Pesky Irregularities in Handknits?

Check out the knitting machine that expects to usher in a paradigm shift in the way knitwear is mass produced: it's called "Complete Garment Knitting". Shima Seiki calls it Wholegarment:

A whole 3D sweater can be made at once by the machine--no seams, no waste from from cutting pieces, and no inconvenient irregularities hand-worked into the garment. A sweater could also be made only on an on-demand basis.

As a crocheter I read this and think, "Huh--so the marketing edge for this company is: all the benefits of a handknit with none of the perceived drawbacks." (Handknitters can already create on-demand 3D garments with no seams and no cutting.)

You might wonder why this topic is on a crochet designer's blog. Crocheted fashions can be mass-produced at times, but never machine-made like mass-produced knits are. Well, at bare minimum, I've always been fascinated by how two manufacturing markets within the fashion industry compete: the Knits vs. the Wovens. ("Knits" here meaning the mass-produced, machine-made kind.)

We yarnies, even those of us who don't knit, are impacted anyway. For example, I've seen hand knitters evaluate their knitting using a machine-knitted standard of regularity, especially when it comes to stockinette and maybe garter, I guess where "irregularities" are easiest to spot; even the term "irregularities" seems imported from a machine-knitting aesthetic.

You know what? Crocheters just don't do that. This is a luxury that I think many of us crocheters take for granted. Good crocheters do aim for a consistent gauge, but are far less likely to have a perfectionistic goal for their stitching. After all, crocheters don't have machine-made stitches with which to compare their handmade stitches.

But what if they did? I look to knitters for clues to how machine automation affects the handmade experience. This is a significant, experiential difference between handknitting and crocheting.

It's good to keep an eye on the Knitwear industry's innovations, sometimes for design ideas, sometimes for a view of the future of knitwear, sometimes just for a fashion industry perspective on knits (and by extension, crochet at times).

What about "Gaugeless Knitting"? The benefit of having a machine with this capability is that it "helps the knitting industry to not only free itself from the standard notion of knitwear being mainly for the Autumn and Winter seasons, but to shed seasonal perceptions toward knitwear period, so that more collections can be made throughout the year and consequently attain a larger share of the textile market."
(Please note: italicizing throughout this blog post is mine)

As a crocheter, I easily forget to what degree knitwear is tied to certain seasons because crochet isn't, except when uneducated people conflate it with knitting. In fact, if you had to tie crochet to any season, a case for summer could easily be made.

Here's another way for knits to compete against the wovens:
"Thanks to WHOLEGARMENT^® technology, the term "knitwear" is no longer reserved for thick and bulky, clumsy sweaters reserved for casual occasions. New materials, especially fancy yarns combined with fine gauge capability and new knitting techniques result in a variety of fresh new items which at first glance seem like wovens."

In the fashion world the knitwear industry apparently labors under the same stereotype that crochet does in the yarn industry: does the criticism of "thick and bulky, clumsy sweaters" sound familiar?! Too funny!

Here's one more, special to designers: "Unlike conventionally knitted sweaters whose seams tend to break up the continuity of the garment design, the seamless process allows patterns and designs to remain uninterrupted across the entire garment-- front-to-back, over-the-shoulder and down-the-sleeves. And it looks much nicer, too. Also without seams there is the opportunity to create single-knit garments which feature truly functional reversibility without the added weight and bulk of double-knits."

Maybe this is a breakthrough in knitting, I don't know; for machine knitting anyway. In crochet, many stitch patterns are already reversible, as well as seam-free. Maybe that's why so many crochet designs in magazines are photographed inside out!

Crochet Content Alert!

Check out the summer issue of Spin-Off magazine for an article about using a tie-dye technique to solar-dye a spiderweb stitch scarf! It's space-dyed crochet that gives the optical illusion of joined motifs worked in rounds with color changes, granny square style (whereas this stitch pattern is worked horizontally in rows). Starts on p. 58. See Jeannine Bakriges' blog for the story behind the article. The undyed image is from Interweave's site showing the classic stitch pattern pre-dyed. The other image is from Jeannine's blog. Very cool!

Fiberarts magazine, summer issue, also has some crochet-specific content: see the article on science and art where Daina Taimina's hyperbolic geometry models are featured.

