🧶 Knitting Journey Week 3 - Manufacturing
Finally, the big reveal 🥁
For those of you reading for the first time, you can catch up on the backstory of my project here. TL;DR I’ve set out to knit a sweater using scrap and waste yarn as a means to explore circularity in fashion.
Some manufacturing details:
Fully hand-knitted, on primarily size US 15 / 10mm needles (for the non-knitters, these are very large needles & therefore a ~ relatively~ quick knit).
I wish I used a time clock to measure how long this took in total… I’d say I spent a few hours a day over ~12 days, so let’s say ~35 hours? Unravelling & tying scrap yarn, I’d estimate another ~15 hours at least.
The construction was a hybrid of flat panels (not unlike the sweater I pulled apart) and knitting in the round.
Knitting in the round, essentially knitting a tube (using flexible, connected needles) looks challenging to non-knitters but is often easier than knitting flat panels. Most of the sweaters I’ve knitted in the past were in the round, so I appreciated this opportunity to learn a new technique.
Below, the upper part (called the ‘yoke’) working towards the neck is resting on circular needles. The body and sleeves are flat panels (knitted back and forth instead of in a tube), and those side seams & inner sleeve seams have yet to be joined. The final construction step was seaming the sides using a crocheting technique.
Overall I’m pretty pleased with how this turned out. I’ve already worn it out a few times! Putting on my Product Manager hat, next week I’ll conclude this ‘sprint’ with a retrospective - What went well? What was challenging? Where do I go from here?
Threads of Exploration
Scaling - Hand knitting is extremely slow and labor intensive. I quite enjoy the meditative nature of knitting, and it’s been a fun hobby to develop. But I’ve also become interested in machine knitting and its potential for scaling a project like this. I recently took a machine knitting course and will do a write-up on the topic soon.
What is the current landscape of knitwear manufacturing? At scale, apparel manufacturing is happening overseas. The supply chain is extremely fragmented and opaque. However there are a few US and NYC local production facilities geared towards smaller brands and independent designers that I’m excited to learn about. I recently toured Tailored Industry, a knitwear production facility here in Brooklyn that uses computerized 3D knitting machines - these machines give the feeling of ‘printing’ sweaters!
Thanks for following along - as always, if you have any thoughts or suggestions, please share. I love hearing from you!
Best,
Anne