Thursday, November 20, 2014

Hooray For Hollywood!

Recently I was contacted by a Producer who asked me to knit a button down vest for a film shoot.  I received photo's of the vest they wanted me to produce, a vertical stripe, rustic boxey vest, with five buttons.

My first inclination was yes I'l do it.  Then, after going through all the yarns (cones) I could not find what I needed to even knit a swatch.  I turned down the offer and knitted up a sample of a vertical striped fabric on the standard machine.  Thinking they would see I could not come close to their request and the short amount of time they had given I emailed it to them.

No, they liked it and felt it would work.  Being the type of guy I am I would not do it if it couldn't be done the correct way AND after all my name would be attached to it.  Well, being that they were at odds with time and this was a key piece in the wardrobe this Knitter started a yarn hunt.

Not being able to come up with anything for the standard machine (ordering yarn was not an option as I had a week) I found some worsted.  After swatching again, this time on the bulky, I decided on a 2x1 vertical stripe with three yarns.  The single strip in a beige, the two remaining stripes in a soft grey with the third yarn being a lace weight mohair in a black/grey twisted in.  Knitted up another swatch and sent off the picture.

They loved it.  I did not take the measurements and had to rely on what they sent me.  The Knit Leader was out so I had to develop a pattern and knit at night after long days at work.  I got going with four days to hand it over.  My beloved dog, Mikey didn't help as he decided to play with one of the front panels.

I finished sewing the buttons on at one in the morning the day before it was due.  Sadly, I had to take artistic liberties due to the time constraints and being unable to find the buttons I was searching for.

They started filming yesterday and today I saw a screen shot of the character in the vest...it looked great.  I was invited to the filming this week and hopefully I can make it, that would be fun and bring back memories (another story for another time).

When I get film stills I will post them here and also the link to the film.  I wonder how my screen credits will look?


Sunday, November 9, 2014

Iron On Transfer Designs For Your Machine Knits

Take a look at how an iron on transfers change the look of a machine knit sweater.  Beautiful job on this one, I respect Nyann's attention to detail, it makes the world of difference in the end.