Jamie Baldrick

One aspect I really loved about being on Inis Meáin was being allowed to use the factory as a creative space at the weekend. It was common to find me routing through the bins after a shift looking for interesting jumper scraps. I was always collecting waste to attempt to create my own unique creations.

Below is an example of some waste a found, four spare jumper fronts from samples for S/S 20.

I decided which colour would go where before putting two fronts together to form the main body. I then overlooked two of the front into sleeve shapes.

Here I am linking the pieces together!

Finally I added a trim that was going spare and before I knew it, I had made a jumper. It makes me happy to know that I made good use of material that was otherwise going to landfill.

At Inis Meáin Knitting Company design meetings happen every couple of weeks. The design work largely falls to the Technical Designer whose job it is to bring concepts to a technical knitting reality. However, we interns are also encouraged to contribute whatever ideas we might have, as long as our inspiration is drawn from the landscape of the island around us.

Attending these meetings was incredibly valuable and informative. I was able to see sale numbers from previous seasons and knowing what was successful or unsuccessful informs the next collection. There are two main deadlines for the company to have all design work and resulting samples complete - the Pitti Uomo A/W trade show in January and the S/S trade show in June. Sometimes I contributed technical drawings in these meetings with new menswear ideas but mostly I brought in photographs I had taken on the island as these are how the team decide their yarn colours for the next season. The best selling colours are always variations of navy or grey but still they include some fantastic brights in their colour range as these are what help their pieces stand out from the crowd at the trade show. Nothing is really drawn up beforehand, if an idea is suggested it is made into a full garment and is tweaked at this stage or simply discarded. Even though it mean’t more work in the long term, we were happy to see the discarded garments as we sometimes got to take them home!

Below are some examples of the photographs I submitted, I felt all these images provided great colour and texture references that could translate well into Inis Meáin knitwear.

My favourite aspect of working in the factory was learning how to run the Shima Seiki knitting machines. After months of mostly linking and finishing garments learning how to run the machines definitely reinvigorated me and helped me to enjoy my work. Seeing how each garment was knitted provided me with more context and allowed me to understand every part of the manufacturing progress. I ran four 5 gauge NSSG machines, two CS machines and a 12 Gauge X machine. Garments are knitted piece by piece; first the backs, followed by the fronts, then the sleeves then finally any trims or pockets are knitted. However, this works differently on the 12 gauge machine. The 12 gauge knits garments on a circular setting which allows for an entire garment to be knitted in one piece, only sometimes are trims knitted separately. Garments knitted on this machine go through the production line a lot faster as no linking is required. Though personally, I found the pieces knitted on this machine to usually be less interesting as the circular nature can limit the design.

Spending a day running the machines is essentially a day of problem solving. Largely things run smoothly, but when there is a problem it’s down to you to work out the issue. Something seemingly insignificant such as a slight difference in tension or a plating feeder slightly too high can cause you a massive headache. For me however, this was the best part as each problem solved allowed me to better understand the machines. This experience will prove valuable in final year as I now have a well rounded knowledge of machine knitting. Hopefully now, fixing a problem on my domestic flat bed machine will be a breeze.

Inis Meain wasn’t the only island I got to explore. One of the advantages of life on Aran is how easily you can island hop - especially in the summer. Inis Oirr is the smallest of the three islands but it’s population still surpasses Inis Meain’s, 260 residents as of 2016. When I first stepped onto this island my mind was blown, it felt like a metropolis compared with Inis Meain! They have three pubs! These are very necessary as the island can receive thousands of visitors during it’s peak summer season.

There is lots to discover on Inis Oirr but my personal highlight was the Plassey shipwreck, the remains of a stranded freight boat from the 1960s where residents of the island rescued the crew during a storm. This rusted orange giant is a stark contrast to the grey limestone and green grass backdrop of the island. It has definitely provided me with some great inspiration for future work and a great colour palette.

The west coast of Ireland is famous for it’s dry stone walls. Here are some of the stunning walls of Inis Meain. Every day I am surrounded by these limestone creations - sometimes they feel like gorgeous island guides and sometimes they feel like offensive barricades.

One place I love to escape to on Inis Meain is the pebble beach. This is the beach closest to my home and by far the most interesting. The beach provides a gorgeous view point of Inis Mor as well as its own gorgeous changing landscape. On this beach, it’s clear when there has been a storm, the rock cliffs are usually more dishevelled, sea weed has been torn up from the sea bed onto the beach and, unfortunately, a lot of rubbish will wash up. It’s a harsh place too, evident by all the bird carcasses.

This is another great place to draw and find inspiration. When a storm is coming, myself and some of the other girls come here to watch the waves. It’s really calming after a long day of production work in the factory, its also very humbling to see how the sea moves the rock. Amougst the rubbish and plastic waste there are some interesting finds on this beach. My favourite find so far has been a coconut. It’s amazing that a coconut found its way to Inis Meain.

From time to time, I get a break from linking, and instead I help with the finishing of garments. When this happens I get to label garments and use the bar tack machine. I had never heard of bar tack before joining the factory but now its one of the first things I spot when looking at garments in shops or pieces I’ve had in my wardrobe for years. Bar tack is a series of stitches in a specific area of a garment, usually to reinforce weak points. However, Inis Meain use this method to cover loose ends, so that they don’t need to be hand finished. This is very easy work and helps to speed up the finishing process.

Labelling the garments is exactly as you would imagine, adding size labels, washing instructions and the brand name to garments before they get pressed and packed for customers. This work can be monotonous, as can linking, but it is essential in clothing manufacture. Seeing these processes has been interesting for me. In university we’re taught how to be creative designers but we aren’t necessarily taught about this part of their industry. Fashion needs people who are prepared to sit and hand finish garments, it’s not only about the creative process.

Sustainability is essential in the future of fashion, that should go without saying. Fully fashioned knitwear is inherently sustainable and any waste created this way is usually down to human error. Fully fashioned knitwear means each part of the garment has been shaped during construction and thus does not need to be cut, meaning there is no waste. As Inis Meain Knitting Company creates their garments this way, they are sustainable, however, sustainability is not in their consciousness. The yarns they use are also natural wools and linens, and are therefore biodegradable in the long term, however this is not why these yarns are used at the company, the quality and feel of these yarns is why they are used. From my experience, the goals at the forefront of the company’s mind is to create quality, luxury pieces.

Any waste usually results from the following: pieces of jumpers that have dropped stitches, garments missing an end of yarn, pieces that were knitted in the wrong colour, loop routines which are test pieces the machines knit to know the settings needed for a garment or waste yarn from the point to point linking. Creating Frankenstein-esque jumpers from this waste is my favourite weekend activity. This helps me to learn even more about garment construction and I know I’ll carry this into my final year collection when I return to university.