing images of layering "warm" fashion and of open space "cold" fashion. These images helped me develop an idea of how I want to combine these two aesthetics and develop them in a meaningful way to bring attention to the dramatic climate circumstances in an ironic way.
To find out how I want to express the theme of combining "winter" clothing with "summer" clothes I looked for clothing that would originally considered for a certain season but then is combined with the opposite and created some drawing from there.
Week 8
1st-4th Nov
3D Experimentation
For the warm clothing aspect I created a puffer swatch, trying to add some open spaces in between the pockets for the contrasting aspect.
In this process I came to the idea that alternating between close pockets and open spaces could be a an interesting way of reflecting the concept.
For the skin showing, cold clothing aspect I created this experimental swatch with a lot of alternating ladders to have the skin shine through underneath.
I made this swatch in a random kind of triangle shape to be able to create dynamic lines when draping.
To see how knit plays a role I gathered inspiring techniques to combine panels, create contrast between warm and cold and achieve interesting textures.
Moodboard Brainstorm
For my moodboard I printed out a few inspirational photos and played around with them on paper. I rearranged them multiple times to see what creates the mood that I find fitting for the concept.
I like the multiple moodboards I created but feel a bit overwhelmed with narrowing it down to one cohesive moodboard.
The feedback from Charlotte was very helpful, she told me to feel free to also do multiple moodboards for the different sides of that mood in the concept.
Knit & Draping Experiments
Plating Rib
Move & Miss
Since the beginning of my concept development I love the stretch behaviour of knit and the diagonal lines it can create in garments. Some knit experiments I created based on my material inspiration I draped on the half scale model to help me visualize the possibilities and shapes that knit offers.
This draping exercise really inspired be to do no-waste garments for my project by creating the shape and 3D garment on the body rather than doing cut and sew.
Punch Lace
For the color theory for my concept I've been gaining a lot of inspiration in my surroundings by soakign up and noting the things that remind me of it. I so came to the conclusion that I want to underline the contrast my concept represents by having contrast of saturated colors in the gamrnets as well.
While brainstorming how I want the outfits for my final project to be i thought about hot and cold weather conditions and added clothing that contradicted these conditions. In the colored drawing I used saturated and contrasting colors to highlight the discrepancy.
Concept Pitch Review
The feedback I took from my first concept pitch was that I am going in a well thought out direction but still have things to refined. The keyword was to make it somehow more "hybrid" to also reflect that my concept is (while cynically and ironically) about dressing for the weather. SO now I am trying to figure out what hybrid within knit means to me and how I can create something that reflects it.
During the Concept and Visualization class today when I had the talk with Conny I showed her this partial lace partial weaving watch that I did as a first approach to discover how to transport hybridity within knit in my concept. She said that she likes the swatch but to become hybrid there still has to be more of a merge and overlap of the two techniques and structures. Her feedback was very enriching because I felt like I now had an idea of what direction to go in to create the hybrid aspect. But i also know that I now want to put time into researching hybridity in general to discover what it means to me.
HYBRIDITY
research
Wikipedia: "Hybridity, refers to mixture. The term originates from biology. Its contemporary uses are scattered across numerous academic disciplines and is salient in popular culture."
HYBID DESIGN INSPO
During my research of Hybrid Knit Designs I came across this sweater from pringle of scotland SPRING 2018 READY-TO-WEAR and found it very hybrid inspiring because of the intarsia and different materials used and the way they work together beautifully.
pringle of scotland
Eleanor Chapman
During my research for Hybridity in Fashion I came upon this Collection "The Body Decides" by fashion student Eleanor Chapman. She created clothing which can be layered in mutliple different ways and like that are multifunctional and adaptable. I found this really inspiring for my concept since I want to create layered, assymetrical pieces to create contrasting and hybrid knit outfits.
Isabella Snelson
While brainstorming how I want the outfits for my final project to be i thought about hot and cold weather conditions and added clothing that contradicted these conditions. In the colored drawing I used saturated and contrasting colors to highlight the discrepancy.
HYBID KNIT TECHNIQUE INSPO
click pictures or links to get to the sources
Bubble Knitting Technique found online
Tutorials & Blogposts I found on this technique:
knit bubble explanation: alessandrina.com
Material Symbiosis
This knitwear designer inspired me because she mixes different textured yarns and like that creates a contrast but still manages to create a kind of symbiosis by the techniques she uses.
Knit Swatches
Random Weaving
I was really intrigued by this swatch because of how the weaving looks like its growing on the laddered knit. It reminded me of what I understand as hybrid since the two opposite textures merge organically.
Tucking & Transparent Hem
This swatch caught my eye because of its organic play of opaqueness and transparency. I am really inspired to experiment with this hemming technique and want to also explore organic tucking.
Ladder Cables
I was really intrigued by this swatch because of how the weaving looks like its growing on the laddered knit. It reminded me of what I understand as hybrid since the two opposite textures merge organically.
Stitch Size Contrast
I found this swatch really intriguing because i never thought about using simply stitch size as a way to create contrast. Since the color and yarn stay the same this swatch feel very much like representing hybridity to me.
Organic Reciprocity
This knitwear designer inspired me because she mixes different textured yarns and like that creates a contrast but still manages to create a kind of symbiosis by the techniques she uses.
