Katie Macleod » Samples

A Wee Discovery..

Katie — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 20:22:51 +0000

Over the last wee while I’ve been trying to play around with different garment ideas. Those who are clued up on knitty related matters will know that working with knitwear raises all kinds of little bothers to overcome when it comes to constructing even very simple shaped garments.. Obviously, you can’t just knit a huge square of fabric and pattern cut into it as the continuous thread of the fabric would just unravel - disaster! At Art School I always had access to a linker, a very clever machine that sort of catches the stitches from the different panels of fabric and stitches them neatly together.. perfect! If you look at any edge on the inside of a cardigan or the like you will see the lovely little neat edge it leaves behind.

Not having the lovely linker at my disposal has meant I’ve been playing around with alternative ways of joining panels together and I reckon I’ve managed to find a way of doing this on my trusty viking that i think works pretty well…

Yes, it doesn’t seem like much but to me it opens up a lot more possibilities for my designs .. and yes, thats my arm just for trial purposes.. baby steps!

How I Roll…

Katie — Wed, 05 May 2010 21:12:47 +0000

I thought I’d write a little post on the process I tend to go through when designing the things I make and all the things I’m trying to keep doing to keep inspiration up and keep pushing myself!

My course always put a huge emphasis on drawing, and this is something I’ve tried to keep up since finishing. I’m obsessed with geometric patterns and structures and my past inspiration has come from a huge variety of sources from fishing ports, old tiles, facades and shutters in little details of buildings.

I’m always photographing anything I find interesting pattern wise and sketching helps me think about how even a tiny element from a shape or structure could be translated into a successful sample. During my honours year, alot of my knitwear had a slightly structural quality to it, and this was often reflected in my art work too where I’d combine collage with my drawings, almost like I’m building what I’ve photographed…!

Collage and Sketchwork

Star Lace Tile Collage

I always explore colours by making colour wraps (I’ve always found matching the threads and sitting winding strangley therepeutic!) and these help me see how colours [...]