patchwork sweater - inspiration

this is the story behind the patchwork sweater.

i made this little sample what feels like ages ago now. i liked it but the technique was very time consuming and i didn't know how i could put it into production so i set it aside to think about it for awhile.

soon after i unfortunately(!) saw the jumper below from this collection by rodarte. then i really set my sample aside because to me, this looked like the perfect patchwork sweater and i knew i would end up copying it or want to make something very similar.

later in 2011, when we were in new york, i took these photos of this amazing set of furniture in abc carpet and home. the pieces were covered in this heavy duty hessian-like fabric and had all sorts of cute stitching details on them. i was so inspired by this and wanted to apply the idea to a garment.

  

and then over christmas when we visited my late grandmother i took these pictures in her room. on the bed you can see a silk patchwork quilt. my grandmother and her sisters used to have a lot of their clothing made for them and this quilt was constructed using silk remnants from those garments. 

i love this quilt, not only because it's handmade and so delicate, but my grandmother's apartment was quite austere and she had a very no-nonsense personality. this piece hints at a softer aspect to her that i didn't really know. i inherited this quilt and now it sits on my bed.

a bit later on in january i was starting to work on my current collection. i wasn't feeling too great - i was completely burnt out from the year before and feeling pretty sad about my grandmother passing.  to be honest, working on the collection was the last thing i wanted to do. i had to take some steps to look after myself a bit better, which included doing a detox diet, having regular acupuncture, doing heaps more exercise, starting tai chi and qi gong classes, reducing my work hours (harder than it sounds!) and accepting that i would need some regular help with the knitting. specifically in regards to the collection, i wanted to work with some uplifting colours and designs that would make me feel a bit better so then i knew it was the right time to take the patchwork sweater idea out again. this time i thought of a new way to make the patchwork effect in a slightly more productive way. and so here you can see a bunch of my samples and then of course, the result!

 

palettes

 

i'm thinking about the palette for the next collection. i notice that whenever i begin this process, i start studying things around the apartment very intently. above are a few little colour vignettes that i've been looking at. 

choosing colours is at once exhilarating and crushingly disappointing. you need your imagination to run wild in order to choose fresh color combinations. you spend hours and hours carefully choosing the yarns only then to be brought back to earth with a thud because the supplier tells you that almost every colour you wanted is out of stock or discontinued. being small fry, i can't order the 20kg minimum to dye up custom colours, so then the shade cards come out again... it's guaranteed to happen every time, still, it is one of my favourite aspects of the job.

behind the scenes today

today felt like it went well, it's always so much fun to have pets on a photoshoot!

also, our photographer had just found out that she had won this competition.

more on samples II

playing around with a few ideas for one more piece before my photoshoot next week.

like i said, not everything makes it, but i really hope i can get this one to work.

have a happy weekend.

jenny in picnic sweater

i probably don't need to tell you that this is the lovely jenny gordy, as everyone reads wiksten, but here she is trying out one of my samples! jenny and i were discussing a piece for her and knowing that she loves blue, i suggested this australian alpaca that i had in french blue. it had been on my shelf for a little while, waiting for me to do something with it and i had been procrastinating and was considering dropping it from my collections as it's quite an expensive yarn. anyway, making a piece for jenny was the perfect opportunity to try it out. as it turns out, i was so pleased with it that i've decided to include it in the upcoming collection. i've named it the 'picnic sweater'. it's almost the same as the cabin sweaters currently at anaise, but with longer sleeves (and different colourways).

also, as jenny mentions on her blog, primoeza scarves will soon be available through the wiksten shop! i am incredibly flattered as jenny's work has been of such inspiration to me over the years and her shop is such a delight with its unique selection of goods.  scarves will ship in the not too distant future so keep an eye out on jenny's store!

buttons, fabric

i sourced some new buttons today - both vintage. top ones are wood and bottom are unpolished horn. so beautiful. also a tiny piece of liberty fabric to try a new idea out with.

it's looking like i won't have my shop ready until late march or thereabouts but i'm working on some samples that i'm really excited about so i hope it will be worth the wait! i'm also hoping to get scarves out to some of my retailers before that.

shoulders

i love detail on shoulders. the top one is from this collection. the bottom one is a sample i've been working on. i've been hesitating about showing this because although i like the way it looks, there's a few technical issues that i'm struggling with - mainly because there's so much movement in knit, it's difficult to get two shoulders to sit symmetrically. i might try to apply the woven detail in another way. i make quite a few things that don't make the final cut, not necessarily because i don't like them, but maybe they're not technically resolved, or they're too time consuming/expensive to make. it's nice to give them some air time here.

more on samples

i thought i'd share a few images i took of some new scarf samples. these aren't 'proper' collection images, rather, are just meant to be illustrations to be sent to my retailers so they can choose stock for their stores.

 __________________________

 i've been getting a few enquiries lately asking whether i will have more garments for sale and the answer is definitely yes! the lovely anna, in the pictures above has been helping me out lately, but on the whole it is just me and it does take quite a bit of time to design and sample each new piece, especially when i want each one to be perfect. i'm (still) wrapping up orders from the last collection and have some custom work on the go as well. unfortunately some projects are on the back burner  like this one and this one, but i hope to have some pieces ready for my shop later in march.

laundry day

...well, not exactly laundry, but washing and drying samples.

small samples

here are some samples for this project, mainly for ideas. these are the steps i take when working on collection pieces so i thought i'd try and document the whole process. the patterns you can see below are from generic fair isle pattern cards.

finishing touches

it still surprises me that it can take just as long to hand finish each garment as it does to actually knit it. lotta helped me out with a few pieces today.

vintage buttons

some vintage horn and corozo buttons i happened upon. these are actually some of the most beautiful buttons i've ever seen. they'll probably be popping up on cardigans soon.

getting organised

i'm on the home stretch of sampling. it feels like a million things are happening at once and i'm trying not to feel too overwhelmed. trying to work through one thing at a time, have a proper lunch and tend to my blog. i've started writing up the final drafts of my patterns, which you can see very neatly pinned up. it's a relief after living with piles of scrappy notes lying all over the place.

a project

here are my busy-body cats checking out the parcel i posted off this morning- i always feel like i'm going to have a nervous breakdown when i send off weeks and weeks of work. these are for a new project that has been talked about for the last few months and only really got confirmed in the last couple of days. i don't want to reveal anything yet. all i can say is that if this comes off, it will be the most amazing project for primoeza in what's been a pretty fantastic year. hopefully you will see the results late september.
happy friday!

jasmine is the first sign of spring

and it's so hard to concentrate! i couldn't bear to put blu-tack on my jollygoo plant poster so i popped it in a frame, and my next collection taking shape.