Final project

No, not the final project ever... just the final project for Knit Design Principles and Technology! The spring semester at Fashion Institute of Technology is quickly drawing to a close.  I handed in my final project yesterday. The assignment was to knit a "creative fabric," such as a jacquard or cable, and to provide the technical documentation.

I considered the alternatives as to how to complete the project. Developing a swatch on the CAD system for the Stoll knitting machines would require that once I had completed the design, I would have to wait my turn for wonderful, but very busy, Catherine, the technician, to knit it up for me. I elected, instead, to do my project on a Dubied v-bed hand flat.  A basic home knitting machine is the watered down, kid sister of this big, old, industrial workhorse. I could operate this machine myself, during class or Open Knitting Lab hours.

I decided on a rib fabric with tucks and racking. My plan was to work up the design at home on my Passap DM-80, then adapt it for the Dubied. One disadvantage is that there are limitations when designing for the Dubied compared to designing for the Passap or the Stoll. There are no arrow keys or strippers on the Dubied (for any Passap people reading this). And compared to the Stoll? The Dubieds have too many limitations to list. The advantage, other than knitting it myself, was that among the several Dubieds that FIT has, three are 2 1/2 cut machines. In other words I have access to machines capable of handling worsted weight to bulky yarns.

Well, here's what happened!

After several attempts, I got something that I liked on the Passap, that I could also knit on the Dubied with its high-butt/low-butt needle selection limitations. The yellow and gold are 10/2 mercerized cotton. the pale green is 12/2. It's knitted every other needle.

This swatch is the same magnification as the previous swatch and also knitted every other needle, but I knitted it on a Dubied that knits bulky yarns. (Many thanks to Norbert, the FIT technician, who helped me with a couple of needle "situations" I had.)

It turns out that I wasn't too happy with the swatch, even though I had "successfully" knitted my design. It was knitted with a mystery wool or wool blend from FIT's vast yarn supply. That night I returned to my own stash and came up with some 18/6 rayon (yep, rayon). It's silky smooth with not much stretch and knits like a mercerized cotton.

Here's my final project swatch. I knitted this one using every needle on the same Dubied machine and altered the number of needles I racked accordingly. It may be hard to tell on your screen, but there are 3 colors here as in the others.

 I'm sad the class is ending. Thanks, Prof. Ann Denton!