Trip to Shima Seki

I know its been ages since I have posted anything but things have been a little chaotic around here well with finals and everything!  I am just now posting about our amazing trip to Shima Seki (an electronic knitting company from Japan that is based in Milan).  We took this trip before the holidays but I still think that it is valid to post about because it was so incredibly inspiring!

The meeting room at the Shima Seki headquarters.

Amazing knit ties!!

These machines are able to produce some of the most amazing knit stitches!

Kourtney examining a knit dress.

Shima Seki machines have the capabilities of knitting whole garment style.  This means that the machine is able to knit an entire garments seams and all!

Knit, Knit, Knit

An amazing 3D stitch

The Shima computer technology is incredible and is able to duplicate stitches and yarns in an incredibly real way.  Can you tell which of these is real and which one is printed?

It was a great trip that got all of our knitwear brains churning with new ideas and possibilities!

Vote for Knitthink for Peru!

Hello everyone! This is a project that I worked on at my school here in Milan and I was hoping you guys could take a moment of your time to vote for my group. I dont know if you remember from my post a couple of weeks ago but I worked on this project during a week long workshop with the students at the Politecnico di Milano.  During this week we worked with a company based in peru that creates work opportunities for women there. The company has posted all of the projects to their website and will produce and sell the garments for the group with the most "likes" on facebook.
"The City of Women" is my group (group number 9).  

http://www.knithink.it/?page_id=326

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Knithink-for-Per%C3%B9/482597941784464?sk=app_208195102528120

I'm sorry it's in italian but you only have to like the knitthink page first and then you will have the option to vote by clicking 'like' next to the groups.

Unfortunately you will not be able to vote if you do not have facebook.  

Grazie mille and Buon Natale!

Christmas time in Milano

This weekend was the Festa di St. Ambrogio.  St. Ambrogio is the patron saint of Milan and every year on December 7th they celebrate with wonderful holiday markets and fairs. To make things even more magical on friday it snowed for the first time this year!  The whole city had a wonderful christmas feel:)  Here are some photos from the weekend...

The beginning of the snow:)

Wonderful Sicilian sweets at the Christmas market!

Snow in Parco Sempione

Christmas horses in the park

More sweets! The cannolis were to die for.

The beautiful canal is FINALLY full again!

My apartment building in the snow.

After going to all of the markets in the city center we took a trip out to L'ARTIGIANO IN FIER . It is an incredible fair with foods and crafts from all over the world.  It takes place in a massive expo center.  We spent hours eating and sampling the best foods from all around the world.  This bread is from the region Puglia in the south of Italy.

Now that's a big piece of bread!

WorkShop with the Politecnico

This past week all of the FIT 4th year students participated in a workshop with the Politecnico students.  Each semester the Politecnico students work on a week long project for various companies all over the world.  I choose to participate in a workshop for the project Knithink for Peru with the company AspemItalia.  I was in a group with 3 Italian students and one Russian student.  We had to create a knit garment inspired by Peru.  We had five days to create a concept, mood, design, technical information, and knit swatch.  Here is what my group came up with...

This is our mood board.  We were inspired by the poverty in a small town in Peru.

We took our design concept from the amazing women in Peru.  We focused on re-designing the basic Aztec tunic while focusing on the graphic boarder at the bottom of their dresses. 

This is one of the swatches that I made on the 5 gauge coppo machine.  I used a miss stitch to create a graphic effect that mimics the houses in our mood board.

This swatch is another solution to create the pattern that we wanted.  Instead of using a miss stitch I designed a Jacquard that I used to create this on the 5 gauge brother machine. 

This is our design.  Simple yet beautiful.

This is our color card, it mimics the bright colors of South America.

This is the technical page with all of the information about the knit stitches.

This is another technical page with information about the specifics of our garment.

It was a great project.  I had a wonderful time working with both the italians and the company!

Electronic knitting on the Shima Seika machines

As part of the 4th year knitwear program curriculum we must take a class on electronic knitting.  Today, almost all of industrial manufactured knits are done on electronic machines.  I new york they have a Stoll electronic machine while here in Milan we are working with a Japanese brand Shima Seika.  They are essentially the same in that they are both brilliantly designed to create just about any stitch.  The Politecnico di Milano does not own one of these machines so I have the privilege to learn at a private studio in Milan.  It has been an incredible experience so far.  Here are some pictures to show you everything that i have learned so far!

A picture of the 5 gauge ShimaSeika machine.

The very dated Shima computer that we use to create the knit stitches that will be produced on the machines. 

The following are some pointelle stitches done on the 5 gauge electronic machine.

Kourtney analyzing a stitch.

An image of what a aran stitch looks like when it is in codes on the computer.  The colors each refer to a different type of stitch or needle transfer.  There are hundreds so it can get a bit confusing at times.

Aran stitch with links inside.

Sydney organizing her work in the studio.

Let the hard work begin...

After a wonderful month and a half of getting settled in and relaxing, classes have finally begun.  We have now finished 3 full weeks of classes and the work is only just beginning.  We are starting to develop our senior collections.  This semester is focused on creating two portfolios, one creative and one technical.  These portfolios will contain  60-80 garments divided into 4 groups. 

My inspiration comes from nature.  I am focusing on the idea that everything in nature and in life is composed of the same basic structure : the cell.  The simple basic shape and structure of the cell can be visible at every level and from every perspective in nature.  It is in fact the building block of life.  I have gathered images of microscopic views of cells as well as images of areal views of earth.  These images look shockingly similar.  Both the micro and macro images appear almost identical in their irregular patterns and vibrant colors.  It is often difficult to tell them apart.  I want to take these images and translate them to knitwear.  I am going to use natural fibers and dyes to create garments that capture the irregular symmetry of nature.  I could go on for hours about my inspiration but rather, I will let you see for yourself....

The following are pages from my sketchbook that will show you the development of this inspiration. 

This is my first grouping and color story.  In this grouping I am going to use tuck stitches and volume to create the effect of the honeycomb and cells.  The colors are cool and natural.

In my second grouping I am using a color story of all blues.  In this group I am going to focus on using basic plain stitches that will be hand painted and dyed to show the effect of the beautiful images. 

This group is centered around the circular cell.  I am going to use drop stitches, soft yarns, and reds to create the garments in this section. 

In the 4th group I am using a very natural color card.  These garments will be made with fringe and open work to create the movement that the images show. 

I want to play with collaging in photoshop to show the perspective of the micro and macro images.  I am very inspired by these collaged images. 

Work work work...

I am working with open work on the brother machine to create swatches for my sketchbook.

Here i am creating drop stitches for the 3rd group in my collection.

Thats all for now but don't worry there will be more knitwear updates coming soon...