I’m in the state of like not knowing, like I know that these things about my practice, like I’m interested in natural fibers, I love the alpacas, but you can say like what actually is really sparking me alive is access to community, like having a sense of like belonging storytelling. So it might be that like, okay, you work with the alpacas.
This was them paraphrasing my rambles and I think I just wanted to say this will be how I am moving forward with my sip. im passionate about people and storytelling. I learnt learning what someone has experienced to make them them. through their culture or just life experiences. id like everyone to share theirs.
and alpacas. I love Peru and alpacas.
im gonna curate an exhibitions at some point but im planning to have a body of research exploring different types of interactive/ intentional exhibitions through history.
I had a chat with edie and antione about their experiences in the industry which was super interesting. edie who is in a similar position to me in terms of a knitwear working environment, told me she felt through time she was able to voice her boundaries more. she regretted being a yes man and has now learned to voice what she actually wanted to learn. Antione on the other hand felt passive towards everything due to him not actually studying fashion, but rather fine art, and felt that any foot in the industry was better than nothing which is understandable
talking to edie was so much fun it always is. its so nice to be able to have someone in such a similar position to you in life. sometimes it feels like only she can understand what im talking about. \
I LIKE KNITSTER NOW! I have friends and it’s fun. im feeling sporadic about this blog because im trying to submit everything within the next hour. I am finally going to Pitt in Florence in June and I hope this next year will be awesome. ill probably continue to upload on here cause its been cathartic.
Love you whoever is reading this! thank you for sharing my journey.
An example of this for me, was when I was working on a hat with a fluffy yarn I hadn’t worked with before. This hat took over 10 attempts to knit, due to the yarn getting caught in the machine. This was until I realised I needed to check under the carriage almost every row. The repetitiveness of this failure caused me to experience frustration within myself, and I found it very difficult to separate the work from my emotions. I could not communicate to Raquel in the best way, as I felt that my lack of technical understanding was the reason it went wrong. She told me to take myself out of it and that it wasn’t the end of the world. Once having had this conversation, I was able to rationalise my emotions and I realised the importance of remaining level-headed, as these emotions change how people view/ depend on you. As a result, I took more frequent breaks and completed external research in knitting books, in which I learnt putting a block of wax on the machine ensured a smoother process with a more fibrous yarn. This experiences links to ‘making things happen’ in the Creative attribute’s framework and was an example of exercising ‘agility’ but also maintaining ‘resilience’, I was able to learn how to trust in my ability to respond to rapid change, and remain positive to complete the task.
Figure1 hat, figure2 blog post from time period.
then I link it to unpaid internships in the industry and pressure as a key source of motivation.
should I include stuff about pricing of garments?
the realities of running an independent fashion brand in London. Her garments were deeply personal, often impossible to reproduce on a manufacturing scale, which made me understand why customers are willing to pay higher prices for independent work. This experience shifted my perspective on pricing and value, helping me understand not only the labour and skill required to produce knitwear, but also the wider systems that support its production. Bring up in meeting.
been loving learning about yarns, we’ve had to sort through the colour swatch cards and its very interesting to go through them and familiarise ourselves with the different mills. there’s just so much yarn in this world lol
hey I just wanted to get some thoughts down about my tutorial with Chole.
my brain feels clear. I felt quite stagnant about what my so called calling was, or even what motivated me. clearly I feel a calling towards the arts, I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything but that, but I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to share with the world. I think I want to share the world with each other? I love the concept of storytelling and learning about how people live, whether that’s culturally or socially. especially during my placement year I was saying in the tutorial one of the main things ive taken away has been the importance of social connection, especially in the fashion industry, but also how to network correctly, or at least as best as you can. I think hearing other peoples stories is fascinating and learning about what motivated them to start their own brand. they all have immense drive which is beautiful to see.
I think upon focusing on social aspects of my experience in the fashion industry chole said this ‘Because sometimes things are happening on a micro level that tell us more about the industry as a whole’ and rather than talk about massive issues, for an example the sheer amount of unpaid interns that literally run the fashion industry to ‘but we have to locate them in the particular.’ I am the particular in this situation, and my experience of having had exceptions to rely on me to get a job done, finding the motivation to actually complete it, out of loyalty, out of determination and sometimes even fear, rather than monetary payments. its hard when the world revolves around money I cannot recount the amount of times my parents have said but you are even getting paid. its hard to translate the sense of urgency that replaces the reward or money. idk.
also im just gonna point evidence explanations the hell out my points, going to try to expand on what ive written, rather than to just have random stories and what ive learnt from them but to intentionally tie them into the greater point of what ive realised and reflected throughout the year. cause ive grown so much, I feel like a different person in terms of workplace attributes and confidence to carry myself with purpose in these settings.
I am ready to write now, going to establish ‘This is what is important to me and what I want to learn. You tell us that and then everything that we’re marking you on is your appropriateness based on your own goals.’ how I operate as a person and what ive done throughout this year to solidify/ expand my values and what’s changed in them.
