Locally sourced.....

                 A very interesting blog post on the Etsy this week: The Challenges and Rewards of Local Production by Karen Brown.

The cyclocarder - used to card the
Alpca fiber

The post talks about locally sourcing and producing a coat, made from felted Alpca yarn, a unique opportunity to understand the work that goes into a garment.

 'Could we live happily with fewer, better made things, exchanging our money directly with one another?'

Back during one of the Christmas Markets I clearly remember a lady looking at my items with indifference. We got to talking about machine knitting which is when she came out with the statement that my snoods must take just 15 mins to run up. It was a bit of a kick in the teeth, that somebody could look at something that was detailed, hand crafted, unique and dismiss it as something I could run up that quick. Some people are just so out of touch with the reality of garment production, both mass and hand crafted. 

The Etsy post starts with a link to the Fibershed website, an amazing non profit organisation in California. This market place was set up to support local farmers and artisans. The idea of knowing where your product comes from is something I strive for- I can only wish I was set up in California! And of course I had to show you this lovely knit-felt cat bowl - it comes with a full description of where and how the bowl came to be:

 'Jacalyn spins the wool from her own flock in Solano County'

I had wished for Etsy to be a bit more like Fibershed, with more information on the products then you would get from the big chain store's. It is the same with most of these craft marketplace website's - without a philosophy of letting the buyer know the life story of the product how can we expect a buyer to know why it is worth the price? 

Karen Brown - the author of the Etsy post- is the creative director of Center for Ecoliteracy. 'She believes that the handmade movement is a fundamental force for transforming society and the economy'

She was interested in local production and asks herself at the start "Is it still possible to dress locally?"- this isn't a question I can answer myself. For all my love of buying locally I have never found any locally made clothing, but I shall keep looking! 

Of course there is also the chance that the lady at the market just didn't care about buying my hand crafted goods?

A Post from Tom Cat

The Cats have started (ok they have finished as well) to take over my life! Every single aspect of it!
Before they moved in they lived a quiet life and had only a little attention from humans but once they knew that they could get a cuddle and a play with just a cute look or a meow all hope was lost! I came across the below blog post which made me giggle and so thought I would share -
Storyboard: Cat Lady | The Etsy Blog:

Another great blog about something a bit different is 'The girl who looks like a cake'. Some interesting writing and a subject that I love- Fashion - means that I got caught on this blog for longer than I should have. But it does bring me to a jumper featured on the blog- 

Meadham Kirchhoff


I saw this jumper in this week's Elle magazine and loved it, I think its happiness could win anyone over. But not so- my mother really didn't like it, something about the colours..... Is it a total love it or hate it item? 

ITALIAN KNITWEAR - British Pathé:

When I was looking into British knitwear manufacturing I came across a great video from the 50's of knitwear manufacture at Pathe. I think my favourite bit of this video is the phrase 'If you're feeling depressed....' at about two minutes through-  ITALIAN KNITWEAR - British Pathé:

Looking at the knitwear ahead.....

Knitwear is not just for Winter.....

I love Spring summer knitwear, a chance to play with a rainbow of colours and create great little cover up's for the colder days of the summer - 

Markus Lupfer

T by Alexander Wang

In the summer knitwear comes alive with bright colours and pattern's, a chance to have some fun as Markus Lupfer has in the super cool parrot jumper, I couldn't wear this one as the temptation for people to say 'Polly want a cracker' would be too much -  http://www.liberty.co.uk/fcp/categorylist/dept/womenswear_knitwear?resetFilters=true

You would have to be super
confident to wear this one

Christopher Kane

Oh the joy of this jumper by Christopher Kane- it's a lesson in happiness. I absolutely love yellow, from sunshine to mustard but find it hard to wear with the washed out winter look I have at the moment. So I can't wait for the summer to be able to wear this great cardigan by A.P.C- http://www.net-a-porter.com/Shop/Clothing/Knitwear

And looking even further ahead- 

Some of the lovely Jumpers at the Pringle Mens AW12 show- these just look so comfortable and warm. I love the chunky understated look and the colours are perfect for the Autumn- bring on next winter already! (not really, I want to warm up a bit first in the sun!)

And you couldn't look to the future without a thought of the past -  http://www.style.com/stylefile/2012/02/inside-impact/
Would love to be able to attend this exhibition at the FIT in New York on the impact of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. So many great image's and you can imagine the stories behind some of them.... I'll just have to try to get hold of the book.

Catching up....

I have finally returned....can't believe how long it's been since my last post. Not much has happened but at the same time some things have really changed. One of the reason's I haven't been on for a while is my new part time job at a pub, just something else to split my time with.

And the other time consuming change to the Polly Purl world is the arrival of two new team members:

Let me introduce Tom and Mao cat:

The boyfriend's mum has moved out of her house and these two needed a new home- they've had to move all the way from a green suburb of London to the cold, grim North. I don't think they've found it easy and when they first arrived last Sunday they were very stressed and scared, Tom found a hiding hole under our lazy boy chair and would not come out at all. But they have now settled in and are treating this place like their personally palace and me like their servant. Tom really loves a cuddle especially when I'm watching TV in bed and Mao follows me around waiting for something, not sure what yet?

