Tag: creative machine knitting

Book Review, colorwork

Confronting Color

elyknits

In case you missed it, I recently reviewed Alison Dupernex’s Creative Machine Knitting.

And boy can I say I was excited but also nervous when I noticed she replied to my Instagram post about the review.

…I threw all my designs in and my ‘colour madness’ to encourage and inspire knitters to go and make for themselves.

Alison Dupernex

Click on the post to view the entire comment.

Her color stories are sometimes very “out there” to me, as in “there’s no way I’d personally choose that,” but her comment on my review got me thinking. 

I decided to pick up Designing with Colour, another book Dupernex wrote in 2020. (I’ll fully review that one soon, but it’s another nice one).

Somehow her color choices didn’t feel as wild to me as they did in Creative Machine Knitting, the most recently published one, but Dupernex’s design theory and point of view remain consistent.

I’ve changed. 

I started to ruminate on how I use color in my own work. 

My default want is to add texture. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Texture is lovely. But I ran into the thought

… am I afraid of color work? 

I adore hand dyed yarns from indie dyers. I love to let the yarn do the work for me color-wise. I like to see how the colors pool, stripe, or blend together. I know what I’m working with, but I don’t know exactly how the garment will turn out, and each skein is unique. 

Does letting the yarn do the work for me make me a lazy knitter? I don’t think so. 

Does that make me a lazy designer? Not necessarily…

But I think it does make me a bit complacent.

It’s easy to rely on beautiful hand dyes to catch eyes and bring people to your work. 

It’s not at all a bad thing to use the gorgeous colors others have curated in your work. 

But I’m not really growing or building skills as a knitter or designer that way. 

Starting Out Small

I initially felt drawn to Dupernex’s color blocked designs the most. I decided to start with her Blocked Sweater from Creative Machine Knitting that featured textured striping on the sleeves and borders of the garment since texture is my favorite thing in knitting.

The design features nine colors. 

Until recently, I didn’t even own nine colors in the same yarn. I think six is my maximum, and that’s if you count Silk City Fibers Cotton Bamboo and Lion Brand CoBoo as the same yarn in different put-ups. 

I found some new old stock vintage Millor Trenzado Industrial cone yarn through a Facebook post (read some tips on finding cone yarn in this post), so I finally have enough colors in the same weight of yarn to experiment.

Sorting through this was overwhelming

After looking through the cones, I had no clue where to start choosing colors. I googled “color palettes” and ended up at Coolers.co narrowing down their existing color palettes to those with nine colors. From there, I tried to see which ones 1) I liked and 2) actually existed in my new cone stash. 

I landed me with this one. I took a screenshot, but I’ve been unable to locate it again. I’ll update with a direct link if I find it.

This palette gives me a southwestern US vibe, and I like that. Holding vacation thoughts in my head, I matched the colors as best as I could from the existing pile and buckled down to knit. 

This photo is rather heavily filtered to make the yarn as close to in-person color as possible.

Actually Knitting

Trenzado Industrial is probably a little bit large for this project, but I decided to continue with the fabric at the pattern’s prescribed tension because it knit well on my Brother KH890 and blocked out nicely. 

After knitting the back right, I quickly realized I needed to dig out a color changer so I could avoid having to get up every few rows to change colors. Just a note: If you decide to get a color changer, there is a difference in models for Brother machines at least, and some will not work with the ribber bed attached while others will. 

The garment itself wasn’t difficult to knit, but I made it a bit harder on myself by reversing the shaping on one front while I was listening to a podcast. 

I didn’t realize until I went to pin the piece onto my dress form, so I had to rehang the stitches and unravel a few inches so I could fix the neck and shoulders. It wasn’t a big deal, but I felt a bit silly. 

I’ve always admitted to being a lazy knitter, so I didn’t enjoy knitting the sleeves. Changing yarns so often was annoying, and I didn’t feel like I could get in the groove with so many quick sections and color changes alongside the decreases. That’s on me, but it is harder to knit something when you don’t enjoy the process.

I do like the overall color palette that the coolers app presented, but in addition to being a lazy knitter by nature, I think I must be a second-guesser, especially since I opted for some tans instead of oranges due to supply. 

I questioned my color choices the entire time I was knitting. Is this orange too bright for the southwest feel? Why did I think this needed a green? That’s too minty, why did I think it was a light sage? 

I had to keep telling myself to trust the process. 

Trust the process. Trust the process…

What do you think? 

It looks pretty okay, right? I’ve been telling myself, “Look here, overthinking second-guesser. It turned out great and now you have a color palette ready for the next one!”

But let me overthink some more…

Since I already liked color blocked items, just doing one with striped sleeves and calling it a day doesn’t really mean I’ve done much “Confronting Color,” now, does it?

Here’s to the next one with less anxiety over the color palette and even more use of color!

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Book Review

Creative Machine Knitting by Alison Dupernex

elyknits

Here in the USA, recent Machine Knitting books seem few and far between. That’s not the case across the pond, and I’ve been able to find quite a few wonderful skill and pattern books published within the past five years from the UK.

Here’s my review of Creative Machine Knitting: A Voyage of Discovery into Colour, Shape and Stitches by Alison Dupernex.

