Module 3 – City & Guilds Knitwear Design. Fashion Accessory. (Part 2).

Fiona kindly asked me if I would re-do my Fashion Accessory which was a hat and add a stitch pattern to it instead of stocking stitch for variation which I gladly done.  I designed and knitted two baby hats, one in half-linen stitch and the other with cables.  The half-linen stitch was a beanie style hat and the cable hat was knitted straight up with no shaping and finished with a three needle bind off with a square top and a little button.

My various swatches done in the round.

My half-linen st hat.  This stitch pattern is lovely and is one of my favourites.  I was quite pleased with how the hat turned out.

My cabled hat…..

…..and the view from the top modelled by my trusty Berenguer doll ‘Charlie’.

Meet my little Charlie,  I think he is really cute but he gives my Sister the creeps!

I bought myself some new books recently.  ‘Saturday Treats’ and ‘Whimsical Little Knits 3′, both by Ysolda Teague and ‘Finishing School’ by Deborah Newton.

The thought of taking a pair of scissors to my knitting like that brings me out in a cold sweat!  The colourwork is beautiful though, and the finished result is stunning!….

And last but not least, I bought ‘Principles of Knitting’ by June Hemmons Hiatt.  This book is absolutely fabulous and is really comprehensive.  I love it!

I seen this in a shop recently and just had to buy it.  Noughts and Crosses with sheep and sheepdogs.

Aren’t these little figures adorable?!

Talking of adorable, my Sister asked me last year what I would like for Christmas and I said a bird house as I’m planning on having a small wildlife garden to try and entice birds, bees and butterflies into my garden.  This is what she bought me.  I think it’s too nice to be anything other than an ornament.

I bought a couple of smaller bird houses too.  Hopefully they’ll get used – I just love to hear birds singing and see them flitting about.

I took my wee Cuilean to the dog groomers a couple of weeks ago.  The groomer asked what I would like done and I said to cut his hair short.  He went from this…..To this…..

I didn’t recognise my own dog!  I walked into the groomers and was looking for him and I stared straight at him but it still didn’t register that he was mine until he barked at me.  I honestly think I would’ve walked past him in the street.  He’s starting to look more like his old self now though.  That’s in no way a criticism to the groomer – she done a fabulous job.  I just couldn’t believe how different he looked.

Module 3 – City & Guilds Knitwear Design.

Finally got module 3 posted to Fiona today.  Again, this post is picture heavy with a breakdown of the course content.

Activity 1:

The objective of activity 1 is to be able to work with a fashion template and illustrate a variety of garments.

Activity 2:

Activity 2 is to knit a range of knit and purl stitch patterns, which should include stocking st, garter st, moss st,  1 x 1 rib, 2 x 2 rib, at least 2 wide rib patterns and at least 3 knit and purl patterns, e.g: gansey style patterns.

Activity 3:

Activity 3 is to do knit at least 2 examples of crossed stitch patterns.

Activity 4:

Activity 4 is to knit at least 2 cable patterns, one simple and one more complicated.

Activity 5:

Activity 5 is to knit at least one sample each of popcorn and bobbles and at least two examples of embossed patterns.

Activity 6:

Activity 6 is to collect a variety of charted patterns.

Activity’s 7 & 8:

Both these activities were to calculate a round neck set-in sleeve pattern and to calculate a v-neck raglan sleeve pattern.

Fashion Accessory:

I had to design and knit a fashion accessory and had the choice of a hat, belt, bag, collar, scarf, shawl or a piece of jewellery.  I chose to do a plain st st hat.  As well as the designing and knitting the hat, I had to do a sketch, a swatch, a design brief and an action plan.  I was quite pleased with how the hat turned out although would’ve preferred it to have a more rounded top.

I love Christmas and hated taking down my Christmas tree and decorations.  The house looks so bare now.  The Angel on the left hand side my Mum gave to me and is older than me.  She’s been carefully wrapped up and stored away.  (The Angel, not my Mum!). 

Here’s some of my favourite decorations.

Still, only 343 days till Christmas!    

And finally, couldn’t write a post and not include a photo of my wee boy.

Happy Knitting!

Happy New Year!

Wonder how many of these I’ll keep?!……..

I treated myself to some new books over Christmas: The Barbara G Walker Treasury Knitting Pattern series 1 – 4 and Aran Sweater Design by Janet Szabo.

Cuilean was overwhelmed by the New Year and spent the whole evening lying on the couch.

Right now, we are both relaxing in front of the fire, me with a bowl of home-made sweet potato & parsnip soup and a glass of non-alcoholic mulled wine and Cuilean with a rawhide chew.

Happy New Year and all the very best for 2012!

Happy Christmas!

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Love this Christmas advert!

Happy St. Andrew’s Day!….

For all Scots at home and abroad.

I love this song! x

Challenge Kelly.

I’ve decided to challenge myself to see how much I’ve learned since starting my C & G course.  I’m going to design and knit a baby’s aran jumper, and I’m going to name the design, “Annie” after my Gran who taught me to knit.  I’ll use the Lion Brand Vanna’s choice baby aran yarn I got a few months ago and try out my Bryspun needles properly.