Tom and Mao have not been that helpful in my knitting, in fact some would say they are a nuisance. But I have managed to get some work done this week and below are a few teaser pictures.

I've got my self a new dummy that is a smaller size which helps as I can now see things on different sizes without bugging my friends to try things on.  

As well as all the above I have become a bit addicted to Etsy, I have discovered the joy of creating a treasury list and window shopping on the site. You can see some of mine below - http://www.etsy.com/people/Pollypurl/treasury?sort=creation_date&order=desc

Intarsia/ Fair isle/ Jacquard

I received John Allen's Treasury of Machine Knitting Stitch's for Christmas and was reading through when I came to his section on Jacquard (fair isle). In the introduction to the section he states 'Jacquard and Fair Isle are two terms in machine knitting used to describe the same stitch structure,' this, however is not really true.
Fair isle, Jacquard and intersia are all different techniques for colour pattern knitting. Hand knitters may be familiar with fair isle and intersia but maybe not jacquard, I don't think this technique is used in hand knitting but I may be wrong.

Fair isle -colour pattern knitting with the floats in the back
Jacquard - Colour pattern knitting that is double sided. One side is the pattern and the other is a dotty pattern

  

Both these technique's can be automated in production by simply programming the pattern into the knitting machine, much in the same way you would scan an image into the computer.

The knitting machine then simply select's the needle's needed and the machine knits always with two colours. Depending on how this is done this results in the unused colour being carried across or knitted across the back of the fabric. This has limitations in the colours, only two per line, and the length of float across the back.

However intarsia resolves these problems but comes with it's own. If you have ever knitted an intarsia pattern by hand then knitting it on a machine is not much different. Instead of using the machine to select the needles and control the yarn the user has to do this. In simple terms it means a picture, sometimes very complicated and with many colours can be re-created on a knitted fabric.  I used this technique on the bf's wolf jumper, this was a simple pattern with three colours but a pain in the butt! Since then I have been noticing intarsia being used on many shop knits. I wondered how they translated this complicated and time consuming process into mass production, and below is the answer: 

Stella's intarsia Jumper

This is a video of knitwear production including intarsia and below is a video of my intarsia in process. Notice the difference? I'm so much slower I know! I find it a nightmare keeping all my strands straight- I become obsessed with untangling them.

The video is in double time and I have cut out some bits but it shows me doing just three rows of work! 

I shall post the picture of the finished product in the next post.

 Just another little interesting video of knitwear production -

Made in Britain Knitwear

After my brother recommend it I have been regularly listening to the 'This American Life' podcast. A great way of hearing unusual and thought provoking ideas, and sometimes just something a little odd.
This week I was catching up and listened to last weeks as well, they were discussing China made electrical goods (must of our electrical goods then), especially Apple goods (a must listen if you have been brainwashed by Apple).

http://feeds.thisamericanlife.org/talpodcast (you can get podcast's from previous weeks on itunes and then such)

However the discussion of the terrible conditions the factories work in made me think of our high street clothing. Of course not all of it comes from these types of factories but as a consumer we never question where are good's do come from: apart from the occasions when horrible stories appear in the press.

As someone who has worked in a few fashion companies it is something I don't like to think about too much. All the companies I worked for placed strict regulations on their factories, sometimes enforced by an outside company. But then again so do Apple and listen to the horror stories in the podcast about them....
On occasion I would wonder just what was happening in those factories when we pushed an order through or cut the price down again and again, but thought's like that need to be suppressed, they're not helpful to keeping your job.

And so this is why I want to buy British- not because of the economical gains for the UK (questionable) or even to cut down on my carbon footprint but because I know that British manufacturing often use the better quality materials and treat their employee's fairly.

Some more interesting link's below about eco living and small British business's

Very interesting -Nettle underwear anyone?Green Living-Clothing-A Celebration of Nettle - The Ecologist:

Etsy is a great (if a little big now) way to find hand crafted British goods and support small craft's people - Hobbyists Use Etsy to Trade Day Job for Hard Work - NYTimes.com:


Inspiration (and a little bit of scared, jealous, and awe) from British knitwear brand Quinton and Chadwick, They say:

"Our aim is to keep the British tradition of knitting alive with our co-operatives of specialists who,s skill is their legacy. A truly British heritage product, to love and to keep with no air-miles what so ever "

 Interview with British knitwear brand ‘Quinton & Chadwick’ « IndependentBoutique.com Blog:


Great collection of British Breds for the hand knitter - British Breeds - Purl and Jane:
Beautiful hand knit by a British Designer- something special rather then the usual Rowan. Jane Ellison is a British freelance hand knit designer who specialises in creating simple straightforward patterns. - Jane Ellison: