Knitting

These where the hats that i made for the affordable arts project. I wanted to make something fun and functional. I was learning how to use a knitting machine at the time so knitting made sense. I’d also hand knitted hats for Christmas presents before so i wanted to have a go at making one on a machine. 

I made more gloves. The first one was with my own design and looks a bit holey. Its also quite hard to wear because the back of the pattern has a lot of loose threads which get caught when you try to wear it. 

I made my own punch card with a pattern i made up. I used acrylic yarn again and the colours work really well. 

These samples are my experiments with adding in patterns by using punch cards in the knitting machine. These patterns where ones someone else had created. I also tried having sections of pattern and sections without. 

More machine knitted samples, experimenting more with creating ridges and adding a 3D effect. I also tried a different type of yarn that’s made from acrylic. I love the bright colours and it also works really well in the machine. 

I can see this technique being used on jewelry or to make add-ons for clothing (like shoulder pads). I love the abstract shapes and curved lines that are created. The frilled ridge in picture 3 was created by having a series of holes in the knit and then creating a ridge with the holes in the center.

These were my first machine knitting samples. I was experimenting with changing yarn on the machine and creating pattern with holes by skipping needles. I also tried adding in a sparkly thread. This gave quite a subtle effect that is hard to see in a photo and i think it looks a bit tacky up close. I also started creating ridges in the fabric and added in lace. 

These samples don’t have finished edges because they fell of the machine when i tried to change colour. I think this is because  some types of yarn don’t work well in the machine. This is something i can avoid in the future by experimenting with lots of different types of yarn.