I love chole.
gonna do another blog post just with some cheeky pictures of knitster and also some pictures from my note book on like evidence of resilience and also my skeleton map/ random flow charts ive got.
this one went super well, I think it was easier to talk about one internship and my experience finding one than my second one which felt more personal and varied as I moved countries. I actually felt like I got super shaky, I couldn’t quite pinpoint whether that was excitement because I had made my presentation a bit funny or that I was genuinely nervous. either way I feel like it was a smash hit and that I could engage the audience. I ran over time too. it was so good to speak to my peers and learn what they were up to. it made me feel really proud of my textile girlies and it was great to speak to new people as well.
spring
on reflection I think I wanted to convey more of my experience rather than reflections. also we had to add six slides of a sip which at that point was practically non-existent for me, which defo threw me off. also it was in a bigger room so I felt like I couldn’t engage the crowd quite like I had last time. I wish I had made more reflections on things id learnt and my actual practice within the studio, and an overall summary of what I’ve learnt from it too.
hey everyone I have been at knitster for around a month and a half now and I was super hesitant at first but now I am really enjoying my experience there. I was worried I wouldn’t have as much responsibility in the company considering that it is a much larger corporation, but I truly feel the more energy I have put into it the more I have gained. this had come with a lot of pressure, mostly internally, as I am no longer producing for a brand but for a company to a brand, with minimal communication. I have had to work on those skills a lot.
that being said its been awesome, ive really grown to like the team and I get to sit in on some very cool meetings, which might even benefit me in the future 😉 my responsibilities aside from the occasional swatching, is usually quality checking and washing, measuring things to spec etc. I don’t mind in fact it sort of gives my brain a break sometimes and I can focus on details within the knit. I had also overheard one of the freelancers talk about yarn school which they scrapped before I came. needless to say I now have yarn school every Wednesday because they were not going to get away with that hahaha. its very interesting I learn about types of yarn, things in the industry whether that’s the raw material process or the meetings between yarn reps and brands, but also the way things are spun its all very cool.
I am feeling a tad bit negative about this deadline and also final year but I think as long as I dedicate a bit of time each day to work on these goals I’ll complete it. looking forward to my tutorials!
I have finished my internship in Paris, in fact I came back about three weeks ago, so I wanted to come on here and talk about how my internship went towards the end, and how I am feeling during this particularly transitional state of my dps year.
I believe where I left you last time I was not in a good place, I was stressed out by the level of work that I needed to do and I was beyond lonely, I really struggled to allow myself to have a professional relationship with my boss, when she was literally my only friend for like five weeks in Paris. my worst fear ever in an internship would be to leave on bad terms, I think I was born stubborn and slightly anxious, so I tend to not think through certain decisions before I take them, even if I think its for the greater good. I came into the studio a lot during this period to work, even by myself on the weekends as a sort of pledge of commitment to the brand. I wanted to see what would happen if I committed myself 100% as I had watched interns do in past internships before. what I didn’t know is that someone respects your boundaries equally as much as they do your commitment. now did going into the studio actually pay off? yes and no. I finished as much as I could but it ended up being wrong and my emotions were super high I cried at work. I was proud of my myself for my commitment to the work but, I just needed to communicate my needs more.
This all being said, from that boiling point, roughly the last four weeks, was literal heaven. two of the other designers brought in interns, I finally had friends at work and out of work who weren’t my boss, which was fantastic because I was able to separate lunch and work, and finally had someone to talk to in a similar situations. im going off topic but something I struggled with was a certain disconnect to people who weren’t in the industry. when I say that I don’t mean oh I worked in a fashion brand and people don’t get it but it was more the distinct spilt of industry culture which startled people. they couldn’t fathom why the hell I would choose to be an unpaid intern and go in on the weekends. but all in all as long as they were open to hearing about my work it was fine, only issue was I sometimes experienced people slander me for my choices. I guess this made me a bit hesitant about the industry… whatever reflection for another day.
Paris ended very peacefully and I felt like I could’ve stayed forever. the minute I got home and stepped into my parents house I started crying, it felt like my freedom had `almost been like taken away from me. even now like three weeks on I am feeling the itch to leave again, not even to Paris but just away. I wanted to write about another reflection I had (it’s all coming out now) which was on the pace of life, in particularly Paris, compared to London. in Paris, no matter who I spoke to whether it was Parisians who had grown up there or British students who had adapted to the lifestyle, they all lived slower. breathed more and felt the life they were living. they all sporadically decided to go out in the evenings or do yoga in the mornings. I have never seen a group of people less attached to their phones. even people on the street, I started to notice small differences, life just felt more passionate. maybe it’s to do with the language too.i started to pick up habits too, I called people more, I read in my spare time. the sun setting an hour later also helped. I think also the concept of the terrace, the seats outside a bar or cafe which allow people to people watch, because there was no beer gardens life wasn’t hidden in the city, it sprawled out onto the streets. this was difficult when I was lonely because all I wanted to do was join them. and I did eventually.
as for the work itself I feel new. I understand that ribber brother machine inside out, I cleaned its dust, sponge bar, I oiled that guy. I learnt how to do things much much faster, cleaner and more efficiently. I also feel like I unlocked new vision on knit garments I can now see the rows, increases and decreases and the slightest fibre out of place on the linking machine. luisa tended to describe actions lovingly, shed always tell me to hug the linker to see the back of the knit, or when I was casting off shed describe the latch tool kissing the yarn to close. her work truly was alive, especially since she only used natural fibres you often to see the wool relax when steamed. it made me think about the past lives of the yarn before I knit it. I also learned about the importance of taking care of your body when doing a physically demanding craft. to take breaks and breathe.
now I am back in the uk, I have done one day at knitster. I am not particularly happy right now honestly, I feel like I was a bit mislead on the interview in that they told me I would be knitting samples to then change into developments for garments for clients. at least that was my understanding of it. its not! its quality checking for 8 hours and then washing stuff in a big laundry mat. now, im in a bit of a predicament because knitster is quite a well revered factory in the knitwear industry, maybe I have judged it too quickly and also I don’t know If I will actually get the chance to knit in the future. it is only 3 months. that’s not a long time. on the other hand I feel like these months coming up to September are like my final chance to learn something actually worthwhile. I also am afraid I’ll forget everything luisa taught me if I don’t knit. which has happened before. im going to try to go for a week. if I go into tomorrow and feel like im going to explode ill quit. but im really trying to make the most of it. its also in a super industrial area I might as well be in a different country.
