Texture /'teks-chər/ n. (pl. -s) The feel, appearance, or consistency of a surface or a substance. 1. The character or appearance of a textile fabric as determined by the arrangement and thickness of its threads. 2. Art - The tactile quality of the surface of a work of art. 3. The quality created by the combination of the different elements in a work of music or literature.
Oxford Dictionaries [online] Available at: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/texture
[Accessed 10 December 2017].
Swatches at Setsuko Torii atlier and shop
As all computer programs are basically made with a combination of zeros and ones, knitting consists of knit and purl stitches. However, in knitting the options are even more infinite as there are co twisted and crossed stitches, and varieties of fibers and yarn weight to use. In the past 10 years, I have witnessed and been amazed at the endless flows of new ideas and potential of knit fabric on Ravelry.
This article aims to introduce people who explore new fabrics and textures in the knitting world. In the opening we interviewed a master in designing knit fabric. In the second portion of the article we introduce unique stitch dictionaries that have been published in recent years, and the thoughts behind them.
In preparing this article I did not look just to the books I already owned, but also added several to my collection and devoured them. When compared to conventional stitch dictionaries that tend to be fruits of researching pre-existing ones, the recent books are more "theory-based." The authors established certain methodologies first, then created their own sets of stitch patterns based on the rules. Those rules are adoptable by readers to create even more.
We'd like to challenge you to design your own fabric to knit something from this issue.
Featured Interview: Setsuko Torii
Some of you may know Setsuko Torii as a co-founder of AVRIL, a yarn company based in Kyoto, or some may have seen her book and kits through Habu Textiles. She is a trained knitwear designer who designs machine-knit and jersey garments.Several years ago she became independent from AVRIL and started a shop and atlier under her own brand (in our neighborhood!), and recently added a small shop called "ito no kura" (yarn storage in English), where she has varieties of yarns on cone. We interviewed her to find out her journey and process in creating stylish yet comfortable knitwear.
amirisu: We've been neighbors since we opened our first shop, but I haven't had an opportunity to learn about your journey. Did you study knitwear design at college?
Setsuko: In fact, I studied textile design. After graduation, I got a job at a kimono and obi (belt) making workshop. My grandfather was a stencil carver for yuzenzome textile in Kyoto (one of the traditional ways of dyeing kimono silk) and my father was a designer.
amirisu: That is very Kyoto specific!
Setsuko: I agree, many are still enganged in the industry in Kyoto. So I got the job without much thinking, but soon realized that kimono is not for me. I loved knitting though, and started to explore a way to support myself with it. I brought my samples to shops and sold many, and started to do it full time.
As I did it, my lack of skill became apparent, and I decided to go to a professional school to study knitting. We studied both machine and hand knitting in the first year, then focused on either in the second year. I chose hand knitting.
After a completing school, I wanted to get a job at a clothing company, but my training wasn't technical enough for the job. I finally realized that I should do it by myself, and started my own brand, renting a small space within a yarn shop in Kyoto.
I also started teaching. It was actually a pretty tough school. Each student told me what she wanted to knit and wear, I drafted a design, pick a yarn and design a fabric, then created a pattern.
amirisu: When you said "tough", I thought it was tough for students!
Setsuko: I know! It was tough for me. I did that for about 10 years, which turned out to be such great training. While students were having fun conversations, I worked hard to create patterns for them. The morning and afternoon classes were both supposed to be 3 hours, but ended up running for 4 or 5 hours. When I went to pick my child up at school, there were no other children left.
Thanks to that, designing knitwear, a knit fabric or a combination of yarns became very easy for me. I have to thank my students!
amirisu: You started AVRIL after that?
Setsuko: Correct, in my early 40s.
There weren't many men at the knitting school, but there were two while I was studying. One of them, Fukui, went to work for Noro after gratuation. He then was working for a yarn wholeseller, and hiring me to make swatch and samples for the company. When he decided to leave there, he told me "I've always wanted to ask you to come work with me if I should have my own business." Well, I had no idea what it was like to start a company. Maybe that's why we were able to do it.
amirisu: How did you divide work between you?
Setsuko: Fukui was in charge of designing and manufacturing yarns, knowing the manufacturers well. When it came to decided on colors, I jumped in.
