BASICS. TEXTILES & FASHION Book

I am featured in the new edition of this Fashion & Textiles text book for undergrad students, written by Jenny Udale, and published by Bloomsbury Press.  Large A4 size images of inspiration fill the pages...... Page 6 - Comme De Garcons, Page 8 - Dries Van Notten, Page 16 - Schiaparelli, Page 18 - Balenciaga,.............so as you can imagine, I'm quite chuffed to be there also, on Page 24.

KNITWEAR DESIGN Book

A new book by Carol Brown, Knitwear Design, published by Laurence King (UK). I am featured in there albeit small; on page 79 in the UNDERSTANDING YARNS chapter with the images of cascading wool on my studio shelves, and sample sheets of yarn; also on page 98 with an image of Wool Collar from a previous collection in the chapter on TEXTURE.

FASHION KNITWEAR book by Jenny Udale

I am so honored to be included in this book of 40 international designers written by Jenny Udale and published by Laurence King (UK); this is a sumptuous book documenting the practice and process of progressive knitwear design profiling Missoni, Pringle of Scotland, Sonia Rykiel, Sandra Backlund amongst others.

Country Style Magazine Collaboration

Country Style Magazine has released a CRAFT Issue out this month.  They commissioned me to design the Chunky Cable Chair Cover, which is knitted in my Bespoke Wool, on page 52 is the pattern, and on page 54 is the Cable Cup Cosy.

The Handknitter's Yarn Guide

'The Love of Knitting Blog' has an interview and competition to win a copy of 'The Handknitters Yarn Guide'; a book I wrote in 2011, which was published by St Martin's Press in New York and Murdoch Press in Australia.  We have a copy of the book in Gather, for those who aren't in America to enter this competition.  The book was a time-consuming project, but extremely rewarding; and the project became the inspiration to open a yarn shop.

New Book

Jenny Udale is a writer based in the UK, and is the author of Textiles and Fashion, and The Fundamentals of Fashion Design. Her next book is based entirely on knitwear design, which I will be featured in, amongst 40 other designers worldwide. The book is based on a story of each designer, documenting their work and workspace, process and applications. I was fortunate to have Brian Culy do this shoot for me to supply images for this publication. Not sure when this will be published, but will post these details as soon as I know more.

Textile Design on the School Cirriculum

Now a new preliminary and HSC school subject in Australia, Textile Design is now on the high school syllabus. The Nelson Textiles and Design text book presents the Construction Knitting approach as a design case study and exercise, and features me in the designer profiles, alongside Dion Lee, Lizzy Gardiner & Catherine Martin.

The Handknitters Yarn Guide

Received a press copy of my first authored book The Handknitters Yarn Guide published through Rotovision.





It's an extensive reference book on knitting yarns, and will be available between March and May 2012, but can be pre-ordered through Amazon.
In Australia, through Murdoch Books & New Zealand Allen & Unwin.
Its also available through other distributors.
In the UK through Search Press, and the USA St Martins Press.

The book is 200 pages filled with information about 180 knitting yarns covering all the specs and character of each type of fibre, and fibre blends. The yarns were knitted, studied and documented covering stitch definition, draping, pilling, resilience, durability, colour retention, feel, breathability, moisture resistance, wicking, fire retardancy and sustainability. The pros and cons are listed and there's quick tips on usage and care.

Each yarn is separated into weights of super-fine, fine, medium, bulky, and super-bulky, and categorized into ply weights. There's useful tables of recommended needle sizes and how much yarn you would need to make a jumper of different sizes. In the back of the book there's more useful information of calculating yarn substitutes for when you want to try other yarns than suggested in a knitting pattern. A glossary covers and breaks down all the technical yarn terms such as guage, wraps per inch, yarn spins, and how to read yarn labels.

If you need to know more about knitting yarns, how to choose them and what their best suited for this book is extremely useful. It covers wool, mohair, angora, cashmere, camel, alpaca, silk, cotton, linen, rayon, bamboo, soya, hemp, ramie, tencel, nylon, polyester, acrylic, boucle, chenille, ribbon, eyelash, flamme, ladder, vicuna, qiviut, yak, bison, possum, corn, milk, nettle, kenaf and seacell.

The Handknitter's Yarn Guide

I remember in my interview with the Design Files I really pondered over the "what's your dream job" question. And I replied that I'd like to travel the world to examine all the rare fibres available, and work out what to knit with them. Well; it came true!!!!

I was actually approached by a publisher to author this particular book: "The Handknitter's Yarn Guide";and I didn't actually travel the world to find the knitting yarn, but I was given a budget to source them, so I trawled the internet (hey - same thing, sort of!) And so for the last year I've had parcels landing on my doorstep from all corners of the world of every type of hand knitting yarn imaginable, made from every fibre possible; animal, vegetable and synthetic. So, I've had time to play, work, and review, and compile all this into a book.













The most amazing I discovered is Vicuna, a rare South American animal; so rare it's US$300 for a 50g ball. 50g's enough to make half a mitten. The most under-rated fibre; Camel - just as fine, soft, warm and beautiful as Cashmere; but you don't see any model/actress come fashion designer releasing a new 'camel knitwear range do you'. I have a list of the most surprising and the most delightful; Seacell (made out of seaweed), Kenaf (from the bark of a bamboo/like plant), Milk (yep; solidified then spun into a yarn), Corn & Nettle. And there's more, my God there's so much more!!!! You will have to wait for the book to come out to discover the rest: March 2012, from St Martin's Press in the US, and Search Press in the UK.

HandMade 2

A new edition of Handmade in Melbourne