nikki and the endless garment

Tomorrow night is going to be a big night. Nikki has flown in from NZ as she is starring in an exhibition that is about to open at the RMIT Gallery. The exhibition is all about machine knitting and Nikki is the only Australian designer included in the show. So there will be archival pieces and special garments, created on the 'whole garment' Shima Seiki machines, that have been developed just for this exhibition on display. 

Nik is also hosting a workshop on Friday based on her range of Construction patterns. These can be booked through the gallery. 

And this leads to the next exciting bit of news!!

Nikki dropped by yesterday and delivered a bundle of the Construction Patterns, some of her beautiful bespoke yarn and her special ebony knitting needles. The yarn is the lovely chunky wool version and hopefully we'll be getting in some of the alpaca in the future. 

I was helping Nik handknit some panels up from the patterns yesterday and I have to say they were easy and lovely to work on. The Construction Pattern #1 is knitted with chunky yarn  on big 25 mm needles and is super quick to do. The Pattern #2 is designed for 15 mm needles and the Alpaca yarn but  you don't need to use Nikki's yarns, you can substitute other wools simply by checking the specs and perhaps knitting a test square. 

The great thing about these patterns is that you actually participate in 'designing' the garment, adding and subtracting pieces to create a unique piece. They are also fabulous experiments in seeing how simple squares and rectangles  can make a garment. 

Late breaking news!!- check out the giveaway over at Design Files.