With their fiber focus, both magazines always have something to offer crocheters in general, but when they get crochet-specific I want every crocheter to know about it!

Garment Designer software--Use the Grid Settings!

I've been experimenting with Cochenille's Garment Designer software and I like it. So far it only enhances my natural way of planning a design. It doesn't bog me down or leave me doing most of the work after all.

This isn't the best photo but I don't have any designs published yet for which I can share better examples.

It all hinges for me on how I use the grid option (In the Display menu select "Grid settings" then input the exact measurements per stitch and per row based on your gauge swatch; use all decimal places). I don't think many people know what they can do with this, judging from conversations I've had. Thanks to the grid printouts customized to my stitch & row gauge, I just settle into my comfy chair with an espresso and shift into Contract Crocheter for Self mode. To write up the pattern in different sizes, I print these maps for each standard size and "merely" translate the map into text. What a load off.

Here's a closeup of the grid that is scaled exactly to the gauge of my stitch pattern repeat. This is not the most straightforward example (sorry!) but figure 1 box = 1 stitch with the height of two different rows averaged together. This is why I've drawn the purple lines for myself: the narrow purple strip is a vertical row of short sts, the wider purple strip is a row of taller sts. (Sure wish I could show you my gauge swatch. Should I have waited on blogging about this until better examples are published?!)

I haven't tried every stitch pattern under the sun yet, but so far I've found a way to create grids for any stitch pattern in grid-like rows (even those that don't seem like such). I don't know yet if I could come up with a way to do diagonal mesh-based st pats. In other words, I could do a grid for big ol' fans that stack in columns, but I don't know yet about fans that are offset and stack in alternating rows (i.e. the classic shell st pat).

I can do some motif-based constructions with this grid method but probably not all; and I might find a way to do ripple pats. These aside, so far I've done:

-rows of different heights alternating (pictured)

-pretty wide range of stitch repeat sizes

-a design with an exaggerated edging that would have been painful without this software.

Side-to-side construction (pictured) is easy-peasy.

Not sure how I'd do *cough*dorischan*cough* seamless-top-down-in-the-round!

Fabric Strip Crochet

This topic came up in one of my favorite chat groups, Crochet Partners, and it reminded me of a shoulderbag I crocheted back in the 1980's from every kind of fabric I had on hand at the time.

The cream-colored fabric is from an old vintage bedsheet, the burgundy is a satin ribbon, the white is storebought lace, the dark gray is velveteen. You can see metallic gold from some braid trim I crocheted in. Everything else is a mix of cotton, rayon, poly blend-type fabrics that I had on hand for sewing. The strap has crocheted-along string for reinforcement. Below is the front view with flap open, and the back view.

All were lightweight fabrics (except the velveteen) but some still crocheted up stiffer than others. My favorite fabric to crochet is old silk, but I haven't tried a bouncy/stretchy type fabric such as t-shirt strips or lycra-content sport fabrics. I tried crocheting polar fleece and it's not my thing, but maybe it would be if we got a severe winter.

By the way, this bag shows no age. Fabric strip crochet so durable!

CGOA Conference: The Fashion Show

Or, There's a Story Behind Them Chaps".

These lacy leggings are repurposed sleeves, rescued from my personal Swatchpile of Obscurity after being asked to remake them in a different color just before I left for the conference. Who knew that they would also be the perfect size for leggings? I wanted to wear them in the fashion show as pants legs because the color would show up on the runway and I rarely see crocheted pants. (Captioned photo taken by designer Mary Jane Hall. Thanks so much MJ, it's a keeper!)

I don't know what made me think I'd crochet the upper part of the pants while at the conference. I went to the Tahki Stacy Charles -sponsored 24-hour crochet lounge to make progress but of course gabbed the whole time with friends. Heck, strangers too.

By the afternoon of the fashion show, I was disappointed in my progress and mentioned it in Joan Davis' Merry Go Round the Pi class to Dee Stanziano. Nancy Cornell, sitting on the other side of me, saw me bring out the sleeves and put them over my pants legs. (I don't think I was being disruptive, the class went on break.) They started making the GROOVIEST suggestions! The moment Nancy suggested the garter idea my fashion show dream revived like a phoenix from the ashes. No problem crocheting garters and a garter belt in an hour or two! (Although I was frantically weaving in ends minutes before I went on.) Not only that but crocheted-garter-belt-as-outerwear? Trendsetting!

