Wednesday 31 December 2014

2014....the year of making things that go on walls not people!

The year started with an exciting meeting with the ever lovely Rachel of Prick Your Finger in January!

 
Rachel's shop is full of all the best knitting supplies you could ever dream of, AND she uses it as an exhibition space too, at no charge to the artist, because she's nice like that. I had been working on my 'Death by knitting' idea for a while before I met with Rachel (by this I mean watching horror films where people get attacked/killed with knitting needles) and her offer to exhibit my work gave me the excuse to finally make it! Fast forward to April, lots of computer based knit design work, 3D trickery, and some hand stitching later...'Death by knitting' was a reality...

 

I was super happy to see all the work come together, and people's reactions to it, especially the 3D working! Following a chat with Rachel about Halloween, I found myself with another opportunity to exhibit at the awesome Prick Your Finger. This time, I mostly used hand knitting which was really satisfying in a very different way to the work I did for death by knitting. This project was much newer to me and I had lots of fun making these pieces, so much so, I want to keep knitting masks and expand the collection in the future...

 
 
I also used crochet for some of the pieces, I really enjoy crochet and how easily things become 3D by using it.
While this exhibition was being put together, my 3D posters were accepted for a group exhibition 'Craft Emergency' at Aspex gallery in Portsmouth, here they are all framed up like proper movie posters!

 
November also saw Yiiikes!' glowing world coming back out of it's various boxes and living in the window at Nexus Art CafĂ©, it's still there until Saturday if you've not seen it yet!
 
I did make some things that were for people to wear, continuing with my Twin peaks collection from last year and collaborating with a x-stitch designer on a very popular Slayer themed scarf!  
 
 

 
 I usually do a new collection each year but this one just didn't quite make it, I have started on some new pieces and hope to launch the collection in January, here is a sneak peek for now...


I am super-grateful for all the people who have supported my adventures in yarn this year, given me opportunities to show my work, bought things from me, helped me work things out, made me cups of tea etc. Without you I would probably just be sat here surrounded by half-finished knitted things which wouldn't be very satisfying at all...Keep being awesome, and I'll see you in the future!

Wednesday 29 October 2014

National Knitting Week

Every year, there is a week dedicated to knitting, aptly named 'national knitting week', and every year (apart from one about 6 years ago) I miss it.

I always see things that happened in 'National knitting week' when it's over, which is a shame because I love knitting and encouraging others to knit. This made me think that for me, most weeks of the year centre around knitting, whether it's making (knitting) my own work or teaching knit design in my jobs. That said...what was I doing in national knitting week?!

I was mostly knitting this mask for my current exhibition at Prick Your Finger...


Along with this I made 2 other masks, all hand knitted. These were challenging and fun to make. I mostly machine knit and these took lots of shaping and a bit of calculating but I'm happy with the results AND..I was hand knitting in national knitting week! I also taught machine knitting, I think we were doing shaping and intentional laddering that week, and did some knit design tutorials with my awesome students.

I think the moral of the story is, it's nice to have a 'week' where knitting is recognised and celebrated but... EVERY week can be KNITTING week, just pick up your needles and get creating!

 


   

Tuesday 14 October 2014

Tricks and Treats

All has been quiet on this blog for a while. Mostly because my hands have been busy! I have been making work for my second solo exhibition which opens THIS FRIDAY - 17th October at Prick Your Finger.

Here are some sneak peeks of what I've been up to over the past months ...
 

Planning out the first hand-knit piece
 
 
Choosing the colour palette
 
 
Hand knitting blue bunny...
 
 
Went back to my machine for this 'centrepiece'
 
 
Close-up of one of the completed hand-knit pieces
 
 
And finally, making my own sparkly pink yarn by mixing wool and lurex together!


More info about the opening event and the exhibition here. And for those of you who can't make it, I'll make sure I get some pics on here when it's all up!

Monday 16 June 2014

Knit and Destroy..got handy! How my products became patterns...


This time last year, I was doing the final checks of the pages for my book that had been sent to me by the lovely folk at Cabin Creative before it went to print! I learnt a lot from putting this book together and thought I would share some of the main stages of this process with you.

