Measure twice, knit once!
I’ve been heads-down the past few days, knitting the first pieces for my collection. Last week I shared the concept and themes informing this collection (and some insight into the iterative, swirly mental process I took to get here) -
Making mood boards like it's my job
I’m treating this week’s post as a progress report - and generally keeping it short on words and long on photos. Since last week, I…
sourced and unraveled a few more sweaters
Also took yarn from two different sweaters (white & light blue) and spun them together to experiment with creating a ‘marled’ look.
created gauge swatches
Gauge swatches allow you to measure the number of stitches & rows per square inch, which tells you the number of stitches & rows needed to make a garment that is X inches wide / long.
researched patterns for the various pieces I plan to make
Mostly defaulted to my faves, Laerkebagger and PetiteKnit. Also did some browsing on Ravelry (a massively popular online knitting forum) for ideas.
selected patterns and re-wrote / adapted them for machine knitting
As I’ve been knitting I’ve also had to make on-the-fly modifications to my patterns / designs. Well-finished edges are sooo so important for a professional looking garment. I’m continuing to develop my machine knitting skills and instincts for finishing & ribbing, but I've had to make some changes to my original designs to remove ribbing where I didn’t think I could execute it well.
started ‘testing’ new-to-me patterns, to check the size, fit, and design before knitting with my Collection materials
After knitting the back of a ‘cropped tank’ design, I compared the piece to an existing cropped tank in my closet and realized that my pattern would result in a garment multiple inches wider than I wanted. A good lesson to gut check any new pattern calculations against the size of real clothing before I start to knit.
Relevant pictures to illustrate what the heck I’m talking about:
And, I made progress on a few collection pieces. I used my existing ‘sleeveless top’ pattern, tested last month making a new top to wear in Mexico City -
I wanted to keep these simple (to balance out the patterned / striped tops I’m planning for the collection). The neckline and sleeves took a couple of tries (my initial plan for incorporating the contrast colors did not work at all) but I’m really pleased with the final result.
Stay tuned to see how the rest of the collection comes along - and I’ll be posting more pics / behind the scenes on Instagram too @nextseason.nyc
Until next week,
Anne