More Knit Inspiration

Some more great knit inspiration from Irenebrination

Knitting netting

My primary research at my allotments unearthed a lot of netting, fencing and chicken wire. So I wanted to incorporate this into my garment.

As well as sourcing some dress net from my local fabric shop I decided to try and replicate a the fruit netting that I found being used around the plots. I used a fine dark green and khaki coloured yarn on the lowest tension on a chunky knit machine to create this knit sample. I think that I will add these nettings to the patchwork style appliqué I will be creating on the hem of the apron dress.

experimental knit weaving

Finger knitting

During my research for processes I could use for this project I found out about finger knitting. although I don't know whether or not any nomadic tribes use finger knitting, I thought that because you only need your fingers and yarn, finger knitting would be a very fitting craft if you lived a nomadic way of life.

I found this excellent how-t0 on the Flax and Twine blog and was up and running in no time!

I really have fallen in love with finger knitting, it's so easy to do and it's very relaxing to sit on the sofa and do it while I listen to the radio or listen to Ella read. I have even taught Ella to do it now, and she knitted a scarf for her teddy bear.

I have used different thicknesses of yarn which create different effects and also used two colours together. The knits are long and thin and roll in on themselves creating a tube like effect. I think that I could try weaving them together to create colourful textured sample.

More tasselling

image from here

I was really inspired by this image of a Moroccan Berber bride and thought I could create a similar effect with a tassel knit.

After a rummage through a box of yarns in the knit studio I came across this gorgeous, but extremely tangled yarn. I love the little loops in it, it reminds me of angora goats wool.

image from here

I found some silver disc trim, similar to the one on the bride, on eBay. But then I had the idea that I could use silver tinsel in the tassels. I asked Lee if we had any lying around in the studio. We didn't but he gave me some silver foil which I cut into strips to experiment with.

I really like the effect, so I will ask around for tinsel in the charity shops.

Tassel knits

Yesterday Charlie taught a few of us how to create loopy or tassels on a knit machine. if you use mohair type yarn you can recreate a really good imitation fur, but I decided to have a go at something similar to the Etro waistcoats I posted about the other week.

Basically you start a few rows of a plain knit. Then to create a tassel you just cut a length of yarn about a metre long and fold it until you have a bunch of yarn about 5-6 inches in length. push a needle out towards you, fold the bunch in half onto it and push it all the way back through the loop of the knit, then repeat this for every other needle until you finish a row.

You don't have to use yarn for your tassels, you can use strips of fabric too. You can see that I have combined strips of fabric from the scrap box in the sample below.

I also had a go at using some punch cards to create bi-coloured pattern knits. It works like magic!