Slow Clothes

Americans gain 16 pounds

2011-11-06T12:26:00.000-08:00

Infographic viaSlowfashioned.com

The last time I saw the statistics about Americans' annual textile waste, each person was chucking 68 pounds (31 kg) of t-shirts, bedspreads and carpets into the landfill. A recent post by Slowfashioned now claims that we're now throwing away 83.9 lbs (38 kg) of textiles each year, a 5.2% of the total waste stream, the equivalent of 191 t-shirts.

191 t-shirts for each of us, every year?

Those Forever 21, Zara and Uniqlo masterpieces sure don't last too long, do they?

Slow Fashioned is an online magazine whose mission is to raise awareness about the environmental impact of fashion consumption, and to challenge consumers to make informed, lower impact clothing buys. The site is an interesting and useful resource (@slowfashioned on Twitter) and promises more enlightening infographics on related topics to come.

Dia de los Muertos 2011: Lee-Shetterly Family Ofrenda

2011-11-01T19:09:00.000-07:00

Mary Fischer, Mattie Hunter Lee, Travers Hand, Dorothy Hand, Robert Shetterly Sr, Phyllis "Birdie" Shetterly, Robert B. Lee, Annie Mae Chambers, Rebecca "Beck" Pennix and Woodie Yuell Giles, Helen Lee Campbell, Melvin Lee, Charles Foxx, Dan Lund, and Nimrod ("Nimmy"): We love you all and thank you for all you have given us. Feliz Dia de los Muertos.

Day of the Dead: Oaxaca 2010

2011-10-31T21:30:00.000-07:00

As Americans don funny or spooky costumes and go door-to-door collecting Halloween treats, Mexico gears up for Day of the Dead, one of the country's most important and breathtaking festivities. Both holidays are rooted in the same Catholic tradition, with "All Hallows Eve" (October 31) followed by All Saints Day (Nov. 1, also called All Hallows or Hallowmas) and All Souls Day (November 2). But whereas Halloween is a time of campy horror, mischief and pranking, Day of the Dead is both somber and joyful, a time when Mexicans of all ages pay homage to deceased relatives, honoring them with altars, parties and gifts.

Despite having lived nearly a year in Oaxaca, and five years in Mexico at the time, it wasn't until last year that Aran and I spent Day of the Dead in this city known for one of the holiday's most elaborate and colorful celebrations. Oaxaca is a sensual feast under the most mundane of circumstances; during Day of the Dead, the sights, sounds and tastes are all-consuming. This year we'll celebrate Dia de Muertos in our new adopted home of Valle de Bravo, but Oaxaca is always close to our hearts during this time. Here are some images from last year's trip.

The centerpiece of the holiday is the ofrenda, the altar built to honor friends and family who have passed away. The ofrenda is decorated with photos of the deceased, their favorite food, drink and candies, marigolds, candles, skulls and skeletons and colorful cut paper (papel picado). Here is an image of an altar at the Bugambilias bed and breakfast in Oaxaca, along with a Catrina, the iconic elegant skeleton lady, and another whimsical skeleton figure.

Cities around the world have displayed cows, bears and and other sculptures painted by well-known artists. Oaxaca commissioned oversized skulls. This is image of one of many that lined the pedestrian walkway on Allende.

A mural in nearby San Agustin de las Etlas reads: "Death waits for us everywhere, but if we're prudent everywhere, we wait for it."

The municipal cemetary is the site of raucous parties. "Here eternity starts, and wordly grandeur turns to dust."

We spent the evening of November 2 in the cemetery with friends from the foreign and Oaxacan community, remembering Thorny Robison, who with his wife Jane, owned and ran the bed and breakfast Casa Colonial. Thorny was killed in a car accident in 2008 but his memory lives on. Here, mariachis get the party going, in front of a portrait of Thorny. The eating, drinking and dancing, next to Thorny's grave, went late into the night.

On the way home, we caught a glimpse of this partygoer, passed out with his favorite toy.

Mad for Ravelry

2011-08-23T15:02:00.000-07:00

My husband and I, while specing a new feature for our website Mexico Meetings Network, had put together a long list of sites that had implementations we liked.

"But you should check out how Ravelry does it," I said. "They really got it right."

DH gave me a "Yeah, right" kind of look but I insisted. I wasn't just vouching for Ravelry as one of its fiber-mad knitting obsessed power users, but as a tech industry entrepreneur who loves a good idea well-executed. Though Facebook and LinkedIn have their charms, it's Ravelry I love.

And I'm not the only one who thinks so. In a recent article, Slate's technology columnist Farhad Manjoo analyzed Ravelry's niche social network success. Don't you think that gives me a free pass to count the hours I spend on Ravelry as market research?

Read A Tight-Knit Community: Why Facebook can't match Ravelry, the social network for knitters.

WIP Wednesday: East Coast Knitting

2011-08-17T10:15:00.000-07:00

It's August, and I'm back in the US. Aran and I don't get back that often, but when we do, it's a production. Eight cities, five weeks, five parents, four siblings, two nieces and a nephew, four cats, two birds and a dog, dozens of cousins, aunts, uncles and friends, and a wedding (not ours this time) are all part of the ShetterLee 2011 Summer Extravaganza.

I'm hoping to use the time to make a dent in my knitting queue, which because of the demands of work and knitting ADD has been pretty slow in converting its "on the sticks" projects to "finished objects" (less work...more progress please!) To impose a little discipline, I've decided to focus on four projects (I know...four! But I can't help myself) and not start anything new until they're done:

1. Aran's Handsome Man Sweater

2. A pair of Skew Socks. When I stumbled upon saw Lana Holden's amazing pattern, I couldn't resist. I'm a sucker for bias design.

