Knitting Workshop: Day Two

Day two

Today we leaned how to make five more techniques with our partners from Monday. Me and my partner collected our knitting machine and set it up as we leaned how to do it the lesson before. When unpacking the machine we realised we had the same machine from Monday which was really weird. Our tutor first showed us how to create a decorative hem. To start of with you make a plain knit with a row of lace ensuring to count the amount of knits I made. After doing this I used the transfer tool to pick up the first knit made to cast it onto the needle directly above going from side to side, then the middle and the working my way outwards. I then put the weights on the hem I just creating and knit it together to seal it. The lace hole created a zigzag like design on the bottom of the hem. this is a great way to seal the knit and also add a decorative technique.

The next technique I leaned was stripes, this required two yarns. After using the first yarn to create a plain knit or hem you then take the yarn out of the feeder and place it to the hook on the related side. You then set up your second yarn and put it in the feeder and your ready to knit, creating stripes. I counted how many times I knitted with each colour to ensure the pattern is consistent throughout. I really enjoyed creating this and was feeling very confident with this technique so I added a hem and honeycomb to it, however just when I was getting conformable my knit dropped off after changing my yarn. I'm still not sure why this happened but I'm pleased with the small sample I made and I think the different colours and yarns worked well together.

I third sample I made was called orange peel and created a spiral effect, this was one of the most difficult techniques I've made so far. Its very simpler to creating stripes as i have to change yarns but the difference is I put the carriage on hold (number one) meaning any needles on D will not knit and all needles on B-C will knit. To create this affect i moved each needle up in groups of twos and then repeated with the next colour.

Knit number four is called the pyramid and is very similar to the orange peel. I put the carriage on hold I put the center needles on C and put the yard under and then over all the needles on the right hand side so that the yarn does not get caught. I then put one needle down one by one on each side pulling on the new knit which is being created. I felt very comfortable with this technique so I also made a lace design the the middle of the pyramid. When one needle is left on C I then made my way back pulling up a needle from each side creating the pyramid shape. After I was finished I switched yards and put my carriage back on to two creating the 3D pyramid design.

The firth and final design made today was the fringe technique. After producing a plain knit I then got a second coloured yarn and placed it on the flour. I then bought out all the needles I wanted the fringe on and took a rule and used it to e-warp round with the second yarn looping connecting the needle and rule together. I found this difficult as one sudden move can caused issues such as the yarn falling of the needle after wrapping it around the rule or an uneven fringe caused by having the rule diagonally angled which happened to me.

Today was really enjoyable but was much more intense as we had to produce more samples in the same amount of time so me and my partner worked through break and lunch to ensure we completed our samples trying not rush which causing more errors. Overall I really enjoyed today as we learned more challenging techniques.