Design Project: Jacquard and Intarsia Patterns

This fall semester I took a portfolio class. It was a lot of fun and a lot of work, and I'm really happy with the outcome. We had a variety of projects that I will share, but one of my favorites to work on was this print design project. It was just not like anything I'd ever done before, and that made it exciting!

I settled on a rather weird color palate. Somehow I got really into orange, and just went with it! I decided to build the project around a cut-and-sew hoodie I had made last year, which was out of this awesome geometric double-knit jacquard (pictured below). With that to work from, I did jacquard and intarsia patterns only, with bold geometrics. It was a cool challenge to do knit-only patterns, because it meant limited colors (due to potential cost of multi-color jacquards, which would be astronomical if they were produced) and limitation in shapes (due to the structure of knit fabric). Below is my color palate, the original hoodie, and then a few of my prints photoshopped onto clothing I had made.

Another thing I enjoyed was that I got to play with multiple color combinations and offerings. I made about forty different combinations of colors and prints, hung them all up, and then narrowed them down in a very difficult decision-making process.

All of my croquis are drawn in Adobe Illustrator and colored and shaded in Photoshop. Prints were made in Illustrator. I can't find my absolute up-to-date JPEG files, actually; they are supposed to have slightly pixelated prints (to imitate a knitted chart), and a sweater texture overlay like the first photo. Oops!

The triangle sweater above is my absolute favorite, and I'm actually going to knit something very similar for my senior collection! I'm so stoked to see it come to life.

Cabled Sweater in City Tweed - WIP

Lately I have been doing a lot of knitting! I brought my knitting machine home for break, along with, um, over 100 balls of yarn. When Knitpicks had their Thanksgiving week sale, I splurged and bought pretty much all the yarn I will need for my senior collection. It was a huge purchase, but I am so excited to use these luxury yarns. Fiber snob and proud of it!

Here's some proof from after I opened the box. This isn't even all of it! But I just counted 99 balls in this picture alone so I guess it's close. It's just so much yarn. But I'm starting to make my way through it, believe it or not!

So this is the latest project/ I learned how to do these cute little triangles on my machine, and paired them along with a staghorn aran cable and two braided cables. Lots of counting and keeping track of my place and catching mistakes! I don't even know what I would do without my knitting machine. Maybe I'll post all about it sometime this month in case someone is interested in getting one? They are amazing tools with insane capabilities. It still takes a good amount of time to knit something like the sweater above, due to the amount of hand manipulated stitches, but it still speeds things up from hand knitting.

By the way, this is Knitpicks City Tweed yarn, in the Jacquard colorway. The photo isn't true to color, but I'll try to get some better photos in natural lighting with a real camera soon! The yarn itself is some of my favorite to work with. I used it on my last sweater, and it's just a luscious blend of merino and alpaca. The neps add so much visual interest and it's a joy to work with and to wear! 

January Blog Challenge - 2014

Well hi! It's been a while!

I've been busy finishing up the first semester of my senior year (!), battling a bout of the flu (including a first-time-ever visit to the emergency room. Way over-rated!), and prepping for my senior collection before I graduate. I can't believe 2013 is over already, but believe me when I say I'm so ready to welcome 2014 with open arms. Let's hope for a better year for all!

I haven't even gotten a chance to sit down and think about my resolutions, really. Have you? Does it involve stepping away from the internet? Stepping closer? Making more things with your hands or spending more time with your loved ones? I always go way overboard with my goals, so this year I really want to focus on a few and do them well.

One thing that honestly had not occurred to me was putting more effort in here at the blog. When the lovely Carolynn from Kitty Adventures mentioned the January Blog Challenge I'd done a couple years ago to me, I couldn't stop thinking about it. It's been a long, long time since I've blogged regularly, and I like the idea of the challenge. But even better than that, I remember that when I did it last time, I made more effort to comment on other blogs, to reply to my comments, and regularly join in discussion. That alone is reason for me to try, as I'm woefully bad at these things normally!

<a href="http://www.addie-marie.com/p/blog-challenge.html"><img border="0" src="http://i41.tinypic.com/2yud9ig.jpg"/></a>  

So here is my challenge: to blog five days a week, every week in January! Want to join me? Feel free to take the button above, and let me know if you're joining in so I can add you to the list on the Challenge Page!

Have a Happy New Year, everyone!

Capricious

I think I'm finally getting the whole college thing down pat. Maybe I'm just feeling self-satisfied for finishing a project an entire day ahead AND cleaning the house to boot. I also made bread and did laundry. I'll chalk today up as a victory!

A lot of my weekends are not victories, struggling against the ever-looming mass of homework whilst fighting the heavy desire to take a break (or lots of breaks). I have the worst case of senioritis, and as always, an inclination to complain. What an awful habit! But this weekend, I had fun and worked hard and it makes going into my week much easier. Being massively productive is my favorite!

My most recent project for Portfolio was to re-do a past technical project. I chose my knits pages. Above are a couple of my favorite shots from a photoshoot with a friend, and at the top is my cover page for the project. I did the drawings in Illustrator and filled them in Photoshop.

I hope I look back on this time in my life with plenty of fondness. Even if I'm mentally done with school, and even if I get stressed out too often, it's pretty amazing that this is my homework. I'm fairly lucky!

Kohl's Flash Mob + Life Lately

During my internship, some of my fellow interns planned a flashmob for a Friday afternoon at the corporate headquarters. How awesome is this?? It was so much fun to watch... and this video really makes me miss work and this summer. That was the best part about working there: the people were wonderful and fun and it made work an absolute joy!

So I have started my fall classes. Some are exciting, some are not. But it always gives me a rush to know that I get to do what I love and this is actually my homework. I get to sit and sketch and look up inspiration (Pinterest = homework! What?!) and put together color palates and play with fabric swatches. As much work as my major can be, it is so incredible fulfilling.

I've been revisiting old projects for my Portfolio Development class, and it's really invigorating to re-work projects from my sophomore year. I bought some new supplies, including pastels -- which I haven't worked with since elementary school -- and I'm loving the creative freedom. I really enjoy working in Illustrator and drawing in CAD, but it is so exciting to get messy and color by hand.

This is just a quick sketch, and it is by no means very good, but it's a good example of the kind of fun I've been having with charcoal and pastels. To say I'm stoked about this semester would be an understatement!