3. A pair of mittens I'm designing with two skeins of Cascade 220 Heathers (colorway 9445) that have been in the stash for 7 years

4. Finally there's the design for a coat I've been calling Valle de Bravo, after the quaint lakeside town where I live. I bought the yarn from Gualupita, another town in our state, know for its wool and knitted goods productions. The design, a cap-sleeved coat designed to chase the chill on cool Valle evenings, is an exercise in creative short-rowing, as much about the experimentation as the final product.

Of course, I left my camera's USD cable at home, so I'm trying to turn up a replacement so I can post pics.

Principles of Knitting by June Hemmons Hiatt: Back in Print!

2011-05-23T18:40:00.000-07:00

Now and again, like most profoundly obsessed hard-core knitters, I head over to Ebay to check the current bids for June Hemmons Hiatt's cult classic The Principles of Knitting, or the second hand price on Amazon, then lament the fact that even if I were able to take delivery here in Mexico, I don't know where I'd come up with $250 snaps for the out of print tome. I console myself by doing a desultory search of the Simon and Schuster website, hoping for news of a reprint, holding out hope that that email that circulated a couple of years back was true and not a knitting version of the Bill-Gates-wants-to-give-you-a-million-dollars hoax.

So naturally I was puzzled when I saw that Amazon seller prices for the book had plummeted to 64 bucks. Could it be....? You betcha! The long awaited reprint is available for sale, and at the deliciously low price of $29.10 (hardcover!) with free Super Saver shipping, woot woot! Guess whose getting a copy on her next trip to the US?

Just one more request, Simon and Schuster: it's pretty expensive to travel with books in tow these days. When are you getting around to publishing a Kindle edition?

This week in Slow Clothes: May 22, 2011

2011-05-22T13:30:00.000-07:00

Does this green flatter me?
Blah blah blah fashion crowd blah blah blah green fashion show blah blah organic cotton blah blah environmentally friendly.

Read the article at NYTimes.com

Fiorenzo Omenetto: Silk, the ancient material of the future
Fiorenzo Omenetto, Professor of Biomedical Engineering and head of the laboratory for Ultrafast Nonlinear Optics and Biophotonics at Tufts University, gives a TED speech on groundbreaking uses of silk.

Watch the video on TED.com

Graffiti’s Cozy, Feminine Side
Art? Craft? Social statement? I know it's all the rage, but my jury is still out on this yarn bombing craze.
Read the article on NYtimes.com

El Tono de la Cochinilla Fiber Course, Part 1

2011-04-23T09:13:00.000-07:00

Teotitlan del Valle is an easy 25 minute drive from Oaxaca City. This Zapotec village is famed for its traditional woven rugs, and according to Smithsonian Magazine, it "boasts one of the highest standards of living of any indigenous village in our hemisphere, perhaps the world." El Tono de la Cochinilla is located about 2 km along the main road into town, on the right hand side.

When I arrive, shortly before 11 AM, Rosario and Ernesto are already hard at work, preparing what we'll need for the day. I'd consulted them in advance about what I wanted to learn and what materals I needed for the project I have in mind: a 1.5 x 2 meter knitted tapestry, made with hand spun and naturally dyed wool. During the two-day course, I'll make a small amount of the yarn myself, and will work with yarn they've already produced to dye the rest of what I need, in dark brown, medium grey, sky blue, cactus green and terra cotta.

They greet me and immediately put me to work washing and drying curls of wool from a black and white sheep. We agitate the wool in a collander in a large tub of water, to begin removing vegetable matter and its heavy lanolin. Once washed, we spread the curls out to dry in the midmorning sun.

Inside the dyeing and spinning shed, just off from the main house, two enormous vats are on full boil, heated by wood fires. One holds plain water, the other is full of wool being boiled with a solution of alum, a mordant that will fix the dyes.

We'll use natural indigo to get the blue yarn I need, and zapote, a delicious fruit, for the dark brown and terracotta. First, however, Rosario leads me to a tree growing right in their yard.

"Normally we go down to the river to find this tree, called yashí," she says. They maintain this one on their property for smaller dyeing lots. The plant, about 2 meters tall, is leafy and straight and reminds me a little of bamboo. Like bamboo, Rosario tells me, it grows very quickly and is seen as a weed. "Farmers don't like to find it on their land," she said.

We cut down all the green branches we can find and promptly place them all in one of the steaming vats. Rosario stirs the branches for a few minutes then drops several hanks of natural white and grey yarn into the leafy stew. We'll use this for the green I need.

Now that the dye is on to boil, it's time to get down to the hard work of making yarn. Like the other artisans in Teotitlan, El Tono de la Cochinilla hand cards all of its wool. Rosario fetches a small basket of our sun-dried black and white curls and two sets of wooden rectangular paddles with an array of tiny metal spikes on their faces. We sit down together and taking a small clump of the wool, she demonstrates how to rake the fibers-- first one side, then the other, repeating
the motion several times until the resulting fibers caught on the paddle are smooth and straight.

I take up my paddles and struggle to pull them apart through the strong wool. By the time the wool on the face of my paddle is smooth and uniform-- what was black and white is now a soft grey--Rosario has deftly transformed four clumps into lofty fiber rectangles ready to be spun. I dislodge the wool from my own paddle, deeming it done, and gently lay it alongside Rosario's work.

"Oh...the one side is fine but the other side still needs to be combed," Rosario instructs me. Indeed, one side of my rectangle is still curly and multicolored. I replace the rectangle on my paddles and dutifully work through the rest of the curls. We card for a couple of hours, my hands learning the required motion with each new clump of wool. Carding requires subtle dexterity and significant hand strength, and I wince when Rosario points to two enormous sacks of raw wool waiting for her to card.

By lunchtime I've worked up an appetite. We retire to the house where Rosario has prepared a salad with organic greens grown in Teotitlan, and a delicious mole coloradito with chicken.

Next: Spinning wheel got to go round.

