Knits 101 Session 1: Introduction

Knits are a staple of our modern day fashion society. Unless you're wearing a power suit to work everyday it's likely that you're wearing knits as often if not more often than you wear wovens. Probably all your favorite garments are actually knits. Your hoodies, your T-shirts, lots of different dresses and accessories are made of knit, but you'll also find bedding made of knit. Those Jersey sheets that are so comfy, those are knit and there are sorts of all sorts of accessories out there like baby wraps, Moby wraps are made of knits. That's infactly just one long piece of knit fabric that you tie around yourself, intricately to hold your baby. So there's all sorts of knits out in the world. And because of that, it would be a shame to avoid sewing any of those fun projects because you were afraid of sewing knits. I know that I personally put off sewing knits for quite a while because I was not so keen on the stretchiness of the fabric. I didn't really know what to expect and all my seams seem to be warped or possibly damaging the fabric. And as that went on, I finally realized if I wanted to make projects that looked modern and that were relatable, that I could just wear out and look like a designer, I really needed to go ahead and start sewing some knit fabric. And I did and I've been practicing it for years. And I'm here to share these skills with you today. I'm gonna teach you how to conquer knits and learn the skill set that goes with them. It's a little bit different than wovens but in many ways it's actually easier and I'm sure you'll love it by the end of the class. Speaking of this class, let's talk about what we're gonna learn in it. First step, I'm gonna tell you how knit fabric is made. And then I'll give you a very brief history lesson that I like to call knits through the ages. The next session will be called knits up close and personal which is where we'll actually look at knits, learn the right side on the wrong side, learn what a stretch test is and how to perform one, et cetera. Then I'm gonna bring out all the knit fabrics I could find for a galleria of knits. You'll look at them and we'll learn what each one would be best to use for and then for projects. And then we'll talk about maybe a little problems that you might occur when you're sewing them. After that, we're going to learn about how to care for your knits. So we're going to talk about washing, drying, pressing and then we'll also kind of talk about prepping your knits to sew them. So if you're gonna put in some interfacing how to do that best then we'll talk about cutting knits. There are a few different things you need to take into consideration when you're cutting knits versus wovens which you might've noticed, 'cause they're stretchy. So we'll talk about that, then of course, we'll finally get to sewing knits. We'll begin by learning how to sew knits on a sewing machine. And we'll move into learning how to sew knits on a serger. We'll put all of that knowledge to good use and we'll go ahead and sew a skirt. In fact, we'll, sew this skirt right here, based on your measurements, so it's gonna fit you perfectly and you're gonna love it. And that's basically what we're gonna do in this class. That's a little brief overview. So with all that in mind I think it's time we go ahead and get started. Let's begin by talking about how knits are made. If you know how to knit fabric or knit yarn, then you know how to knit, how knit fabrics are made. You need knitting needles and you need yarn. And you, of course you start looping the yarn on to your knitting needle, creating sort of a series of knots and you work from one needle to the next, moving them across. You can see here, I have a small sample of knit fabric. This demonstrates just exactly this is the exact same as any sort of knit, but this is made of yarn on knitting needles at home, similar to, if you were knitting a scarf or if you were knitting, possibly socks, which would be very exciting. 'Cause I just can't figure out how to knit socks. So you make your knits in rows and as you work your way along, it grows longer and longer. And you can put finishing techniques on like we have this one here. I put a little crochet on it. That's exactly the same as how knit fabric is made. Except it generally is made on machines. In fact, I would say entirely is made on machines these days. The knitting needles are much thinner and much longer. And the yarn that's used is actually much thinner. It would be kind of similar to thread or even sometimes thinner depending on what type of knit fabric is being made. Then the machine knits the fabric out and it becomes out in long, long pieces that can be dyed. That can be, burned out, can flocked whatever sort of design you wanted to put on that knit fabric, that's when they do that. And then it's folded up on the bolts and sold to you at the fabric store. So it's not all that dissimilar from actually knitting. And it's kind of a fun thing to note that this is exactly the same as that, it's just on an industrial level. Now let's learn about the history of knits or knits through the ages. Knitting actually derives from a Dutch word. That means to knot. The