Designing a Knitwear Collection : from inspiration to finished garments

By: Jantiene van Elk

From sportswear and sweaters to lingerie and couture, knitwear accounts for most of the apparel we wear. (...) Both students and professionals will find inspiration from the gallery of work by knitwear designers on display here - from icons such as Chanel, Sonia Rykiel, and Missoni to today´s hottest practitiones such as Stella McCarthy, Marc Jacobs, and Alexander McQueen. (from the back text)

And more: history of the industry, basics of yarn selection, stitch patterns, and CAD programs, etc.

A great book for the Textile museum´s library, interesting for the knitters in the Textile Lab, especially for the textile students. It´s historical and practical!

Designing a knitwear collection : from inspiration to finished garments / Lisa Donofrio-Ferrezza ; Marilyn Hefferen. - New York : Fairchild books, 2008.

Social knitting in the UK and Belgium

By: Jantiene van Elk

As librarian, I try to keep up with lots of information for my colleagues. I follow a lot of weblogs and read magazines and journals. I found some interesting posts on art and social knitting in Belgium and in the UK:

First a guerrilla knitting project in Scotland: Luib na Lùban, a new
textile art group in Skye and Lochalsh, invites Scots, ex-pats, Scotophiles and anyone else to take part in an ambitious project to cover the Skye Bridge in knitting!! The Skye Bridge links the Isle of Skye with the mainland in the West Highlands of Scotland.

Toos van Liere wrote me an e-mail to promote her art project artPlastiquefabrique, guerilla knitting with plastic bags. Read her weblog.

The last project I found was on the BCC news: Knitted village of Mersham, a Kent village with 100 features including teenagers smoking in a bus shelter. The model of Mersham, near Ashford, has been knitted by members of the village's 40-strong Afternoon Club over the past 23 years.

Photo: from website, by Axel Claes

Knitting – For Women Only?

By: Jana Walliser

At first glance, knitting appears to be something only women do. When you think about knitting, you might have that picture of an elderly woman in her rocking chair in your mind, surrounded by her grandchildren wearing nothing but knitted clothes from head to toe.

Today, many young people do not know how to knit. Their hands are used to operating a computer mouse, to typing on a keyboard or to pressing keys. Holding two knitting needles as well as the wool in your hands feels like visiting an Asian restaurant for the first time. Starving and looking at a plate full of rice, you'll have to try and eat your food just using those two chopsticks. Too bad if you are really hungry! There are many people who do not know how to knit. Beginners, in particular, need a lot of time to create their first masterpiece. Stitch by stitch, row by row. You have got to have the right feeling, patience and concentration for this.

But where does all that knitwear which you cannot even tell it was knitted come from? A closer look reveals that there must by high-tech knitting machines capable of knitting even the most complicated patterns in no time. And that's where you find the men! They operate these giant knitters and they see to it that thousands of jumpers and gloves leave their machines ready to be sold. You see, knitting is not for women only and it is not necessarily about handcraft, either, though you might not have guessed that at first.

Kala, the cable lamp which is displayed at the exhibition KNITTED WORLDS, is surrounded by a 5 meter long, knitted tube composed of thousands of meshes. Impossible to knit all of these knitted tubes manually. It is hard to believe in what way those knitting machines are capable of knitting even the smallest meshes – that is simply fascinating!
Kala is available now in the TextielShop of the Textielmuseum.

Library treasure V

By: Jantiene van Elk

For the real knitters, two complete patterns: caterpillar lacework and 'simple stairs' border.

Editor of this book, Elisabeth Rogge, was involved in women´s craft since the end of the nineteenth century. She organised exhibitions and published and edited journals and publications on arts and crafts, interior design and clothing.

Together with Louise Thomson she edited this book. At first, they wanted to give it the title: 'Grootmoeder´s breiboek voor haar kleindochter Louise' as it is based on the patterns grandmother Thomson collected for her granddaughter.

Grandmother Thomson designed the patterns in the middle of the nineteenth century. Her granddaughter kept the patterns, and published them, as there was a revival of women´s crafts in those days.

In the book are photo´s and drawings of all kinds of knitted borders, with full instructions for knitters.

Kant-breiwerk naar oude patronen / door Louise Thomson en Elis M. Rogge. - Amsterdam : Van Holkema & Warendorf, [s.a.].

Vrouwen in vormgeving 1880-1940 / Marjan Groot. - Rotterdam :010, 2007.

You can find more on Elis. M. Rogge in the Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland

Workshop Layering in knits

By: Petra Vonk

Yes, the first day workshop layering in knits is fully booked! During the preparation of this workshop we have again discovered some wonderful effects with the laser. Using the laser I get surprises all the time, I must say. All fabrics react differently, all pictures or computer files used end up different as to be expected. For me the starting point of this workshop has been layering and the use of transparency in knits. Using several layers of really open knitted mohair and combine these with high-tech lasered lace. Punch, embroider, stitch or knit the layers together and a beautiful piece of fabric is created.

During the workshop on the 12 of may the first thing we will do is have a closer look at the knitting of the mohair panels. There will be a brief explanation about the knit machine and we can see the fabric being knit especially for us. The mohair is knitted in white, light and dark grey. To do the laser tests there will be a choice in 3 different type of fabrics; cotton look, crepe and voile. Also there are several choices in shapes. All the fabrics come in white but after lasering your own lace you can give colour to the lace. By transferring a self prepared colour on paper on the lasered lace by ironing.

In the short movie you can have an idea what lasering on textiles is all about.



See you at the workshop on Tuesday 12/5/2009!

Library treasure IV

By: Jantiene van Elk

Knitting was for centuries a professional craft for both men and women. Knitting became a useful leisure activity for women from the middle class at the end of the eighteenth century. In times of war and economic malaise knitting as a means of providing for the need for clothing always gained in importance and it was par excellence a task for women.

This pattern book is a perfect illustration of knitting as a means of providing cheap clothing. The title gives this away: 'For big boys and girls from age 8-16 with leftover yarn'. Like most of these old pattern books, number 416 from the Groote Hollandsche Beyer-serie doesn´t have a date. It does remind me of a picture of my mother and her twin brother in their Holy Communion clothes. My mother hated the stiff clothes.

Voor groote jongens en meisjes van 8-15 jaar van resten uitgehaalde wol / Beyer. - Amsterdam Wereldmode, [s.a.]. (Groote Hollandsche Beyer-serie ; H 416)