We started out as a knitwear brand, not a yarn company, you know.
amirisu: AVRIL was a knitwear brand? I had no idea!
Setsuko: I was still teaching, and my students were visiting me at the shop. They started saying "all these beautiful yarns - why don't you sell them? Put price tags on them!" Two years later, we opened a shop that was half clothing shop and half yarn shop. That was the beginning.
amirisu: So you've been making ready-to-wear knitwear since then. Were they machine knit?
Setsuko: I believe it was half and half. Handknit items were made in Japan, and were so expensive and hard to sell. We thought about doing it in China, but it wasn't that easy. Naturally, the proportion of hand-knit machine increased gradually. My method has been the same - I hand draw schematics and write detailed instructions, and send it to our sample knitters. My samples don't need too many modifications, unlike at mass-produced brands, where they don't make schematics.
amirisu: You have been designing for a long time. How do you start?
Setsuko: Every year when we do a show, people ask me about the concept. That is the most difficult question to answer! I always start with the yarns that I am interested in. I go to yarn trade shows every year, find yarns that I like, and start thinking about ways to make the most of their qualities. Yarn always comes first. I swatch with them. "Oh, this yarn is very springy and creates more structure. Perhaps flaired line would work." Then I sketch, and draw schematics. I cannot do anything without finding a yarn.
amirisu: Do you outsource manufacturing? (she does have many hand-knit machines and staffs who can use them.)
Setsuko: We've been working with knitters in Kyushu for decades. One of them closed because the knitters became too old, and introduced us to a new company, but it took us a while to make it work.
amirisu: Is that due to mis-communication, or their skill level?
Setsuko: It was more about figuring out how to do things exactly the same as before. The texture of knit fabric changes so easily by small things, such as where you place your cones. A lot of my garments use multiple strands of yarns. Where you place each cone makes a big difference, as it turned out. It felt as if yarns were trying to communicate with me through fabric. This would never happens with commercial machines. Hand-knit machines can do what commercial machines can do, but it's more like hand knitting in certain aspects.
amirisu: Now, I'd like to ask you about yarns. For decades, you have been involved in creating yarns from scratch. What type of yarns do you like?
Setsuko: I prefer simple yarn. People at the spinning mills often say "yarn beauty". Sometimes you get yarns that are by themselves so shiny and gorgerous. Such yarns rarely speak to me. I'd rather use a common looking yarns with little twists. The kind of yarn that creates a beautiful drape or that creates an unique quality of fabric when stranded with other yarns.
amirisu: It is like you design a new yarn by using yarns in combinations.
Setsuko: I don't have much technical knowledge about yarn as Fukui did, but I used to come up with color palettes and ways to dye them. I was in charge of coming up with how to use yarns, I should say. Unfortunately Fukui passed away 4 years ago, and now I have to go find new yarn by myself. This sweater I am wearing right now is made with a yarn that has been custome spun and dyed for us.
amirisu: Is it wool? It's so tightly spun but soft...very interesting.
Setsuko: Yes, it's good for spring and summer, too. But it is difficult to find a company that are willing to experiment with us these days. So many went out of business.
amirisu: Hand knitting and (hand-knit) machine knitting, which do you like better?
Setsuko: Machine is fast, and I truly like the consistent stockinette fabric that hand-knit machines make. Hand knitting creates more bouncy fabric, but is difficult to create consistency. Both have merits, though. I actually got a request to start a line of custom-made hand-knit garments. I'm going to give it a try next season.
amirisu: I read one of your books the other day for the first time, and thought it really unique in a way that it starts with a suggestion to design your own fabric. Use a different yarn, knit in different gauge, it says. I'd never seen a book that starts there.
Setsuko: True, most book usually don't encourage people to substitute yarns!
amirisu: How do you approach designing fabrics?
Setsuko: I only suggest people to try swatching. I usually start with my gut.
Last year I did a workshop about designing a knit fabric utilizing only ivory yarns. There were great varieties of ivory yarns - different fibers, textures and thickness. The rule was to use small needles for thick yarns, and big needles for thin yarns. People came up with such unique and interesting fabrics! I really don't like to see the "suggested gauge and needles" on every yarn. I want to suggest to knit with different gauges and stitch patterns. It is fascinating to see how a strand of yarn creates diverse fabrics, and the fabric creates scarves and three dimentional garments. If everyone makes the same thing, where's the fun? We sometimes do a machine knitting workshop with a similar concept.
amirisu: You just mentioned custom-made handknit clothes. What are other things you'd like to try?
