Present Joys

After I got my knitting machine, I practiced quite a bit. I made a sweater vest on it. Then I got distracted with other parts of my thesis and trailed off practicing. And now look at the calendar! It’s already march and I need to get my act together. Last week, I did some retail investigation into grading and sizing of commercial pullover-style garments. I combined my findings with my own notes about the pattern I want to create. At this point, I have a solid sweater pattern in sizes s, m, l, and xl.

Now that I have patterns, I’m ready to start making test garments. A few days ago, I called the people in South Bloomfield who will be spinning and dying yarn for me, and I made a small preliminary order—just enough yarn so I can create one sample sweater in each size.

I’m not anticipating a lot of trouble with the pattern, but it’s high time to have the final materials in my hands and to start making finished garments. Once I iron out any difficulties, I will essentially be ready to start producing en masse!

What’s next?

Speaking of en masse, I’m getting a little anxious about all the sweaters I need to make! While I’m not interested in making thousands of sweaters, I would like everyone who wants one to have one—and I don’t want to be running a sweatshop to get it all done. I really need to find a way to produce the knitted pieces I need offsite. When I go pick up this first batch of yarn, I’m going to ask Toia about outsourcing some of the machine-knitting work so I can produce more overall garments!