Semana Santa 2011 in Oaxaca

2011-04-16T18:01:00.000-07:00

My travels have taken me to Monterrey, Coahuila (Monclova and Cuatrocienegas) and Toluca in the last week. Did you know Langston Hughes spent time in Toluca, among other Mexican cities? His father was a manager at an electric plant there. Go figure! But I digress.

Three days ago I landed in glorious Oaxaca, the starting point for my Mexico adventure and one of the planet's most aesthetically evolved cities. Though the schedule is front-loaded with work-related meetings, the mission is to get my fiber on during Semana Santa, Teotitlan del Valle-style.

While in Oaxaca two summers ago, a search for cochineal led me to El Tono de la Cochinilla, a family of weavers committed to preserving traditional weaving techiques, including the use of natural dyes like cochineal, indigo and caracol. Rosario Martinez Vasquez and her husband Ernesto Ernesto Maldonado González offer a course in spinning and natural dyeing and I'll spend part of my time in Oaxaca in their course (hopefully) creating yarn for a project I have in mind.

I'll be updating the blog and posting photos of this trip as well as photos from last year's trip to Oaxaca for Day of the Dead.

Handsome Man Sweater: Ready to Knit

2011-02-13T14:01:00.000-08:00

After much sketching, swatching, measuring and calculating, the Handsome Man sweater is finally ready to knit!

I'll be posting notes and photos over the coming days as Handsome takes shape.

February 5, 2011: This week in Slow Clothes

2011-02-05T08:50:00.000-08:00

Links to articles and items of interest on knitting, fiber arts, and ecologically sensitive fashion.

H&M Upcycles Clothes (and Its Image) For Spring
Fast fashion retailer H&M tries to make us forget about all that clothing they trashed outside their Manhattan store last year by presenting a line of "green" clothing for spring 2011.
Read the article at Earth911.com

Sri Lankan upcycling factory makes waves in the fashion industry
Sri Lankan fashion designers are out front in creating "upcycled" fashion lines.
Read the article on The Telegraph

Cotton prices will rise wtih flood waters.
Hey all you Valentines and Winthorpes out there: that cotton market has been hot, hot, hot lately! Learn how the recent Australian floods are affecting the market for cotton yarn.
Read the article on Examiner.com

Knitwear to be 2011 Green trend
Cold weather + high fuel prices + environmental consciousness= demand for Fair Isle Sweaters.
Read the article on WARC.com

Jennifer Aniston and Georgia May (Jagger) take up knitting
Big deal, who isn't knitting these days?
Read the articles on Digital Spy and Monsters and Critics

January 22, 2011: This Week in Slow Clothes

2011-01-22T07:48:00.000-08:00

Katharine Cobey featured at Maine Fibearts
If you're in Maine, don't miss the chance to see Katharine Cobey's brilliant and inspiring knitted fiber art. The installation will be up through February 25, and Katharinwill be giving a gallery talk, "Knitting Great Shapes" on February 13th at 2:30 pm. For more information see
Maine Fiberarts
Katharine Cobey's website

Via Ecouterre: Stine Ladefoged
Danish Designer Stine Ladefoged brings us chunky knitted goodness in his latest collection
Read the article at Ecouterre

Shopping with Susanne Tick
Textile designer Susanne Tick shops for interesting textiles and furnishings made from recycled and unusual materials.
Read the article at the NY Times

Convertible clothing is a new twist for the cost conscious
Buy one of these rather than buying five of those?
Read the article at the NY Times

Runway to Green
Fashion leaders to host eco-friendly runway show in March 2011
Read the article at Ecouterre

January 15th, 2011: This Week in Slow Clothes

2011-01-15T08:59:00.000-08:00

Here are a few articles I found this week relating to slow fashion, knitting and fiber art.

Outsider Art Finds Its Place in Fashion, NYT
Fashion house Missoni, British artist Peter Blake and photographer Juergen Teller converge at outsider/visionary art museum The Museum of Everything.
Read the article at the New York Times

Handmade clothing is having its fashion moment
Are fashionistas ready to kick their addiction to crappy sweatshop knockoffs and start buying (or even making their own) quality slower clothing?
Read the article at The Toronto Star Online

What's in the New Ford Focus? Your Old Jeans
Now, if they could only build the cars to run on old jeans..
Read the article at Mercury News

Waste Couture: The Environmental Impact of the Clothing Industry
New Year's resolutions: buy less, buy recycled, wash in cold water, air dry.
Read the article at Ecology Campus Network

What Santa Brought, 2011 Project Queue, Handsome Man Sweater and More

2011-01-08T20:53:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! I'm back in Mexico after a delightful (and snowy) Christmas and New Year's trip to the US, and ready to get cracking on my endless knitting to-do list. Santa was especially thoughtful this year and among the gifts left under the tree were a Kindle (already loaded up my digital knitting library!) and a copy of Weardowney Knit Couture - 20 Hand-knit Designs from Runway to Reality I also sneaked myself a couple of treats: an Embellish-Knit i-cord machine, and an old-fashioned toy knitting machine, like the one I got for Christmas when I was eight.

I've been trying to master my Ultimate Sweater Machine for years now; knitting on the machine is much harder and requires much more technique than I thought. And while I'm now more or less proficient at the basics of the
thing, seeing an Addi Turbo Express Knitter in Crochet in Polanco last year got me to thinking that a simpler version of the same might boost my production. The Addi Turbo, with its German engineering, is a dream to knit, but at $200+ USD was way out of the budget. Enter the Singer Toy Knitting Machine , $20 bucks at my local Kmart. The Embellish-Knit i-cord machine was on sale for $11.99 at the local Joanne's. Both products have awful online reviews, but I have a feeling that they, like my other knitter, are akin to bicycles, which is to say that the human input is the machine's most important part, and the factor that determines how well the machine works. An athlete on a Huffy will beat a couch potato on a Kestrel...but I digress. The challenging experience with the Sweater Machine helped me to understand how to tweak the performance of the toy machines, and I'll soon be posting the projects I'm working on with each.

