thesis collection: skeins

Showing posts with label skeins. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

The KNITTING PARTY

A few weeks ago my dearest friend Rosa Ng from QualityControl hosted a Sunday KNITTING PARTY!

I had never been to an event like this, and didn't really know what to expect. Nonetheless, I was really looking forward to see Rosa and some other former classmates; and to catch up while knitting or teaching others how to knit!

It was a total success! There was tea, pastries of all kinds, churros, munchies, and chocolate. Plus, we had nice music as a background to our endless and boisterous chatter. We had so much to update each other about.

such a beautiful tea-set! our guilty pleasures!

All of us are either out of school (graduated from FIT last May) or on the last semester. Its incredible how much things have changed since we've stopped frequenting the classrooms on 27th street. We spoke about first jobs, corporate vs. non-corporate companies, our study-abroad experiences, travels, design competitions, the NYC Garment Center, career ambitions, and of course, our love for fashion, craft and KNITTING.

There were 3+ conversations happening simultaneously and each story was interrupted by an “okay now, I’m going to show you how to purl”, a “wow, what’s that super pretty yarn?” a “wait, can you show me that again?”, "how to wind a ball of yarn", or “ What’s circular knitting all about?”…

All I can say is that it was the most fun I’ve had in a while! There is nothing like sharing your knowledge, ideas and passion for craft while catching up with your friends (and making new friends) over delicious banana/pecan-banana-bread-yuminess and warm tea on a cold winter Sunday!

Maybe we are nerds, but I know we all loved it! This should become a regular thing!

Enjoy the nice pics x Rosa Ng!

snacks on the table, yarn in our hands... this is how it started!

Nicole learning how to knit! She was determined to knit an entire sweater before she left the party...

I was fixing one of my CALAFURIA pieces w handspun scrap yarn

oh the laughs!

The following Sunday, I caught up with Nicole. She told me she's hooked with this knitting thing and that she bought "professional needles" because "a professional needs professional tools"

WE LOVE YOU NIC and we also LOVE KNITTING!!

Monday, February 27, 2012

Auralis + Zaida Adriana Goveo Balmaseda: knitwear accessories for Fall'12

Last Fall when I returned to NYC after my Euro-trip (the Mittelmoda competition, and the Ethical Fashion Show in Paris) I re-connected with my ex-boss, fellow puertorrican eco-designer, and friend Auralis Herrero Lugo; the designer behind Auralis (an eco-friendly label of exquisite clothes with an "Urban-Tropical" flair) .

I interned with Auralis in the Fall of 2010 during my senior year of college, and helped with the preparation for the launch of her line during The Green Shows. It was an amazing experience, and I felt very connected to her vision and her line. It was super heartwarming to work with/for someone who comes from my beautiful little island but is out here trying to make a difference.

Every time I went to the studio it felt a bit like going back home... and thats how I became part of her eco-venture. We've kept in touch ever since, and she's been incredibly supportive of my creative endeavors... given me advice and even wrote an article about the work I exhibited at the MMXIproject on Elpuntoes!

Anyhow, when we re-connected last September, she told me she was experimenting with natural-dyes at her studio. Since I was very interested in learning more, I offered to go help her out+learn for a few days. From that a knitwear collaboration was born.

Auralis wanted to include a knitwear element in her collection and I got really excited about developing some samples for her. Its the first time I collaborated with someone else and made accessories. It was a challenge, but definitely learned a lot and the pictures look amazing!

3+ months and MANY samples later (we tried various hat, scarf and headband shapes) we ended up with a turban/headpiece called "chacón headband" and the "iris scarf" all in reference to Iris Chacón. “Iris Chacón was a character I grew up watching in Puerto Rico. She had a variety show in the island for over 12 years. She was a fashion and beauty inspiration to all Puerto Rican women of my generation”

"For autumn 2012 Auralís collaborated with fellow sustainable designer, Zaida Adriana Goveo-Balmaseda. The collaboration includes a scarf and a turban, knitted using a blend of organic merino, baby alpaca and silk yarn; luxurious on the skin and beautiful on the eye. All yarns were also dyed naturally at the studio."

*pics from Auralis' blog

"In Auralis’s vision Iris Chacón travels from Puerto Rico to Scotland via New York wearing the Autumn 2012 Auralis collection; she leaves all the men in kilts speechless. This Urban Tropical takes her city chic attitude combined with her Caribbean flair everywhere she goes."

The Knitwear accessories I created with/for Auralis which were just shown at MINTfair in Amsterdam and at CAPSULE NYC during their respective FashionWeeks and will also hopefully be up for sale online through Auralis' e-shop.

"Auralís just showed the collection at Amsterdam’s MINT Modefabriek and in Europe for the first time with Origin 23 Showroom, “MINT is a driving force for the eco fashion world which is where the future of fashion lies”. – Eileen Moran, who started Origin 23, brings together talented eco designers and gives their collections a home."*

*from Auralis' Fall 12' press release.

I'm posting my favorite pictures from her Fall '12 collection below (and some process/behind the scenes pics as always)PLUS a wonderful video by Emerald Gold/Omar King. You can see more looks in her lookbook.

So much talent on that photoshoot!

Auralís Herrero Lugo for Auralís
Jewelry - Luiny Rivera Gelpi
Talent - Laura Wilson, Collin Tanner
Director - Mónica Félix
Shot/Chop - Omar King
Makeup - Karlo Beau
Hair - George Ortiz
PA - Mayumi Yamada
PA - Jenny Macgregor Dennis
Mario Sweet "Mario"

Sunday, January 8, 2012

SCRAP FABRIC yarn: Plying A More Fashionable Fiber Frontier

HELLO THERE, UPDATE UPDATE!!!

I'm back to being cybernetically connected. After spending two days knitting intensely (for The Green Fashion Competition and Auralis), here are some visuals from behind the scenes!

Also, this week we were featured in an amazing article written for ECO SALON by Abigail Doan. Abigail is an incredible writer/textile artist/master createur who I've had the pleasure to connect/interact with a lot lately. Its super gratifying to see she truly understands/appreciates my work!
Please check it out: Plying A More Fashionable Fiber Frontier

Abigail Writes:

"Similarly, I admire how designer Zaida Adriana Goveo Balmaseda is currently scouring the floors of designer work rooms and studios for scraps of textiles that are being hand spun into knitted runway creations for The Green Fashion Competition at Amsterdam Fashion Week in late January."

Zaida shared some of the following sentiments with us regarding her resourceful process and intention:

“Through my work I intend to encourage and engage people to use craft for solutions, and for my current project we are recycling studio textile waste. I discovered the spinning process while researching recycled yarns, and given that I was not really satisfied with my finds, I wanted to work with a fiber that I had complete control over and that would positively impact my surroundings, including the people I know.

Spinning yarn can be done with a very simple tool, and many people can participate in the transformation of this raw material. In just one week I taught my grandparents, brother, sister, and mother how to spin. We are creating and sharing stories together, and it has been incredibly rewarding to see everyone cooperating and enthusiastically wanting to learn a new skill. Each skein is unique, just like its spinner and the runway garments that we are knitting as well.”

enjoy the pics...