My background is knitting - my degree was Textile Design, specialising in knit, and I used to design knitting patterns. Knitting has always been a big part of my life and I wanted to incorporate that into my designs if possible.
I had been thinking about how I would go about creating a unisex garment following my research into unisex sizing (blog post here) and I thought knitting could be a good medium for it. I had already been attempting to knit images using my own knitting machine (here) but with the university opening up I decided to make full use of the Shima Seiki knitting machine. This would enable me to make large panels of fabric very quickly that I could then make into my unisex garment.
I stuck with images of club kids for now, partly because it related back to my previous work and partly because I feel 'self expression' in clothing can be as much about the image on a garment as it is about the cut and style. I think, in the same way that people wear a band t-shirt to tell other people about the music they like, or a football shirt to let people know where they come from, using strong imagery like the gender non-conforming club kids says something about the person wearing it. I used this image of Leigh Bowery, taken by the photographer Kate Garner, and converted it into a knit file.
It is important to reiterate at this stage that I did not take this photo and do not own the copyright, as is the case for each of the 3 jumpers I have knitted. Should I wish to take this project further in future on a commercial basis, I would either have to take my own photos or reach an agreement with the photographer. As it is, these particular jumpers are not for sale.
I originally used 6 colours for this sample, but later decided on using 2 colours for each design. This was partly to do with cost but also because I wanted the knitted images to be high contrast. I used yarns from Uppingham Yarns (shade card below), selecting black and white for really high contrast, and pink and blue ('Azalea' and 'Garda') as they are traditionally gendered colours.
Once the large panels were knitted I could cut them into shape. One thing I like about knitting is that it tends to be zero waste. Generally, panels are knitted to exact specifications and so there are no offcuts to be recycled or (more commonly) thrown away. The option to shape panels on this knitting machine was unfortunately unavailable to us but I decided to use this as an opportunity to try zero waste pattern cutting instead.
I found that, if I cut the sleeve panel into two pieces to be reassembled later, I could fit both of the sleeve panels either side of the body, if I inclined the angle of the main body piece to match the incline of the sleeve. This would not affect the fit of the garment as this piece has slits up the side to allow for movement and allow for hips. It also helps to 'feminise' the garment which was something I was looking to do anyway, in order to distinguish it from a regular 'men's jumper'.
The neckband was easily added along the top of the panel, with the added advantage of incorporating the cast-off edge, meaning it is less likely to fray during assembly.
The disadvantage with cutting the sleeves from the main body panel, was that any of the design that is on the bottom half of the panel ends up on the sleeve. For 2 of the 3 designs this wasn't a problem, but for the Leigh Bowery image part of the shoulder ended up on the sleeve:
Although, stylistically, I quite like seeing some of the image on the sleeve in this instance, it would be easy to avoid on future designs by careful image placement.
For the 'Divine' piece, I found this image of the drag queen Divine:
I translated this image into a knit file. I wanted to use the pink and blue colour way, and trialled the image both ways (alternating the foreground and background) to see which worked best. It was quite striking how one colour way worked so much better than the other. It made it easy to decide on using the blue background for the final image.
I had further issues with this design when, in trying to demonstrate a few different styles of neckline for my unisex jumper, I attempted a slash neck.
Something about the proportions of this, combined with the colour, made the garment look like a kaftan. And while the addition of sleeves would definitely have improved the overall look, I didn't want to take it any further and instead reverted to the shallow cowl neck that I had originally devised.
There are 3 final designs in total and these can all be seen in the portfolio gallery. Please click on each image for more information.
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