Over Christmas, I completed three projects: a sweater and a poncho for my nieces (photos forthcoming), and the Brattleboro Hat from New England Knits for a friend going through chemo for recently diagnosed breast cancer). This cleared the way for the 2011 project I'm most excited about: a cardiagn sweater for my DH (I'm calling it the "Handsome Man Sweater").

I've wanted to knit something special for him for awhile and think that a classic cardigan/jacket, which he can dress up or down, and wear in a variety of circumstances and climates, is just the ticket. I'm still working on the design and will post here as the project develops, but the initial specs are:

Yarn: Panda Bambu (75% wool, 25% bamboo) by Tamm, a brand of Mexican yarn manufacturer Hilos Omega. While "mercerias" (stores selling yarn, buttons and notions) are plentiful in Mexico, most sell acrylic yarns. The natural fiber yarns most commonly sold in yarn stores in the US are harder to find, and more expensive than back home. One can certainly buy wool yarn in towns like Teotitlan del Valle in Oaxaca, or Gualupita in Mexico State, but as natural and lovely as these yarns can be, they're usually too scratchy for wearing right next to the skin. Tamm/Omega has a nice selection of natural fiber yarns, produced in Mexico and available at great prices.

Technique: Knit diagonally from the top down. What else? Katharine Cobey's Diagonal Knitting is still at the top of my knitting book rotation (she generously sent me a copy and it arrived...not without Mexico mail drama, but it arrived), and at some point I'll get around to posting a review of this exceptional book.

Style: Cardigan with a shawl collar. What man doesn't look handsome in a classic cardigan sweater with a shawl collar? Here's a slideshow of the look.

Diagonal Knitting: A Different Slant by Katharine Cobey

2010-09-01T18:48:00.000-07:00

Make room on your knitting bookshelf: Diagonal Knitting: A Different Slant, by knitter/fiber artist/sculptor Katharine Cobey is hot off the press (Schoolhouse Press, 2010).

I'm proud to call Katharine a friend, a mentor and a source of inspiration. Katharine's creativity, technical skill and superb understanding of garment construction gave me the information and the confidence I needed to knit my wedding dress (knit diagonally from the top down). She's sparked in me an obsession with bias knitting and a desire to push the boundaries of knitting both as craft and as art.

I hope I can get a copy of the book soon (I haven't had great luck with having books delivered here in Valle de Bravo) and will post a detailed review when I do. In the meantime, you can preorder a copy from her publisher Schoolhouse Press, and follow Katharine's new blog.

Photo of artist Katharine Cobey from http://diagonalknitting.com/cobey-conversations/

Read Reviews of Diagonal Knitting by Katharine Cobey:

Knitters Review reviews Diagonal Knitting by Katharine Cobey

How to lose 68 pounds in a year

2010-08-14T09:06:00.000-07:00

The 90s and early 2000s were one long bacchanalian orgy for fashion lovers. Who among us didn't revel in the (more than) occasional shopping spree, toting oversized bags full of stylish goodies back from trendy downtown boutiques or the Banana Republic sales racks to an already full-to-overflowing closet? Cashmere on one's shoulders and the latest pair of jeans on one's behind felt like a Constitutional right.

Of course, for the last three years, the fashion industry and us fashion consumers have been flat on our backs, laid low by the shopping hangover. And let's face it, it's a good thing: given the damaging processes used to cultivate textiles, the energy required to produce and transport clothing, and an average per-American contribution of 68 pounds of textile waste a year to our landfills, the environment is victim number one of our desire to be absoutely fabulous at all times. Fewer sartorial choices first thing in the morning can be a liberating way to start the day. Isn't it time we all learned to live with less?

A recent trio of articles on the New York Times chronicles an emerging sensibility, in which consumers are buying less, and finding themselves happier for it. Fashion designers are also exploring ways to reduce the wastefulness inherent in clothing production.

New York Times, August 13, 2010: Fashion tries on zero waste design

New York Times, August 7, 2010: But will it make you happy?

New York Times, July 21, 2010: Shoppers on a diet tame the urge to buy

What do you think?

Knit Like Me: Modern Top Down Knitting by Krista McGowan

2010-08-13T18:48:00.000-07:00

For the last two years, I've knitted a dress for my birthday. Last year it was a cable knit number knit from Classic Elite Provence (100% mercerized Egyptian cotton) in Japanese Lilac, inspired by a sweater from Pucci's Fall 2009 Runway. This year, I whipped up a bias-knit below the knee dress with a low back, knit from 7 skeins of Rowan Summer Tweed (70% silk, 30% cotton) in Ghost, which has been in my stash for six years.

This year's dress was an improvised pattern knit from the top down. I was pretty happy with it-- I wore it out once to a party-- and for months I've been meaning to publish the pattern.

Imagine my surprise and pleasure when during a routine browse of Amazon's soon-to-be-published knitting books, I ran across Kristina McGowan's Modern Top-Down Knitting: Sweaters, Dresses, Skirts & Accessories Inspired by the Techniques of Barbara G. Walker, a contemporary take on Walker's classic Knitting from the Top.

The cover image is of a design similar to my 2010 birthday dress. Although I'm a bias fanatic, I like the clean lines and princess seams of the cover dress. Barbara Walker's book is a must for any serious knitter, and I hope to pick up a copy of Modern Top Down Knitting on my next trip to the US.

New pattern for sale: Bougainvillea Hat

2010-06-01T09:43:00.000-07:00

Since I spend so much of my time knitting and designing, I've decided to try my hand at selling my knitting patterns. My first pattern for sale is Bougainvillea Hat, a lightweight colorful knitted hat for spring and early summer.