Creative Machine Knitting is simply a treasure trove for machine knitters overflowing with inspiration and design know-how. Expand your creative vocabulary, knit with an open mind and be prepared to have a go, make changes and look to improvise—push yourself out of your comfort zone.

[T]he book features over 100 patterns, all of which can be adapted and form the basis of new designs.

Jacket Blurb

The Details

Published: 2022Publisher: The Crowood Press
Format: HardbackPages: 256
MSRP: £35.00~$44.00 as of this post

Chapters

An Introduction to Design SourcesWaistcoats
Sustainable Options for Knitwear DesignersChildren’s Knitwear
Design BasicsAccessories
Classic Jackets and CardigansInteriors
Painting with YarnCable Directory
Designing with Panels and BordersStitch Pattern Directory
Shawl Collar Cardigans
Diagonal Knitting

What I’m Looking For

If it’s a machine knitting book in print today, you can bet I’m going to get my hands on it. If it’s a good book, I’m recommending it to my friends. If it’s a great book, I’m recommending it to my students, too.

But what am I looking for? What makes a book good or great?

Schematics
Pictures, illustrations, and diagrams are vital to any skill book. Knitting books, hand or machine, must have pattern schematics to be “good.” Schematics are the first thing I look for in a book.
I like to play around with yarns and rarely, if ever, use the recommended yarn for a pattern. Schematics make it easy to change yarns and still have the correct finished garment.  

Perspective
I look for eye-catching designs and unique pattern elements, twists on familiar classics, and sections sharing the writer’s design thoughts and philosophy along with thoughtful commentary on the crafting community.

How To’s
If a book is geared towards building new skills, I look for step-by-step tutorials with plenty of photos, but I don’t think every book needs to spend chapters dedicated to starting from scratch. I appreciate books for those of us who have made it past the beginner stage and don’t need our hands held.

Overview

Creative Machine Knitting is aimed at the experienced machine knitter who wants to explore knitwear design. Dupernex begins with a section on culture, books and patterns, and key considerations on originality. She emphasizes adapting elements you like and using your own skills to create designs rather than copying someone else’s work. She encourages you to experiment with your style, research the market, and make production choices based on feasibility, but what I appreciated most was the chapter called Sustainable Options for Knitwear Designers. That section includes fiber analysis, types of sustainability, and commentary on the Slow Fashion movement.
Dupernex includes a brief history of classic cardigans before diving in to her patterns. Building onto those classics, she includes punchcards and color instructions for customization and explains her design process and inspiration. There is a wealth of punchcard information in this book that mainly focuses on using fair isle techniques.

Thoughts

Schematics? Check!
Each pattern features schematics, but most patterns are one size.
I don’t know Ms. Dupernex’s measurements, but I’m 5’8″ with a 48″ bust, and some of the measurements don’t hit me in the same places they did her. Since many of these patterns are knit sideways, adding length could pose a problem. Tall and plus size ladies like myself will need to do the math to knit these patterns and be willing to rework a few things if needed.

Perspective? Lovely, but overwhelming…
I appreciate that Dupernex took the time and space in this book to focus on what the industry can be moving forward and choices designers can make to help it become sustainable and more focused on small, local businesses and creators. As knitters, we aren’t pumping out cheap tees with fun slogans that wither in the wash after a few wears. We should strive to create quality when we knit, and I think responsible material choices are included in that.

As for her designs themselves, I have very mixed feelings on Dupernex’s work. I love her use of classic shapes, but I prefer texture over colorwork any day. Dupernex relies on colorwork for the majority of patterns in this book, and I cannot see myself making the same color choices she has.

Stripes, stripes, and more stripes in every color under the sun often lead to the eye being drawn to random places on the body–places the wearer might or might not wish to emphasize. The busyness of the colors is often overwhelming to me, and I find myself drawn to her color blocked, earth toned patterns over the majority that use color-changing fair isle stripes.

Because of the focus on color, the cable directory feels a little out of place, but I love that Dupernex made sure to include texture in her book. We definitely do not agree on color usage, but I think seeing this (what feels to me) extreme color usage will help me grow as a knitter and designer.

How To’s
Dupernex gives precise color instructions down to the row on how to recreate her color madness, but since she included sections on blending yarn and choosing inspiration, you don’t have to feel tied to the pattern or her color choices.

Overall…

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Should you buy Creative Machine Knitting? For me, it’s a resounding “YES” despite my color and stripe issues. The chapters on sustainability and design considerations from someone who has long been in the machine knitting industry are worth it. The tips on finding inspiration plus the fair isle colorwork experience, as wild as I found it, will help you solidify your own design perspectives. It may be too much for brand new beginners, but the step-by-step color instructions could help the more confident beginner knit their own technicolor dreamcoat.

Where to Buy

I bought my copy during a sale from Blackwell’s UK along with other machine knitting books that haven’t had their US release yet.

I’m a bit of a hypocrite here because I didn’t wait for US release to shop local, but I hope you’ll consider asking your local yarn shop or bookstore to order the book for you.

If you don’t have a local shop that can order the book, please consider using my Amazon Affiliate link to order. It doesn’t cost you any extra, and I may receive a small commission that will help me continue bringing you free content.

Thank you for joining me on my machine knitting journey. Do you have Creative Machine Knitting by Alison Dupernex? What do you think? If you don’t, do you plan on buying it? Let me know in the comments below.

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