Experimenting on the Dubied

Last week felt like the week from hell. I was feeling very unconfident and a bit lost when it came to working on the Dubied machines and I was beginning to avoid even going anywhere near them.

I decided to bite the bullet and explore some of the ideas that Laura and Sue had suggested before.

I wanted to explore the pockets technique and contain a sheet of latex within the pocket, transforming it from conventional knitwear to protective knit.

Instead of having lots of smaller pockets, I wanted to have one larger pocket in the centre of my knit. So, being logical, I decided to scale up the needle arrangement that was given to me on an instructions sheet (see image)

 

As the needle arrangement shows, the low butts are where the pockets are and the high buts are the the knit in between. Logically thinking, I decided to make a large area of 45 low butts, with 45 high butts either side, thus creating one large pocket.

 

My first attempt has resulted in a holey mess (above). The technique itself has worked but the structure looks scrappy and messy and therefore I tried an alternative with the help of Amy. I've taken what positives I can find from this first attempt. For example, I feel that a sample all in this colour is a little overpowering and does not look as tasteful as I would hope, however I feel that this soft lilac-grey will work well with grey yarns.

 

 

It has worked in theory but the shaping isn't something that I anticipated happening, however after the tutorial, people liked it and Laura felt that it was really experimental so I was pleased in the end with the outcome, as unexpected as it was.

 

When I do eventually achieve a good, strong sample with the correct tension, I intend to place a layer of latex that I have coloured with colours from my board inside the pocket. I think I will include a ladder in the pocket so that the contents of it are visible.

 

Second attempt.