Knit Design: Hand Knitting Sketchbook
All pieces created on Dubied Hand-Knitting Machines.
During the creation of my senior collection, Behind Closed Doors, I had intended to use the knowledge I learned from a graduate-level knit design course to create at least one knitwear piece. Due to various knitting machines being down for the course of the semester, I changed course with the piece I wanted to create and taught myself to use the Dubied Hand-Knitting machines instead. I was not able to create the design with the organic shapes the way I had originally intended, but I used a 6/1 CC space-dyed yarn with lurex spun in and decided to let the yarn speak for itself, with the yarn as the center of the design, rather than the knit structures.
Close-up of 6/1 space-dyed yarn with lurex spun in.
Close-up image of machine bed of 7 gauge Brevets Dubied machine when casting on yarn making a double jersey panel.
Image of 25" long double jersey panel coming off of 7 gauge machine.
Close up image of double jersey panel coming off of 7 gauge machine. One broken needle had to be taken out of action on right side of front bed of machine, but it is not noticeable on fabric off of machine.
First test swatch created on 7 gauge machine. Swatch laid sideways for viewing pattern when worn by model.
Knit notation diagram for creating double-jersey panel. No tucking in action and knitting on all butts.
This swatch was created by first starting with a few courses of double jersey knitting. From there, I switched the knobs on the front and back bed to only knit on high butts, which would give me a 3x2 rib. The machine would jam after only a few passes of the 3x2 rib, so it was switched back to double jersey. This is the result of a continuous switch back and forth using knobs.
This is a full 2x2 rib panel created by taking needles out of action on the beds rather than using knobs. It was started by knitting on 2 ends of yarn and started to catch on the needles and create rib structure halfway up fabric, then after one yarn broke towards the top it was knit on 1 end. The hand was much softer on 1 end and it had greater extensibility.
Knit notation diagram for creating 2x3 rib panel. No tucking in action and knitting on only high butts.
Very smooth tubular knit single jersey created on 7 gauge machine. Did not like the harsh striping of the yarn created by this knit structure, so ultimately was only used as a test swatch. Sample also had much less extensibility than double jersey.
Tubular hem of single-jersey swatch shown. When casting on, knitted 10 courses of double jersey before switching knobs to create a tubular single-jersey.
Knit notation diagram for creating tubular, single-jersey panel. No tucking in action and knitting on all butts on left side of back bed, no butts on right side of back bed, while knitting on all butts on right side of front bed, and no butts on left side of front bed.
Attempted swatch using follow knit notation diagram. Machine would consistently miss loops and eventually started dropping stitches and had to be cast off. Would likely work better next time if cast-on with a double-jersey stitch.
Knit notation diagram for attempted swatch on 7-gauge machine. No tucking in action and knitting all butts on back bed, but only high-butts in front bed. Knitting machine would consistently miss loops when attempting to use knobs to create knit structures.
Knit notation diagram for attempted swatch. Tucking on high butts and using knobs to create a tubular, single-jersey shape. Created on a 3 gauge machine instead, but machine did not work well and would continuously jam and drop stitches no matter the knit structure being created.
In-progress photo of double-jersey panel being draped on a size 14 dress form as a bodysuit for my senior collection, Behind Closed Doors. Click on image to view the full collection.
Close-up image of final piece- bodysuit body created from two double jersey panels knit on 7-gauge Brevets Dubied Hand-Knitting Machine from 6/1 CC space-dyed yarn with lurex fibers spun into it.
Final look shown on dress form with sheer coat over bodysuit and faux-leather harness over top. Click image to view the full collection.