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!

 


   

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!

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.   

 

     

 

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!

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

'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!!!

30 going on (20)13

Does that title make any sense?! I don't know.
 
What I do know is that in 2013 I turned 30! Anyone who knows me will know that I love saying, oh, it's just a number...birthdays are the best, and although I still firmly believe that, 30 was a bit different. I'd heard tales of people "turning 30 and becoming boring"..and throughout my 20s there's been a lot of "oh, just you wait, you'll get broody when you're 30", so I was more concerned than usual by this year and this age change! IT'S ALL OK THOUGH KIDS, being 30 can be AWESOME, I've not suddenly turned into a bore or started buying baby magazines, I have had lots of fun times and done things I never thought I would do. I am definitely more 30 going on 13 than I ever was the other way round. Here's a list of 13 things (in a sort of chronological order) that made this year memorable for me..
 
1. Formed Yiiikes! collective with Alison and Seleena, working on Art with friends is super-fun!
 
2. Roller Derby tattoo, I wanted one of these for a while but promised myself I had to make the A-team before I was allowed one. I first made the A-team in 2012, but got my tattoo booked in with one of my favourite tattoo artists for early 2013. Her helmet and the colours reminds me of quidditch too which I love!
 

 
3. I built a website, from scratch! I had made pages for my website in photoshop before but this year I learnt to use dreamweaver and made a whole website for the super talented Seleena!
 
4. Yiiikes! had our first exhibition, yeah, we mean business. We created a glowing world instillation exhibition at Islington Mill which was really fun to put together, and to see/hear people experience it.
 

 

5. I got to see the Breeders play live, I never thought I would get to see them, not only that, but they played Last Splash in its entirety, s-woooon!

 

6. MY KNITTING BOOK CAME OUT!!! The writing of the book mostly happened in 2012, this year was all about releasing the book to the world. It took about a month after it came out to sink in, I still have moments where the fact I wrote a book overwhelms me. The best thing about the book is hearing that people are enjoying it and seeing what people have knitted from my patterns!

 

  

7. Indietracks! We ran some awesome workshops, saw some great bands, discovered Martha, and Helen Love stole the show, but Indietracks, as always, was all about having a laugh with good friends. This was my face for most of the weekend...

 8. Another band, beginning with B, that I thought I'd never get to see..B52's, I saw them as an early birthday present, and they blew me away, SO good!

9. PARTY!!! One of the great things about turning a landmark number is having a party, for me this meant getting lots of friends together, setting up party games, putting on a spread and having a dance!

 

10. New York! For my birthday, I went on holiday to NYC, somewhere I have always fancied but never had a reason to go to. It was PERFECT, I got to spend some quality time with Ben, checking out the sights and discovering all the delicious food. On my birthday, my present was a trip to Coney Island where I got to be part of the freak show and pretend to be Cyndi Lauper on the wonder wheel.

11. Went to Shetland to speak at a conference in front of 3 of my knitting heroines, met Lisa Anne Auerbach..and made friends with her. I have been a fan of her work for years, she is great!

12. Became a regular Roller Derby coach. I might have done a bit last year, I can't remember, but this year I did a lot, and really enjoyed it. I was rewarded for my hard work by my team with my own stopwatch and whistle...watch out 2014, I'm gonna whip you into shape!  

13. Realised that I am, and continue to be massively inspired by the people around me, their creativity, talent, love and enthusiasm, keep it up you awesome bunch. Xxx    

Crafting for Christmas...cushion crazy!!!

Now that all the gifts have been given and opened, I can share what I was busy doing in the run up to Christmas! I have been encouraged to make presents from a young age, a swan tapestry (one of those easy wool ones) for my Grandma, a x-stitch pin cushion for my favourite teacher and always find it really rewarding so never stopped! 

I feel like I made more stuff than ever this year, and I really enjoyed it. Of course, there are a good few machine knitted things in here, but there's also some crochet and sewing, and as the title suggests, a good few cushions, here's what I made...

 

 

First, a black cat cushion for Katie customised to include the cat's name on the back, Katie's cat is called Oz, after the wizard so I styled the writing to suit the name.

 
I picked up this fabric a while ago, my Mum is an optician so when I saw it I knew I had to make something from this fabric for her. I decided on a set of 3 cushions for her practice (they're quick, easy and useful).

 Another machine knit cushion, this for Ben, based on Heisenberg from Breaking Bad. This is knitted using bamboo yarn, I've never machine knitted with it before so it didn't come out exactly how I expected but Ben was very happy with it! I chose blue for the blue meth that Heisenberg is known for cooking!

Log(cushion)s from my twin peaks collection, one for Seleena and one for Alison, I didn't do anything special with these because the fabric is already knitted, just made one a bit shorter.

For this cushion I chose crochet. I found a super chunky alpaca yarn in my sister's favourite colour so had to make her something from it. I crocheted this large square, which used all the yarn in the ball. I found the perfect cushion to attach it to in Wilko's and carefully stitched it on.

What...these aren't cushions! Yeah, I did make a few things that weren't cushions. These are sew-on patches that I made from a t-shirt I bought this summer. The t-shirt was covered with drawings of awesome women, and rather than keeping them all to myself, I made each woman into an individual patch, these are 3 that I kept, I forgot to photograph the ones I gave to people.
 

 

Last but not least, I made a jumper for Seleena. She already has a lot of cushions...a few of them are from me, but I never gave her an Elvira cushion, so I decided to put the design on a jumper instead! I had to enlarge the design a bit, mostly just added extra lines around her head, then work out how big the other pieces of the jumper needed to be and knitted them too. I used glow in the dark yarn on this jumper too for an extra special touch!