Setsuko: Since I am told not to rent more spaces (laughing)... I am interested in working outside of Japan. We did a series of workshops in Vancouver last year, and I'd love to do something like that again. I'd like to teach Japanese pattern drawing more.
amirisu: I hope we get to collaborate on that front in the future! Thank you so much for your time!
The Exploration of recently published Stitch Dictionaries
Knitted Cable Sourcebook – A Breakthrough Guide to Knitting with Cables and Designing Your Own
by Norah Gaughan
Norah, whom we intereviewed for Issue 7, has reorganized the cable swatches she's made in the 40 years of her carrier for this book - that's what I was told first, but this book is much more than that. Her thought process gave me such courage to experiment more when designing. She generously disclosed her methodology in this book.
The first part of the book picks several basic cable motifs and shows how to create variations. Futhermore, the simple motifs are combined, repeated and expanded to create larger panels. Cables are divided into two groups - Column and Traveling Lines - and the combination of the two creates larger panels that can cover the entire pullovers. She disected and organized various elements of cables, and researched how to combine the elements to create new designs. It is a mathematical approach.
The book also contains over 150 motifs and 15 patterns, which by itself is enough for a stitch dictionary. The idea of Stockinette Stitch Equivalent (SSE: the number of stockinette stitches required to replace a cable motif) is introduced. SSEs are shown for all the motifs, and it will be fun to knit a pattern from the book in different cables.
Alterknit Stitch Dictionary
by Andrea Rangel
The first thing I noticed was that I'd never seen any of the motifs before! That is not surprising, for Andrea's husband who is an artist designed each motif from scratch, while Andrea knit and arranged it into a stitch pattern. There are many unique designs, such as various vortexes, variations of waves, and even an alien, that I want to try out, but I also feel inspired to pull out my graph paper and create my own. This is yet a new approach for creating a stitch dictionary.
The book also contains basics of stranded colorwork knitting, such as different ways of holding yarns. I personally thought the examples of color dominance helpful.
Relief Knitting – A new way of enjoying Opal yarn (Published in Japanese)
by Martina Umemura
Self-striping yarn is very pretty on its own, but is difficult to knit something other than a simple pair of socks. Until now. This book introduces a new idea of using such yarn - making three-dimentional motifs where the yarn changes colors - and the results are gorgeous. There are 32 motifs and many accessory patterns in this volume. With this idea, knitters have an infinite potential of creating new and unique fabric, full of textures. I instantly thought of Lumen in this issue - how about adding numbers of relief to its surface?
Knitting Fresh Brioche: Creating Two-Color Twists & Turns
by Nancy Marchant
This impressive dictionary of brioche knitting has 75 unique stitches that Nancy designed. This may very well be the last one for quite a while, for it would be so difficult to exceed. Until I saw inside, I had no idea that this technique has so much to offer - such complexity and richness. While Nancy mentioned that "brioche" means an outdated knit fabric, I expect there will be many fresh designs by designers around the world, inspired by this book.
The section on explaining how to fix your mistake might be helpful I really want to give it a try.
Up, Down, All-Around Stitch Dictionary
by Wendy Bernard
A new type of dictionary that shows each stitch patterns in bottom-up, top-down and circular orientations. The first book was published in 2014, and there is a sequal now. Unless you are a designer it may be of limited use to you, but if you are, this will surely streamline your work.
Japanese Knitting Stitch Bible: 260 Exquisite Patterns
by Hitomi Shida
This 2015 volume recently translated into English is quickly becoming a great source of inspiration to many international designers. The artistry and complexity of the patterns truly is astonishing.
Kazekobo's Favorite Colors
by Yoko Hatta (Kazekobo)
A colorwork stitch dictionary by one of the top knitwear designers in Japan. Included are not only fair-isle stitches, but also plaids, stripes and argyle patterns. I have many colorwork dictionaries in my library, but this one is definitely my favorite.