oldest piece of knitwear that we have found, as humanity was found in Egypt. It's believed to have been created. Oh, it's a sock. I should probably tell you that. It was a sock and it was believed to have been created between the third and fifth century during the Roman empire period. And at this point it seems that knitting was actually created in the Middle East which was great because nomadic people that lived there, could just take their knitting with them anywhere. And when they went along trade routes, knitting spread and it was really nice because it's something you can do on the road. You just need your knitting needles and some yarn and you can go to town making fabric as opposed to carrying a very large loom along with you or constantly making your fabric out of animal pelts. So as it spread, it really caught on in modern day England, Scotland and Scandinavia. Why? Well simply because in all of those countries they have really long cold winters. And if you knit yourself a nice cozy sweater out of wool because they had sheep there already, you can go ahead and wear this thing that's naturally waterproof because of the lanolin in the wool it's lightweight and well, it's a renewable resource because your sheep is going to grow it regardless. From there, actually fishermen took it on. It was actually kind of a craft that men did because they would knit themselves special cable designs that belonged to them, which sort of morbidly was because if they were out fishing and they fell in the water and their body was discovered later at least they could identify the body based on the pattern in their knitwear. But also that's where modern cables came from. And when you're wearing that that's a little bit of history. The Scottish in particular, really loved knitting as well as the Scandinavian people. They sort of creating color work which is where you use two different colors kind of like this little sample here. There's two different colors except far more intricate. There's snowflakes and fair isle design became very popular especially from Scotland. And then it's believed that the Pearl stitch kind of showed up it's confirmed in the mid 16th century, it's likely that it existed prior to that, but that's definitely that the Pearl stitch started being made in the mid 16th century. And then in 1589, the stocking frame was invented and that's a mechanical knitting machine. And so all of a sudden knits were being made by machines. And it was so much faster than doing it by hand. In fact it became so popular to have your own knitting machine at home that people would just get, they would rent one and bring it home for fun and a whole knitting society grew around this. Lace accessories and undergarments started becoming very popular because as opposed to woven undergarments, that don't really move with you during the day and are a little bit bulky. Knit undergarments are very stretchy and comfortable. In fact, most of the undergarments made today are made with knits. In 1916, so centuries past and people really enjoyed wearing knitwear and queen Elizabeth was known to wear silk stockings that were knit and she just loved them. And then in 1916, Coco Chanel introduces Jersey. And that really revolutionized the knit world. Prior to this knits were only worn as sweaters or possibly as outerwear, but Jersey was lightweight and you could make really comfy kind of loose fitting garments. And this whole revolution of not being as structured under your clothing came about because we didn't need bustles and we didn't need ruffles. You could just wear comfortable Jersey knit. And as that grew also kind of unfortunately helped that world war one was around and scarcity occurred. You can cut a simple knit garment out of one piece of fabric and you don't need to put a lot of pleats or anything else into it. And when world war one was happening fabric was of course, scarce. So as people started using knits for more and more garments, it became more and more popular. Then in the 1920s fair isle became super super popular because the Prince of Wales was seen wearing a fair isle sweater while golfing in Scotland. And of course then everyone had to have one and it just evolved. So sweaters went to boxy and loose to form fitting in the fifties. If you can think of Jane Mansfield wearing her form fitting kind of pin up sweater, that was a very popular look at the time. And in the fifties, again Coco Chanel came back with her iconic suits. Those were knitwear and everyone loved them. If you think of Jackie O she's known for wearing those suits all the time. So we've sort of very much embraced knitwear as a society. And of course, as time marched on in the eighties, we got leggings and spandex and nowadays it's totally okay to wear leggings as pants. And you can wear, a knit sweater robe around whenever you want, or as I like to call them swobes. So knit these days is just part of our modern society and we have grown and changed with it over the years and eons and together, we are really making a great society with all our knitwear. So that's a little bit of history of knits. And now I'm gonna get set up to teach you all about knits up close and personal. So stay tuned.