HOW TO PUBLISH: I had the idea to put together a book of hand knit patterns of my designs a good few years ago, and as more and more craft books (of varying quality) filled up the shelves, I decided it was time to put the wheels in motion with my own book. I did a bit of initial research into publishing but nothing was really making sense or speaking to me, so, as always I turned to real people. I knew Suzy and Ian from their awesome counter culture magazine NUDE, which my work had featured in, also, knowing that they had released their own book 'Bare Essentials - the best of NUDE magazine 2003-2011' I contacted Suzy with lots of questions about publishing a book. Her response was great, she set out all my different options and we decided to meet for a cuppa and a chat, which was when I found out about their new endeavour, Cabin Creative, and the book went from an idea to the beginnings of a reality!

I already had the ideas, the patterns were mostly coming from existing machine knitted products so I had something to work from.

YARN: Before I could do any tension swatches, I had to decide on the yarn, I wanted something good quality but not too expensive, so went for King Cole merino blend DK. I contacted King Cole and they agreed to provide all the yarn I needed for my pattern testing and knitted pieces for the book, this saved lots of money and the yarn was perfect.
 
                                                               

SWATCHING: Now I had the yarn, I could start making tension swatches, after I had these I worked out the patterns one by one, testing techniques as I went along. I used my sketchbook to write down measurements and the basics of each pattern as I created them and using graph paper to plan out charts for pictorial designs.
  
 
 
     
KNITTING: I then took the patterns from my sketchbook, typed them all out then it was time to knit them and see if they worked! I had a great little gang of knitters, including myself, we knitted and refined the patterns until they were good to go. It was great to have an external influence at this early stage and see what other people thought of the patterns and the outcomes, I also had a professional pattern designer check the patterns for me before they went to print. Now, it was time to start setting things in motion with the design and layout of the book itself.
 
PHOTOGRAPHS: When all the knitting was done it was time to photograph everything, both on and off models as well as some close-up shots, we got plenty of photos so we could choose from them. I got friends of mine to model for me, and the photographer was also someone I know!
                                                                                                           

 


ILLUSTRATION: I'm very fortunate to have an 'in house' illustrator, my partner Ben has done illustrations for Knit and Destroy from the very start, we work so well together and he knows exactly the sort of thing I want from the illustrations. We decided to use illustrated 'scenes' for most of the patterns, we had lots of other hand drawn elements, the balls of wool for difficulty ratings, a picture of me giving hints and tips throughout the book as well as the instructional diagrams. Ben also worked the graphs for the patterns in photoshop.

 


LAYOUT: When I decided to work with Cabin Creative, they offered for Ian (one half of the company) to do the layout of the book, I loved the visual of NUDE magazine and knew that Ian would be easy to work with. After a few meetings to show Ian examples of the visual style I was after and a confirmation of the size of the book and final colour palette the layouts started coming my way. 
 
 
BIG DECISIONS: Now we were almost there, but this was where the really big decisions had to be made. What weight of paper should it be on? Matt or gloss? What kind of cover? Weight of cover? What order should it all go in? These weren't easy decisions to make but I made them, then it was time for the final check through and it was sent to the printers! Here is the first photograph I took of the finished book just after they had been delivered. I was really please with the outcome, and the amount of input publishing through Cabin Creative let me have.   
 
BUY THE BOOK!
     
 
If you've not already got a copy, click the photo above to get one from my shop where you will get a free bonus pattern, not available anywhere else!


Friday 9 May 2014

Exhibition excitement!!!

My first solo exhibition of art works opened on Friday 25th April at Prick your finger in London. Work was inspired by the use of knitting needles as weapons in film as well as original 3D movies.  

Here I am in the window hanging the second of three knitted movie posters.


We had a fantastic day at Prick Your Finger hanging the work and getting ready for the preview, it's such a great shop it was hard not to get distracted by all the yarns and knitted delights, the disco ball was my favourite feature!


When the work was all hung, I set out my zines, popcorn and 3D glasses ready for the preview...


The shop soon filled up with people coming to check out my knits and everyone seemed to have fun viewing the posters through the 3D glasses as well as enjoying the other pieces. 


This large piece, entitled 'spliced' runs from the back of the shop through to the 'long gallery' space, these pieces show a scene from 'The Crazies', they are embroidered and connected by yarns...



All the other pieces are in the window space shown below, with the 'idle hands' poster facing the street. If you would like to see it all for yourself and see the posters in glorious 3D, make your way down to Prick Your Finger before 12th June.

Kandy x

Wednesday 23 April 2014

'Death by Knitting' is here....and you're nvited!

It's been a bit quiet on my blog this year so far, but it's all for a good reason...
 
I have been working hard on my exhibition which opens THIS FRIDAY!
 

Come along and see my knits in glorious 3D!!!