Just a few things in the online world I’ve been loving over the past couple of weeks…
Knitkicks - www.knitkicks.co.uk
I stumbled across this lovely wee site a bit randomly and ended up staying a while (sometimes I feel like I could spend weeks wandering in the world of online blogging… there is so much talent out there!) Run by Jen Jarvis, knit kicks is dedicated to catwalk and graduate knitting talent, a refreshing change from most of the other knitting based blogs I’ve come across which tend to be either a bit stuffy or centred on personal knitting projects. I especially love graduate Hannah Buswells work with her bright fairisle stripes and panels. Like me she’s not afraid of colour and everyone knows I love a pattern…
Just wanted to write a quick little post to mention the one and only Mr Fox, yarn supplier extraordinaire, and my personal saviour when it comes to all things knit related!
Bury based Mr fox owns Fairfield Yarns, an absolute Alladins cave of every kind of yarn you could be looking for, with a somewhat bizarre theme of vintage railway memorabilia dotted around alongside…!
Just got my shiny new business cards and I’m pretty chuffed with them. I think the mannequin design works well, and notice how the little ends of the ‘K’ and ‘L’ look like a knitting needle sort of thing… nice touch, don’t you think?
I Studied Textile Design at the Glasgow School of Art, specialising in knitwear after my first year. While some Textiles and Fashion Design students pass there designs onto manufacturers to produce, GSA placed alot of emphasis on us being highly trained at the manual production aspect of out specialisms as well as the design process. Initially we were trained to machine knit on domestic Brother machines; the chunkier effect they produce means you can see the stitches really clearly and get a good grasp of all the different techniques. I was always desperate to get onto the more fiddly intricate stuff, but starting out like this really helped me learn the basic principles of how to manipulate stitches and achieve effects that could be applied when we moved onto using the lovely fine industrial machines later on.
A couple of photos of very early work…!
Bedroom, Studio, Workshop all rolled into one!
My lovely 12 Gauge Dubied, affectionately known as Ralph (the chaps at Tortex inform me the designers at Ralph Lauren over in NYC use the same one in the initial stages of developing their stitches… love love love this fact!)
I live in the top floor flat in an old Victorian tenement street in Glasgow, and the bay window gives me loads of light as well as being such a great spot for people watching as I’m working away on my stuff…!!