Samples and upcoming portfolio

I am working on a new collection at the moment, still couple of finishing things for it to do. Here is just a little taste what garments is going to go into the portfolio. The Images are going to be taken all again, with models and such, if some of you wonders. I have never been good at waiting the end result, so I am just going to put these documentations on for you to have a little peek!

Here this one is a Lace Shrug. I am in two minds if it is going to have a little button at the front or not. I have a certain idea, what I want the button to look like and I am not sure if I have found it yet.

I kindly made Olivia to briefly model this for me.



This one is a cardigan in progress, the last piece for the portfolio. It is nearly ready,-all I really need to do for it now is to sew the seems and iron it. The first one is a sample piece, but after the sample I decided the colors differently. I really like how it is a traditional cardigan, but the colors makes it more contemporary. I am very in love with it and can't wait to see how it looks on a model.

This piece is another one of my favorites. It is one of the two machine knitted garments in this collection (the accessory is the other one), but at the same time it is a first garment ever that I have knitted with the machine. Yeah I know, I have knitted a whole toilet cubicle with the machine, and many samples, but this is the first garment. It is knitted with very thin yarn. When I was on the fair isle pattern on it, I was holding my breath so that it would go all smoothly. The material is 80 % lambs wool 20 % acrylic. So very soft.



Here is Consta modeling it for me in our studio. What a babe.



This last one again, I made Olivia wear. This garment is actually one of the older ones, but it ties the collection nicely together.


And here Olivia shows us all a dance move.



All of my garments in this collection are different from each other, but they all have something that connects them together. Nearly all of them have some combining colors. I have used black, pink and grey for all of them. Couple of them are Fair Isle patterned garments and couple of them are lace patterned garments. The sequin leggings will go with the collection, as the Fair Isle cardigan is grey as well. I have also made a sample piece of a accessory for the collection. I don't have a picture of it yet, but if you are really inpatient to see it, go to the Craft Centre in Manchester, it the second shop on the left, ground floor.

The proper photo shoot for the portfolio is going to happen in November, that is soon!

My studio

Hello!

I thought it is the time of showing what my studio looks like. I moved in there on August, and together with the girls whom I am sharing the studio with we moved a wall (!) so that we had a bigger space. Just quickly saying that the wall wasn't really like a concrete wall, it was more like, hand made wall board that was screwed onto the floor, so don't ask me to do anything like that in your houses (you probably weren't going to, anyway).

Here is my corner



And I think you have met Leila before



And here is the rest of the space, that the others use. The cutting tables, manikins and industrial sewing machines belongs to my "housemates".



I am sharing the studio with 4 other ladies, all of them has very interesting projects going on, and they are good experienced designers.

Go and see:

Sara's work in:

http://saralichouhan.com/synopsis.aspx

Consta's work in: (the website isn't working yet, but coming soon)

http://www.constanzefriedrichs.co.u

Silvia's work in:

http://www.mysewingbox.com

Silvia and Consta are also doing fashion courses, (hopefully I have a little knitting slice there somewhere) and I truly recommend that if you are thinking such things to do yourself, contact them! Believe you me, they are good! Go and see what kind of courses they offer in:

http://www.stitchcraftmanchester.co.uk

Hen is not only a dressmaker, but she is also a musician, go and listen:

http://www.myspace.com/silverclubuk

And here is a little treat at the end. This is Hen's other band Sister's of Transistors, the costumes are made by Consta and Silvia:

Helen wears my jumper! :)

I just want to show you all this ace picture of my friend Helen. The same one that did the crochet Monster. She has her promotion pictures taken by talented Miss Chapman. And I am so very flattered that she chose to wear a jumper that I knitted in her promo pictures.

Image from: http://helenmakes.blogspot.com/2010/10/look-at-me.html

Teaching Knitting

Happy Mondays Everyone!

I am carrying on my list of all the updates I want to do for this blog. One of them is that I give knitting tutorials. Here is Liz, whom I teach to use her very own Brother Knitting Machine.