Requires one skein of Lion Cotton and a few yards of a contrasting color in Brown Sheep Cotton Wool. Intermediate knitting skills required.

This comfy warm weather hat, made in a lightweight, durable cotton, is inspired by the vibrant color of the bougainvillea vines that are found around every cobblestoned corner in Mexico. The top of the hat is formed by knitting a circle one short row wegde at a time, then picking up and knitting from the top down. It’s one of my favorite techniques and leaves me impressed with the magic of geometry!

The Lion Cotton is readily available online and at most craft stores for a very reasonable price). The double thickness of Brown Sheep Cotton wool is meant to give the appearance of a ribbon around the hat. You could easily substitute a contrasting color of the Lion Cotton if you wanted a stripe with a less embossed effect.

Pattern includes schematic, photos, and description of techniques used.

The pattern is available for sale on Ravelry for $4.00. More details and patterns to come!

Oddest Book Title of the Year

2010-03-26T10:34:00.001-07:00

Topologist/crocheter Daina Taimina's book Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes has won Bookseller Magazine's 2010 Oddest Book Title of the Year Contest.

As someone who lives in the intersection of geometry and knitting geekdom, all I can say is "Well done!". It's already in my Amazon.com wishlist queue.

Reknit, Reuse, Recycle

2010-03-01T16:01:00.000-08:00

Here's a fabulous link to someone engaged in one of my favorite activities: re-knitting.

Yarn is expensive if you're a knitaholic, but there are thrift shops full of ugly sweaters made of beautiful silk, wool, linen and cotton yarns, waiting to be reborn as something that someone will actually wear.

Along comes Reknit, a mother and son operation out of Boston, waiting to turn your sweater moth into a butterfly. Send your sweaters to Haik Avanian and his mother Gayane will reknit them into the item of the month. This month's item: hats.

I've found re-knitting to be great fun, often more satisfying than knitting something from first hand yarn from the LYS. Last year I found a heavy silver silk sweater at a garage sale and reworked it into a swingy A-line skirt. Right now I'm trying to turn yarn from a rather unfortunate sand-colored Max Studio sweater into a bathing suit.

Of course, once you get into reknitting, every two dollar sow's ear of a sweater starts looking like a silk purse, and the next thing you know you have a closet full of sow's ears.

The Endless Garment:The New Craft of Machine Knitting

2010-02-09T10:16:00.000-08:00

Melbourne's RMIT Gallery presents The Endless Garment: The New Craft of Machine Knitting. The exhibition features the work of Issey Miyake, Sandra Backlund, Walter Van Beirendonck, Cooperative Designs, Mark Fast, Nikki Gabriel, Yoskiki Hishinuma, Saverio Palatella, Freddie Robins and Sibling.

The exhibition will run from February 12, 2010 through March 21, 2010.

For more information: RMIT Gallery website.

Photo from Sandra Backlund's website, photographer Peter Gehrke.

Rodarte designs for the Winter Olympics

2010-02-07T10:09:00.000-08:00

Knitwear designers Laura and Kate Mulleavey-otherwise known as Rodarte-- have designed a special knitwear collection for a New York Times photoshoot of Winter Olympics athletes. Check out the interview and the slideshow.

Rodarte's work is the subject of an exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, from February 11, 2010 through March 14 2010. Click here for information about the exhibit.

Stan Cox: "Take a Holiday from Clothes Shopping

2010-01-18T15:00:00.000-08:00

Via Elaine Lipson's excellent blog Making Good, an Op-Ed from Stan Cox, the lead scientist for the Land Institute in Salinas, Kansas.

Over at Inside México, we had the privilege of publishing an abridged version of Stan's Op-Ed in which he takes expats to task for bringing their high-consumption lifestyles to Mexico.

The following piece also reflects on the choices of individual consumers, and asks us to think out of the closet before we buy new clothes.

Take a holiday from clothes shopping

By Stan Cox

Prairie Writers Circle

A deep recession — or worse — is in the holiday forecast, but belt-tightening doesn’t have to ruin the festive mood. Here’s one painless way to cut expenses while giving the planet a much-needed break: Resolve not to buy any new clothes — not even a tight new belt! — for anyone for a whole year, starting now

Don’t worry about disappointing family or friends. Christmas after Christmas, polls show that clothing, the most popular present among givers, is also ranked as the “most disappointing gift” by those on the receiving end.

We’ve already stockpiled enough clothes to last us for years. The average annual shopping haul swelled from $1,550 per household in 2002 to $1,760 last year. That spending spree was prompted in part by what the Bureau of Labor Statistics says was a 30 percent drop in real apparel prices over the past decade. With cheap imports allowing a dollar to buy more, the physical bulk of garb purchased by the average household has risen 18 percent in just five years.

In America, even in hard times, anyone can be a power shopper. Our national cheap-clothing policy means you can fill your closets to bursting, even if you’re not a major-party nominee on a $150,000 budget.

And with a constant need to free up closet space for new purchases, the average American discards 68 pounds of clothing and other textiles each year, the Environmental Protection Agency says.

Although 10 million tons of unwanted duds per year puts pressure on U.S. landfills, it's the origin of the clothes that does the greatest harm. Production of synthetic fabric consumes petroleum, blows out greenhouse gases and spews wastewater bearing organic solvents, heavy metals and poisonous dyes and fiber treatments.

Conventional cotton clothing also comes at great cost. Grown on less than 2 percent of U.S. farmland, the cotton crop accounts for one of every four pounds of pesticides sprayed, Agriculture Department figures show. Things are worse in the global south, where cotton accounts for half of pesticide use.

To curb the soil erosion for which cotton land is infamous, no-till methods have been introduced on a large scale. But they require heavier spraying of herbicides.

The United States brings in more clothes than the next highest nine importers combined. And by allowing our spinning, weaving and sewing jobs to go to Asia and Latin America, we’ve exported a big pollution problem as well.

