A Pleasant Surprise :)

It's the month of June, almost July, and in India it's the season of heavy, heavy rain and Mumbai floods up very often. Thus, I was pestering my friends to come with me to Bandra to buy some footwear to help survive the downpour. Since I'm a very stubborn Taurean, I had made up my mind about buying gumboots, and gumboots ONLY. So we landed up in Bandra after a very tiring local train journey of more than one and a half hour. We started looking at the stalls, entered a store just for the A/C, then walked a little more. As some of you may know, Bandra is THE place for monsoon footwear, most of them are knock-offs, 'inspired' by famous designers' collections. Finally I saw a pair of very interesting gumboots, they were like normal tie-up boots, but made of plastic and entirely transparent! I knew that I had to have them. They were available in various colours like yellow, green, blue, peach and black. Luckily, my size was available, but the biggest problem was the price. Now, surprisingly this particular stall and the gumboots were featured in a local newspaper and the price was quoted at INR 1,050/- (approx $17) which was a very steep price for knock-off gumboots, we were definitely not paying that much. After about fifteen minutes of haggling and bargaining, we got the boots at half price and strutted back home, happily. This pair was bought by me, since I prefer the achromatic colour scheme-

The Boots bought from Link Road, Bandra

Anyway, soon after buying these gumboots I started wondering about the original designer who designed these, and unfortunately I haven't yet found the answer to this question. But, as I was browsing through the collections of upcoming knitwear designers, I found myself pleasantly surprised to see an amazing knitwear designer, Xiao Li, use this footwear in her Spring/Summer 2014 collection. This is the beautiful collection- 

Xiao Li's Spring/Summer 2014 Collection

I am extremely happy that I bought something that is so close to my very own field. Remembering what Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes said about co-incidences, Mycroft: "Oh Sherlock, what do we say about coincidence?" Sherlock: "The universe is rarely so lazy", made me feel like I was on the right path. And Xiao Li, you inspire me, the collection is so beautiful that I could not help wanting all of the pieces. She has used knits very creatively, even though she has used simple repeats and cables, the colours, structure and silhouettes add a WOW factor that is impossible to explain. It makes me very proud to see such brilliant work in knitwear and has given me a new found energy to work in the forward direction.

You can check out the full collection on Xiao Li's website-

http://xiao-li.co.uk/

For any thoughts or queries, please post on the comments section below or contact me via e-mail. Thanks for reading!

:]

Tanaya

The Very First!

Welcome Readers!
As some of you may know, the first year of any design college is a common foundation programme in which one learns all the basics such as elements of design, history of art, drawing and sketching and so on and so forth. I touched fabric for the first time in the second year of college, when I was finally into my department. Even then, it was not knitted fabric, we had to start with the basic grey muslin fabric. In Basic Pattern-Making as well as Garment Construction (stitching) we used muslin till we mastered it, and very reluctantly moved onto single jersey, i.e, basic knitted fabric. If any of you have used the machine, you may know the pains of being a beginner. Oh, I was truly a beginner, hailing from a science background I had never had any contact with a sewing machine. And the sewing machine in my college is a terror, the Juki, with a speed of 4000 stitches per minute. My friend refers to it as a Ferrari.

                             

Moving on, our pattern making lessons continued, in which we learnt new patterns every class. Somehow I'm really attracted to the armhole princess seam, my classmates keep taunting me as it appears in most of my designs. Obviously, my first design was a sleeveless top which had the armhole princess seam.

A muslin pattern of the princess seam

After making the muslin pattern, I could not wait to make a top for myself! I made the pattern in my size on brown paper, then cut the fabric. Stitching the top was a major difficulty since it was the first time I was doing this. Also, I worked on this top apart from the usual assignments, using up several lunch breaks. Like the Juki machine, the Yamato Overlock machine is another Herculean task, since it is very fast and it cuts the excess fabric, so one has to be very careful. After carefully stitching the top, the finishing remained. Now in wovens, one has to use only one machine, the lockstitch machine, for all tasks like seams and finishing. But in knits, three different machines have to be used. For finishing the hems, we have the Flatlock machine. The lab assistant was harassed many times by me, just for finishing the hems. I was so proud with my very First creation that I couldn't stop looking at it. Here, take a look!

My Very First Design!

Feel free to let me know your thoughts via the comments section below. Thank you for reading!

:]
Tanaya

Sweaters and Socks? No, a lot more!

Welcome Readers!
I had earlier specified that KnitMode will concentrate on making knitwear really easy for you to understand, so this is a very basic introduction to the concept.  Fabrics are broadly classified into three main categories, i.e, Wovens, Knits and Non-Wovens. Knitwear is formed by the 'inter-looping' of yarn, whereas wovens are formed by 'inter-lacing' of yarn.

Structure of Knits

Structure of Wovens

Now the basic difference between Knits and Wovens is that knits are more stretchable and more breathable than wovens, this makes knits more versatile than wovens. But wovens have a very formal and crisp appeal which is not present in knits.

As I had mentioned in my earlier post, there is a major misunderstanding (especially in India) as to what makes up Knitwear. Yes, Sweaters and woolens are a big part of knitwear, but that is not all. Readers, you will not believe, ALL of your comfortable lingerie and intimate wear is made up of knits, ALL your fancy, breathable sportswear is made up of knits; ladies, your trusted shapewear consisting Spanx and Lycra are made up of knits! Nike has even launched shoes which are made from Fly-Knit Technology.


                                   

                  

                   

                   

These are just SOME of the amazing uses of knitwear. I will surely post in detail about all these knitwear products soon. Till then, please share your thoughts through the comments section below, or feel free to e-mail your queries to me at tanaya.shende@gmail.com .


:]
Tanaya