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 you might not expect to find together work.
When I first start sampling, I usually pick out one aspect of a drawing or pattern and experiment with it - it might be just one tiny element. I keep colours simple at first when I’m concentrating on mastering a technique, and then play around with getting them right later. I take LOTS of notes at this stage, it’s so important so I’ll remember it later.. the tension I’m using, the needle count, how many rows I’m knitting before changing my set up… it’s amazing how mathematical it can sometimes feel.
- Colour wraps
- Technical sample notes
Finally, when I’m happy with a little swatch I’ve done, I sketch (again, and again.. and again!) ideas for how they’d look on a bigger sample on a body. I’m always having to remember my Golden Saying ‘KEEP IT SIMPLE’ as I sometimes tend to try to make things as difficult for myself as possible. It’s taken me a long time to realise that sometimes the best designs are not necessarily the most technically complicated. Visualising things often involves me doing a bit of a pinning job in the mirror and photographing samples in different ways…not wierd at all…!!