Dye effluents often carry toxic metals, among them copper, cobalt, chromium, nickel, zinc, lead, antimony, silver, cadmium and mercury. Bleaching the cloth for a single shirt generates as much as 15 gallons of chlorine-polluted wastewater.

Chemicals used in the industry, including anti-wrinkle compounds, can be carcinogenic. In 2002, Italian and American researchers found that risks of nasal, bladder and gastrointestinal cancers among spinners, weavers and dyers were elevated 28 to 126 percent.

“Green” apparel makers are riding to the rescue but getting lost in a stampede. According to the nonprofit trade association Organic Exchange, the global market for organic cotton clothes grew by $1.4 billion—700 percent—from 2001 to 2007. But in the same period Americans alone increased spending on conventional clothes by $29 billion. Like it or not, virtuous-clothing companies are adding to the bulk jamming the nation's collective closet, not replacing it.

Yes, I know. If Americans started buying just enough new clothes to fit our basic needs, we might deliver a coup de grace to the already crippled retail economy (and thrift-store racks would be stripped bare). But wouldn’t it be great to emerge at the other end of the coming hard times with a new, more rational economy, one that isn’t addicted to selling mountains of stuff that people don’t need or even want?

To paraphrase a retail giant’s slogan, we could save money, live better and spend less time on the consumption treadmill simply by not buying so many clothes. That would make for a real holiday bargain.

Stan Cox is lead scientist for the Land Institute in Salina, Kan., and author of “Sick Planet: Corporate Food and Medicine.” He wrote this comment for the institute’s Prairie Writers Circle. Write to him at t.stan@cox.net.

Designer Crush: Mark Fast

2010-01-09T16:08:00.000-08:00

Article on designer Mark Fast in the (UK) Times Online. He's my current favorite knitwear designer, after Sandra Backlund.

His entire S/S 2010 show is on Style.com.

Knitting and the New World Order

2009-11-02T13:28:00.000-08:00

I don't consider myself a survivalist-- you know, one of those folks who's squirreling away canned goods, gasoline and guns to prepare for tomorrow's race war/asteroid strike/peak oil conflict. That being said: I would love to be able to grow a significant portion of my own vegetables; given a choice, I'd rather walk, ride my bike or take public transportation than drive; and as a dyed-in-the-wool (pun intended) slow clothes kinda gal, I LOVE the idea of being sartorially self-sufficient.

Today, I found this site: Survival and Self Reliance, a hodgepodge of theories about the coming apocalypse (pick a disaster, any disaster) along with a very useful directory of links to information about farming, power generation, outdoor survival and the like. There's a great section on clothing and textiles, and their knitting page has some good links to calculators, patterns and techniques.

Check the other clothing links for information on making your own dyes, candles, shoes and more.

Designer Crush: Shirley Paden

2009-08-19T06:09:00.000-07:00

I browse Amazon.com on a regular basis for new knitting books. A recent search turned up the following, to be published in March 2010: Knitwear Design Workshop: The Comprehensive Guide to Handknits

Although I'm always interested in knitting pattern books, what really gets me excited are books about technique and design concepts. Here's the Amazon description of the book:

"From the initial spark of inspiration to the sewing of the last seam, this advanced manual to knitwear design provides knitters with the foundation to take their projects to the next level. The five exceptional projects demonstrate the level of uniqueness and beauty that can be achieved with these expert techniques and how to achieve the elusive “perfect fit” that defines a successful end product. Knitters will gain a clearer understanding of commercial pattern instructions, improve their attention to detail with a meaningful test swatch, and acquire a stronger knowledge of proper body and garment measurements."

I didn't recognize Shirley Paden's name, but a quick search revealed that this talented designer has created what I think are some of the most interesting and beautiful recently published designs. I usually read the knitting magazines more for inspiration than for knitting patterns exactly as they're published, but Ms. Paden's work is an exception. Her grey suit ("New York Noir," Vogue Knitting Winter 2007) has been in my queue since I bought the issue. Ditto the white lace dress from the cover of Vogue Knitting Spring 2007. Her work obviously brings together a commitment to fine craftmanship with an all out love of fashion.

You can see more of Ms. Paden's work on her website, and watch a video interview she gave to HGTV.

Knitting on the bias

2009-07-12T07:36:00.001-07:00

I think bias knitting is one of the most underutilized and underappreciated techniques in knitwear design. A search for "bias knitting patterns" turns up references to scarves and potholders and the occasional jacket or cardigan, but nothing near the number or variety of patterns that would turn up on a similar search for sewing patterns.

The French couturier Madeleine Vionnet is widely credited as the "inventor" of the bias technique— cutting or knitting an item on the diagonal, or at a 45 degree angle to the grain of the fabric. Though Vionnet's name and work are not as well known as her contemporary Coco Chanel, there is no question that this innovator-- many say genius-- has had a tremendous influence on fashion design. There is a wonderful book on her, written by Betty Kirke and Issey Miyake, which details Vionnet's life and work and includes several patterns. It’s on my Amazon wish list, if anyone is interested!

My first lesson on bias knitting came from the fiber artist and master knitter Katharine Cobey, who advised me on the construction of my wedding dress (photo here). Learning from Katharine was an incredible experience, and her expert tutelage gave me the tools to knit a beautiful wedding dress that fit me perfectly. It was knit in the round from the top down, both body and sleeves on the bias. Katharine has a book on Diagonal Knitting coming out this winter (published by Schoolhouse Press) and I can’t wait to get my hands on it.

Meanwhile, I found another great resource for those looking to explore bias knitting: an e-book by Teresa Allum called Designing on the Bias. Allum walks through the construction of bias sweaters and skirts with instructions for hand knitting, machine knitting and crochet. The instructions are segmented by section of the garment rather than technique, which means that if you’re a crocheter, you have to plow through the detail for hand and machine knitters before finding the relevant information. This can be confusing and make the text difficult to follow. However, the information is valuable, and those willing to think through the concepts and work through the math and schematics will be rewarded by broadening their knitting and designing skills.