Liz has 3 knitting machines lying around and she wanted to be taught how to use them. Me and Liz met in Burnley, when I was making knitted tea cosies with Rachael and some other ladies. To remind you about this project http://purlpuri.blogspot.com/2010/06/open-shop-project-in-burnley-knitted.html

These are the things that I have taught Liz to do: Cast on (manual), plain knitting (jersey stitch), increasing and decreasing, open cast off and casting off manually so that the piece wont unravel. Last week we had a go with punch cards, hoping to be able to complete fair Isle, but the machine is old and seems to read the rows of knitting in her own terms, so hopefully we get it fixed soon. Liz also has couple of other knitting machines, which I am hoping to get set up with her.

Here is Liz's Brother Machine that we set up together.



If you would like to get a tutorial from me on a knitting machine, please e-mail me: rusakkokeitto@hotmail.com for enquiries. I
can help you to set up your own machine, teach the basics and design a simple garment with you to get you started. I am also going to start giving lessons in my own studio in the near future. I have experience in using single bed machines brands including Toyota, Silver Reed, Brother, Zippy Plus and KnitMaster.

Spread the word for me lovely people! :)

Artyarn Workshops: Fusion Knitting and Just So festival

I am couple of months late with this update, but this is one of the things I was up to in August. Artyarn is a Manchester based company, founded and run by an artist Rachael Elwell. She has literally invented a knitting dream, her career in knitting is admirable I must say. Anyhow, I work with Rachael, Artyarn, every now and then, and here is couple of the things Artyarn does (and believe you me, it is just tiny little part of all the projects there is):

We went to an event in Leeds, which was Girl Guides 100th year anniversary. I was thinking that it was just going to be small gathering of girl guides in some little park in Leeds. But no. It was an international festival, with 10 000 of them! It was a amazing. The project that Artyarn had set for the festival, was that everyone was to knit a square, and then bring it to the workshop where the knitted squares where to be sewn together. It was a tiring couple of days, as there was so many squares to choose from. There was literally so many knitted squares, that we couldn't have fitted them in Rachael's car, even if she was the only person in it. Im not even joking. The lovely thing that I learnt at the workshop was, how initiative, skillful and hard-working the girl guides were. They certainly weren't "all thumbs" (a saying that I recently learnt from..erm Desperate Housewives). They just took the needles and got on with it, even the littlest ones. I was very impressed.




Please go and see more images and more information about this project in: http://artyarn-fusionknitting.blogspot.com/ The images above belongs to the website: http://artyarn.blogspot.com/2010/08/fusion-festival-girl-guiding-centenary.html


Another workshop that I was helping with Artyarn on August, was JUST SO- festival. A festival for families. It was the loveliest weekend that we spent knitting by day, and having some beer and chinese food by night. Here is me showing a little'len how to knit:



Image from: http://artyarn.blogspot.com/2010/08/just-so-festival-2010.html

Please Also visit: http://www.justsofestival.org.uk/

Post Uni Blues

Dear All,

As you can see, I haven't updated my blog for months. That is so naughty of me. Luckily I have been around with some projects. After the degree show and all the hard work and the last squeezes for the University Deadlines, I think I, and all of us on the course, needed a break. I went to a really lovely holiday to Finland, and the summer there was absolutely amazing. Not a care in the world- for two weeks. After coming back to the rainy Manchester, I must admit my moods were pretty down. The step to the real world started immediately the next day after landing back to UK. Ringing to job centre and the council, Im not going to bore you with the details. The money that I really wanted to use for buying a camera (I am borrowing one at the moment, thank you Riku!), that would have helped me on my blogging and things, all went to rent and bills.

Well. The good news is, that I already knew where I was going to head next. I am currently renting a studio with 4 other very talented girls, all designers. We moved in on August. I am so lucky to work amongst these people, as they have more experience than me, and their advice might just get me closer to what I want.I already knew about the studio in May, so it made all panicking about the future all a bit easier. I was actually looking forward to just to knit what ever I wanted, setting out my own rules and no needing to justify every stitch. Just knitting with the flow. I mean, I did enjoy my final piece- the knitted toilet, but it took me so long to make, that I had about 10 ideas whilst I was making it, and was suffering as I wanted to finish that piece first.

I feel that I am busy at the moment, but I always have this feeling if I am just kidding myself, saying that I am busy, but actually just doing things much slower than I should. I truly hope that I keep up with the blog, and of course especially I hope that I keep up with my work.