DESIGNED & DRAWN
I have been designing and producing 3D knitwear for around fifteen years. Created with virtually one continuous thread, 3D knitwear is made without seams to fit the human form. When knitting, it is possible to manipulate each point on the surface by adding and subtracting stitches. This creates a three-dimensional, curved surface. Ideally, the item doesn’t have to be sewn together out of individual pieces. When the knitting is finished, you have, in fact, one entire piece.
There are two different ways to go from the design to the finished product. Sometimes I draw a design ahead of time, detailing every stitch of the item; this process suits the architect in me. It results in an individual piece made by hand according to plan. The other way is more like a sculptural process. Here, the item is created directly on the body, like a plant that follows its own laws of growth. The items made this way are essentially more sculptural, more dimensionally complex. Here, design and manufacture occur simultaneously. This indissoluble interaction of shaping and re-shaping means that these completely handmade pieces take time. On average, a jacket consists of about forty thousand stitches. Around eighty hours are needed to make a complete jacket by hand.
I depict the highly complex dimensions of these items in knitting designs. These designs are not really practical knitting patterns, but artistic, aesthetic representations of dimensions that are closely linked to the method employed to make them.