Sticker shock!

2009-06-06T15:56:00.000-07:00

I just found out that the fabulous Alessandro dell'Acqua asymetrical minidress is 1,782 euros. At today's exchange rate, that is about $2,500 USD. $35,000 Mexican pesos! Not that it was on my 2009 "to buy" list anyway--not that anything is these days--but even the vicarious gobsmacking is off the charts. It's totally making me want to get the reverse engineering underway sooner than later.

As if it's any consolation, the online store that's selling it offers free shipping.

Brainstorming

2009-06-06T07:21:00.000-07:00

For years, I grew my stash. I never met a yarn I didn't like and would buy skeins of luscious fibers, with no real project in mind, just because something about them inspired me. I searched thrift shops and discount stores for ugly duckling sweaters made of lovely silks, cashmeres and merinos just waiting to be unraveled and reknit into wonderful creations.

The result, of course, can be seen in what Aran and I now call "the knitting closet" (which is literally a large closet filled to overflowing with yarn and knitting accessories), as well as in the closet of my childhood bedroom, and the basement of my father-in-law's house.

Recently, however, I've spent less time collecting and more time designing and knitting. The stash is speaking and the ideas are coming faster than my needles can click. About six years ago, I bought seven skeins of Rowan Summer Tweed (a nubby 70%
silk, 30% cotton) yarn, in "Ghost" (506), a light grey with very subtle and pale flecks of blue, lavender and yellow. It's the kind of fiber that's perfect for the
climate here in Mexico, which is hot during the day and cool at night. I think it would be perfect for a slim tailored jacket, perhaps with short or half-length sleeves.

This photo is from the August 2008 issue of American Vogue, and features a jacket from Calvin Klein Collection (I guess it's Spring/Summer 2009). The tailoring is phenomenal--look at those sleeves! What stunning princess seams! Anyway, I'm wondering if this might be a starting point for a design using the Rowan Summer Tweed.

Inspiration

2009-06-05T16:54:00.001-07:00

Alessandro dell'Acqua, SS 2009. I really like bias knitting, and think this is a great piece. I'm not normally a fan of the one-shoulder style, but I think it works well here. Definitely inspiration for future designs.

Birthday Dress: Photos

2009-06-02T19:54:00.000-07:00

Photo taken by Aran Shetterly, in front of the market in Colonia Condesa, Calle Michoacan, Mexico City.

The Project Queue: May 30, 2009

2009-05-30T11:15:00.000-07:00

We are well into 2009, and despite my crushing work load, I'm pretty satisfied with the knitting I've done this year. It's a good time to review my project queue and set summer priorities:

(1) Cap-sleeved wrap dress in soy silk, color rose. Pulled a quick one on ya! More about this project soon. It's well underway and I just found out that Crochet, which I supposed passes as my Local Yarn Store here in Mexico City, stocks Soy Silk. I brought 5 skeins with me from the US, and was starting to worry that I didn't have enough to finish the dress, but now it looks like things are gonna be A-OK.

(2) Birthday socks for Aran. Technically, I owe him 11 pairs of socks from last year's ambitious "Sock of the Month Club" birthday present (what was I thinking??) A friend gave me a really considerate housewarming present/care package a year ago, containing among other things, sock yarn. However, I can't find the label and can't remember what brand it is. Oh well. The finished product is what matters.

(3) Get well pillow for Regina, from cashmere in stash.

(4) Reworking the grey wrap bubble dress. The verdict is in on the Jolie Laide? Or Just Plain Laide? debate. I will post photos and you can see if you agree or not.

Finally, pics coming soon of The Birthday Dress!

Words from the Maestra

2009-05-30T08:59:00.000-07:00

“Really, all you need to become a good knitter are wool, needles, hands, and slightly below-average intelligence. Of course, superior intelligence, such as yours and mine, is an advantage.” — Elizabeth Zimmerman

Birthday dress--- almost there

2009-05-04T17:32:00.001-07:00

I finished knitting the birthday dress today. I still need to weave in a few ends here and there, and make some other fixes, but overall I'm happy with it. I'm going to take it to the drycleaner tomorrow (or Wednesday...I think Mexico City drycleaners will be closed until Wednesday) and will post photos and the post-mortem.

Why don't people knit more dresses?

Swine Flu Update-- knitting edition

2009-05-02T11:12:00.000-07:00

For the last week, I've been blogging and writing non-stop about the swine flu for Insidemex.com and Morena in Mexico. I took a little knitting break to make the Flu Free Mask, but I'm about to get back to the birthday dress.

The dress is in the home stretch. I couldn't quite work out how to make the black pleat I wanted from the top down, so I'm including back insert with simple increases and slipped stitches. I think this one will be done in a couple of days and will post pics.

Sojourner Truth bust unveiled at White House

2009-04-28T19:52:00.001-07:00

Today at the White House, First Lady Michelle Obama, along with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled a bust of abolitionist Sojourner Truth. She is the first African-American woman to be so honored.

In this well-known photo, Sojorner Truth is knitting.

Flu Free Mask

2009-04-28T17:20:00.001-07:00

Here's my new Flu Free Mask. More to come.

Department of Homemade Security

2009-04-27T08:51:00.001-07:00

Can craftiness come in handy in the swine flu?

Inspiration

2009-04-26T10:12:00.000-07:00

Julien Macdonald FW 2009.

A little somthin' on the side

2009-04-25T12:14:00.000-07:00

I'm ADD when it comes to knitting. I come up with an idea, start a project with a head full of steam and knit like a maniac. Then my best intentions are foiled by the appearance of another Idea, which stomps its feet and demands immediate attention.