I treated myself to Ysolda’s new book, Little Red in the City to accompany Whimsical Little Knits 1 & 2 that I bought a while ago.  I’ve not had the chance to read it properly yet but it certainly looks excellent from what I’ve seen so far.

I knitted a couple of egg cosies for my sister which were designed by Suzie Johnson from ‘The Wool Sanctuary’.  They were featured in Kirstie Allsopp’s programme, Kirstie’s Homemade Home.  They were super quick to knit up and are so cute!

Module 2 – City & Guilds Knitwear Design.

I can’t believe it’s been 5 months since I last posted.  I’m finally getting round to putting up my previous module from my city & guilds knitwear design course.  I’m almost finished module 3 so will photograph it and post it before I send it away to be marked. It’s a bit picture heavy this time but the module was enjoyable.  There are 16 activities in total for this module.

Activities 1 – 10 came under the heading ‘designing’ and ranged from painting your own colour wheel, painting tints and shades, working with complementary colours, and paint ranges of intermediate colours.  I’ve shown my examples in the photo below.  (Activities 1 to 4).

Activity 5 shown above was to find a postcard and make a torn paper collage matching it in colour and texture as much as possible.

Activity 6 was yarn wrappings again using a postcard and finding yarns as closely matching the colours on the postcard as much as possible.Activity 7 was pretty much the same as the previous one only making a wrapped frame to match the postcard using various coloured yarns.

Activity 8 was to make a wrapped landscape using the same methods as above.

Activity 9 was a mosaic picture which for some reason I never photographed.  It basically was the same postcard and I had some square paper and done the postcard in mosaic form using felt pens and colouring pencils trying to match the colours / shades in the picture.

Activity 10 was again using paints to try and match the colours on the same postcard.  Also involved was photocopying the examples below and making various patterns from the cut out examples.

Activities 11 – 14 came under ‘knitting’ and consisted of colour mixing in knitting shown below.  For activity 11, I had to knit a piece of fabric using different stitches and blending colours together.

Activity 12 was doing knitted examples of  activity 10.  (Looking back on the photo’s I certainly don’t believe in weaving in ends!)

Activity 13 was shaping, using various increases and decreases.

Activity 14 I never photographed which was joining seams: knitted seam join, mattress stitch join, backstitch join and slipstitch join.

Activities 15 & 16 came under ‘general knowledge’.  Activity 15 was drawing a basic block from measurements taken from a person, in my case I used my sister.

Activity 16 which I never photographed was the same as 15 only using different necklines, sleeve types etc.

After all my hard work I decided to treat myself so bought a set of Bryspun needles from sizes 3.25mm – 5.50mm and a couple of ‘fix-it tools’ which is basically a little cable needle with a crochet hook at the opposite end.  It’s a handy wee gadget to have on hand for dropped stitches etc.  I also bought myself some Lion brand Vanna’s choice baby aran and Lion cotton.

And, last but certainly not least a picture of the wee boy who has tried to get in every shot I’ve taken of my work.  My best friend Cuilean.  (Pronounced cool-ann).

Finish-itis…..or is it Start-itis?!

Is it just me?  I can’t seem to finish any project I start.  I found 4 un-finished projects today whilst having a clear out that I cast away to one side to start something new.  Needless to say I’ve not finished any of them yet!

Project # 1:  Thuja socks from Knitty.

Project # 2:  Sirdar bootees, mittens & bonnet set.

Project # 3:  Garter st hooded jacket by Debbie Bliss.

Project # 4:  Chunky cabled sweater by Zoe Mellor.

Hopefully now I have posted the un-completed pictures online, it will shame me into finishing them!

Module 1 – City & Guilds Knitwear Design.

Hi, and welcome to my blog!  Put your feet up and make yourself comfortable as you read about my foray into Knitwear Design.  At the moment I am studying knitwear design via City & Guilds.  My tutor is Fiona Morris and her website is called, ‘Distance Knitting’ .  I will post information and pictures on each module as I do it to show some of the work involved.  Module 1 is made up of three sections – Design, Knitting & General Information.  The design section is about building tone and estimating tone, experimenting with different pens, pencils and paper.  Also included is practising line and tone by doing a 10 minute sketch and a 45 minute drawing.  I also done a layered landscape using a landscape postcard.  From that, I took rubbings and produced repeat patterns from the rubbings.  There is 6 activities in the design section.

The knitting section is made up of samples of:  cast on & cast offs, selvedges, edges & hems, tension swatches and test swatches.  The knitting section has 5 activities.

The general information section covers things such as setting up your own studio, ie: things you might need for knitting, things you might need for designing, precautions to take in the storage of any of these items and correct maintenance and care of any equipment.

All in all, I enjoyed doing module 1.  There was a lot of work involved but I have found it to be interesting.  I’ve finished module 2 and am waiting on it getting sent back to me so will upload photo’s when I get that back.  I’ve now started module 3 which is a lot more knitting and a lot less arty stuff which suits me better as art was never my strong point at school!