Present Joys

No school today! We’re having a cold day, so I’m working from home. It seems like a good time to kick off a series of posts about my senior thesis project. I’m supposed to be blogging about this project once a week, but that shouldn’t be a problem because I have a lot to say! A few years ago, I designed and knit a sweater. It seemed like a fun thing.

Since then, whenever I wear it at school, people are intrigued by it. I’ve had a couple requests to make some more. And though I don’t really like hand-knitting for other people, I’ve always thought how much fun it would be if all my classmates (or at least a bunch of them) had matching CCAD collegiate sweaters. After all, that’s the whole point of ivy style—uniformity, dignity. My sweater oughtn’t stand out like a sore thumb; it should have friends. I want to get other people wearing these things, too.

So that’s the first thing. Here’s the second: I really want a knitting machine. I love hand knitting, but lately I’ve been more and more intrigued by knitwear production methods—and how I might incorporate some of that into my own work. Until now, though, I haven’t had a good excuse to buy a knitting machine.

Here’s the third thing: I just really love my school. I want to do something with all that love before I graduate. I enjoy the history of CCAD and how it’s grown alongside Columbus; I enjoy my peers so much; I enjoy the whole vibe of being at an art school, though admittedly I choose not to partake in most of it; most of all, I enjoy the teachers I’ve had. I’ve built some great relationships with teachers—many of whom have been at CCAD for decades! I take lots of snapshots of my teachers and I talk about them a lot, but I’d love to figure out some other way to celebrate them and their commitment to the school.

Those three things make up the core of my thesis project. I want to make sweaters for my friends and classmates, I want to master machine knitting, and I want to do something to celebrate this school.

What’s next?

I’ve got to figure out how all these things fit together. I don’t just want to make a bunch of sweaters—there’s got to be a soul to this thing. Stay tuned to hear what I come up with.

natgeofound:

Miners with knee pads in West Virginia, March 1938.Photograph by B. Anthony Stewart, National Geographic

#menswear