HYBRID KNIT EXPERIMENTS
Dropped Stitches - Bubbles
This swatch & technique really evoked a hybrid feeling for me since it feautures opaque & transparent within the same yarn, gives shape and volume at the same time, so I definetly want to explore this technique further and create variations.
Weaving on top of Lace
The technique of weaving on top of punch lace was the first idea that came to me after my talk with Conny. For me the way the fragility gets broken by the weaving is what makes it so hybrid and I want to develop it further so the difference becomes even clearer.
Seethrough Hem
This idea to. make a hem one half opaque and the other one see-through with ladders or another see-through technique like lace, ajour holes etc. is a very intresting approach for me since it alos plays with the opaque and transparency very obviously without putting it as a contrast.
Filled Puffer Bubbles
When talking to Conny and Charlotte showing them my swatches so far and saying that puffer is definetly something I want to focus on as well since it resinates so much with cold weather/snow Conny gave me the great inspiration to make a filled bubble swatch. I am really happy how this approach feels so new and innovative for a puffer and definetly want to try this again with different yxarns like a smooth and shiny yarn for the swatch and then a mohair for the filling.
Functional Weaving
After doing the 3D exercise weaving swatch I came to the idea to use weaving to shape and otherwise shapeless panel and sinch it in the areas where the body is smaller. After creating this panel I realized the weaving cord actually allows you to tie it around your body and wear it. This inspired me to have the way that I knit and use techniques be also functional and make the panel wearable. ALso representing the "functionality" aspect of dressing for the weather.
The feeback of today feels very helpful since I agree with it very much. I did free myself from my own aesthetic to be able to experiment but now I was to take my findings and bring them into my own aesthetic and for that I am sure that the color theory research will help me with that.
Elastic Ottoman Rib
After trying out the 3D ottoman rib exercise I got really inspired to create shape by using that technique. The way this swatch is very thick and warm and very thin at the elastic also plays inot the hyb ridity and fits my con cept very well of k itting panels which find shape on the body.
HYBRID SHAPE EXPERIMENTS
It was very inspiring to drape the Ottoman rib on the half scale mannequin because it showed me how I can achieve this hybrid and functional aspect of wearing one garment in many different ways and having the body decide what kind of shape it takes on.
It was also really educating cause I could see how these swatches would look like on a real body if I made them with 200 NDLS instead of 100.
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HYBRID COLOR RESEARCH
When I was going through my knit swatches the color combination green and pruple was very prominent to me. Intuitively I was always drawn to these colors and theought they matched my concept well but I could not really pin point why I just thought "They feel like they are complementing and contrasting each other at the same time.". So I did color theory research and learned that green and purple are actually triadic to each other.
I found this magazine in an AirBnB and took a picture cause it really spoke to me as something I see as hybrid.
When researching color theory I relized that secondary colors are basically just a hybrid of primary colors!
After learning about the triadic color system I pasted a color wheel into procreate and added a triangle. By twisting the triangle I could see the different triadic colors and made a selection for my concept color proposal.
PROJECT PLAN
My goal in 6 weeks from now:
- I want to have learned how to develop textiles through knitting, be able to connect textile design with garment design and create a knitwear collection through that.
- I want to create posters and short clips that present 2 outfits with at least 4 of my selfmade knitwear garments.
- In my knitjourney I put my focus and emphasis on analogue development of knit through physical experimentation and sampling. I use digital tools like CLO3D to create my patterns and have first digital fittings of them.
What (commitment) is required for me to succeed in my ambition:
- Before each week I take a look at my development plan and write down in detail what I want to create that week: experiment/sample/measurement swatch, which yaarns, for what garment
- During the process of the week I note down my development and change plans accordingly to that.
- Towards the end of the week I aim to have extra time to work on some extras like accessories: arm & leg warmer, balaclava, scarf 🧣
What do I need from each of the teachers and each class, to support your plan?
- My biggest challenge usually lies in decisiveness in this case on what exact yarn what exact variation of technique I want to use, for that I seek the teachers advice in the knitting room, showing them my variation samples and seeking feedback.
- For the potential Shima use Lana and Joshua can help me develop and program my ideas.
Week 1
21st-25th Nov
- create sample swatches of bubble Knit for chaps
-> decide on exact yarn combination and variation of technique
- create a measurement swatch
- simulate pattern in CLO 3D
- knit try outs punch lace & chunky knit techniques for sleeve
- knit try outs ottoman rib for asymmetrical top and skirt
- shape experiments with knit swatches
Week 2
28th-3rd Dec
- create sample swatches for skirt
-> decide on exact yarn combination and variation of technique
- create a measurement swatch
- make half size final swatch to do a fitting on a half scale mannequin
Week 4
5th-9th Dec
- create final sample swatches of ottoman & bubble skirt
-> decide on exact yarn combination and variation of technique
- create a measurement swatch
- create the pattern with the measurements
- start knitting of the bubble pants
Week 5
12th-16th Dec
- work on finishing bubble pants
- fitting for the bubble pants
- start knitting the sleeve
- update drawings and garment plan to see what accessories I can still make
Week 6
19th-23th Dec
- start knitting the skirt
- fitting for the skirt
- work on Shima for the balaclava
- work on accessories
Week 7
9th-13th Jan
- finish all garments
- have a fitting all garmnets
- organize photoshoot: styling of outfits, location, props
- plan stroyboard for videoclips