The result is that at any given time, I have several projects on the assembly line, and finishing any one of them takes forever. It's a typical procrastination technique; in this case, the New Idea took over because the Birthday Dress requires a couple of design decisions, and I've been a little slack about the research required.

The cause and effect of the ADD is a stash that would do a yarn store proud. The other day, while rooting around in the yarn closet like a truffle pig, a bag of odds and ends in soft blue cotton called my name. I'd bought the yarn from my friend Julia, a knitter and dyer who lives here in Mexico City. No single ball is alike; each ball is a slightly different shade of blue, and there are two weights: one a DK weight, the other a finer fingering. So rather than work through the math on the Birthday Dress, I decided to see what this hodgepodge wanted to be.

What I'm thinking right now is a corset-like top with the lower corset part knitted in the heavier yarn, with the lighter yarn used for some kind of eccentric lacy top. I'm hoping the color differences will seem "cutting edge" rather than sloppy.

This inspirational photo is from a Diesel ad in the March 2007 edition of American Vogue. I'm going to have to do some experimenting on the top; I'm thinking some combination of lace and short-rowing can approximate the blousy fullnesss, but it's gonna take some trial and error and lots of math.

The Snuggie vs the Blankoat

2009-04-10T11:26:00.001-07:00

When I was home in Virginia over Christmas, I saw a TV commercial for something called the Snuggie. The Snuggie, as most of you in the US probably know by now, is a blanket with sleeves. Seriously. I know I've been out of the US for awhile, but-- a blanket with sleeves?

It's like something from Saturday Night Live, except the Snuggie is a real product, and a runaway success. My sister has a Snuggie and loves it, and apparently so do millions of other people. You can see the commercial here:

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Now, I recently came across something called the Blankoat, created by an Icelandic designer named Sruli Recht. Heres a description:

"A very very large length of knitted natural Icelandic Wool
knotted and looped of embossed testudine shields
corrupted by placement of two colossal Sleeves
and edged around with a shell stitch

Blankoat is grown, shorn, knitted, cut, sewn and boxed in Iceland.*

Presented with hue options, of natural Coal finished with Sleet edge
and secondly a dyed Teal and Mint finish.

Blankoat is big, warm and light.

Measuring 306.5cm x 130cm"

Same expanse of fabric with room for arms, same druid styling, but Blankoat is the slow clothes version, made by hand of Icelandic Wool. Sure, the same 250 euros ($325 US) will buy you 16 polypropene Snuggies, but if you're going to spend an evening in front of the television or spend a night out at Stonehenge with friends, why not do it in natural fibers?

Jolie laide...or just laide?

2009-03-28T09:41:00.000-07:00

Experimentation is the basis of knitting science. One gets inspiration, sketches, swatches, calculates and forms the hypothesis that the finished object will be beautiful, wearable and flattering. One goes to the lab and begins testing, one stitch at a time.

Sometimes the evidence forces us to reject the null hypothesis in favor of the alternative hypothesis. That is to say, the design was a mistake and must be abandoned before it's done. Sometimes we commit the Type II error of incorrectly failing to reject the null hypothesis: that is to say, we go full steam ahead with our project as is, and the result is fugly.

But one never knows until one goes into the lab.

I think I've done a reasonable job of replicating the Pucci cable for the front middle of the dress, though it seems that their sweater used wool or other more elastic yarn. I'm using a much smaller cable for the back of the dress; the idea, keeping with the anatomical reference, is to indicate a spine. I seamed the pieces together last night (not my strength! I'm a much better circular knitter, but given the extemporaneous nature of the dress, need to use a little more technique) and now have to figure out where I go from here. I'm a bit concerned that because the yarn is heavy and the front cable rather bulky I may have to emaciate myself for it to fall correctly.

Knitting Nature

2009-03-28T09:37:00.000-07:00

I bought six hanks of Classic Elite's Provence Yarn (mercerized cotton, color Japanese Lilac) about five years ago, but there's no question that the similarity of the color to the jacaranda blossoms provided the inspiration to use it for the birthday dress.

Jacarandas in bloom

2009-03-28T09:09:00.000-07:00

On the weekends, Aran and I take Birdie and Beck for a long morning walk. Saturday is my turn, so this morning, the three of us set off on our customary amble around the Condesa.

Three weeks ago, even a quick walk outside required a gas mask. The air was so dry, so polluted, so unbreathable that I spent nearly every waking moment congested and dizzy. All I could do was close my eyes and pray for the rainy season.

The rain's not here yet-- though each afternoon now the skies cloud over, it can't be much longer-- but breezes have cleared the air and spring is everywhere. Most magnificently, the jacaranda trees are blooming. Jacarandas can be found throughout Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, as well as in South Africa, India and other temperate and tropical zones. The tree's flowers are a brilliant blue-purple and even here in the heart of Mexico City, their blooming is a stunning natural phenomenon. The photos don't do them justice.

Birthday dress inspiration

2009-03-27T12:53:00.000-07:00

As mentioned, I'm currently working up the design for my birthday dress. I'd been noodling on it for awhile, making sketches and swatches and thinking about the construction. Then I saw this photo from the Pucci Fall/09 show, and the idea took shape. I love the cable at the waist-- at once beautiful and grotesque, like perfect washboard abs with the flesh stripped away.

Mad Knitting Scientist!

2009-03-26T10:01:00.000-07:00

I'm an entrepreneur, writer and avid knitter who lives with my husband Aran Shetterly and two dogs Birdie and Beck in the heart of the Condesa, in Mexico City. When I'm not working on something related to Inside Mexico (not often these days) I'm often to be found immersed in my various Mad Knitting Science experiments.

I haven't finished a major project since knitting my wedding dress in September 2005, (I will post photos soon) but I'm currently working on a birthday dress, the color of jacaranda trees, currently in bloom here in Mexico. I have about ten days to go, we'll see if I make it.