I just LOVE what Noreen Crone-Findlay wrote about them in her blog. She's a witness that I did try to make progress on the pants. And check out Dee's photos at her blog where she said I "rocked the house"! Like Doris said, "Yee-haw!" It was really fun.

I'm starting to get comfortable with being on a raised runway with hundreds of people looking at me (well, looking at what I'm wearing). Nancy Cornell helped me with this too. She said, "There's always plenty of Beautiful up there. What everyone remembers though is the Outrageous. Go ahead, be Outrageous."

CGOA Conference: The Free Yarn, The Classes

Or, Goody Bag Swatchin'.
Seriously thanks to Coats & Clark, conference attendees received plump goody bags when they registered. As you can see, the new yarns were so touchable that I got right to swatching. My first class was "The Savvy Single Crochet" taught by Karen Whooley. Yeah, sure, I brought suitable yarns from home for the class, but I preferred using these new goodies:

Moda Dea Washable Wool. Very soft and bouncy! No scratchiness and no squeaky-plasticky feeling that washable wool can have. It's my favorite washable wool, period. The swatch is one of SIX stitch patterns using the "Savvy" technique. It became a coffee cozy. Click on the photo to enlarge but you might not be able to tell how different the stitches are from standard single crochet. You can get fascinating effects from the technique and I recommend this class AND teacher (Karen Whooley) highly. I'm so glad she is teaching nationally again.

Moda Dea Tweedle Dee. Not only is it sooo soooft, it has mellow color shifts. (Two more "Savvy" swatches, one I turned into a wrist cuff.)

Moda Dea Fashionista. You wouldn't believe what this one feels like either, and the sheen is beautifully stylish.

I started a hat in the Red Heart Hula while in Joan Davis' [sold out!] "Go Round the Pi: Creating Perfect Hats" etc class but didn't get far because of the Chaps (for another blog post).

Goody bag aside, those bottom two balls of thread were were generously donated by Skacel for Professional Development Day and the Chapter Tea. The Optima thread came in a gorgeous array of colors. I made the flower in the class I took with McKenzie, taught by Kathie Earle (see earlier blog entry; see some of Kathie's work here). McKenzie coveted my ball of pale green Optima so I had to give it to her. Speaking of Skacel, be sure to see Dora's interview with Karen Skacel-Haack in the latest issue of Crochet Insider.

I took another class, Single Crochet Entrelac taught by Joyce Renee Wyatt, but that's for another post because I need to take a photo of the swatch!

CGOA Conference: The Handbag Silent Auction

For the Helping Hands Silent Auction I entered the "Caged Tote" published in 100 Purses to Knit and Crochet ed. by Jean Leinhauser and Rita Weiss. It's fully lined, in fact it has a vintage Indian lining that doesn't show in these photos. I've included a few pics I took during the interlining process and a photo of the finished bag befor sending it off to the publisher.

I've never participated in a silent auction before and wasn't prepared for seeing lists of bidders and their bids for the duration of the conference! I was squirmy and self-conscious about that at first, but then I recognized two of the bidders as designers I looked forward to meeting and did during Professional Development Day: Sharon Mann and Phyllis Sandford. That somehow made it seem more fun, like a game.

And then, it was a wonderful feeling when the winner of the bag was announced because she would be taking my bag home and using it. I sure hope she puts it to use: I knew the publisher would be returning to me the 6 bags I made for the book. They are all well-finished so that they can hold a good amount of stuff without it poking through or pulling it out of shape.
I went over immediately to thank her for her winning bid and it was definitely worth it.

Three Crocheters with something in common....

....they're all exactly TEN YEARS OLD and attended the 2007 National CGOA Chain Link Conference in Manchester NH! (In fact, Casey's birthday is only ten days away from McKenzie's; I don't know when Katie's is.) All three became good friends in a short time. Casey and Katie were fabulous models in the fashion show. It was short notice for McKenzie this year but she might want to try it next year. I do know McKenzie wanted to be backstage more than she was so we can arrange that next July, right, Katie's mom? (Above photo taken by McKenzie's mom; below by Casey's mom.)