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Hello, I’m Wietske Nutma. I’m a multidisciplinary designer and researcher with a focus on ecology and the more-than-human – in an effort to find ways to contribute to the living world. I spend most of my time working for Zoöp at the Zoönomic Institute, and various other projects at Nieuwe Instituut.

I also work a lot with textile, wool and other fibers, whilst thinking, learning and researching cloth making and repair.

Knitting machine residency

During the months of March, April and May I'm doing a residency at the studio of Ceola and Maurik. This is my log.

My knitting machine

Week 3 | Before going to the studio this week I spent some time at home creating a pattern for the garment I want to make. It will be a vest with rolled edges for the bottom and neckline, and a 1x1 rib trim at the armholes. I made a few versions, and I think it needs one more row of adjustments before it's finished.
Afterwards I went to the studio and made a list of all the techniques that I'm not yet familiar with that are necessary to make this garment. These include:
- a 1x1 rib trim on a single bed, for the armhole trims
- decreases, for shaping the armhole
- short rows, for shaping the neckline and shoulders
- seaming two knitting pieces together

I made small tests for each of these, and I feel fairly confident of starting on the actual piece soon. I just need to finalise the pattern and figure out the tension of the yarn I want to use. After that it will take a lot of calculations to arrive at a technical drawing that tells me how many stitches and rows I need to knit, where to decrease, where the neckline should start etc. I think it will take quite some time but I'm excited to start.

Week 2 | Colourwork was the theme of this week. I've always refrained from knitting by hand with multiple colours in the same row. Twisting strands, tension too loose or too tight, and not being able to knit holding two colours at the same time, I always thought it was a rather difficult thing to learn and I never mastered it. BUT on the knitting machine colourwork knits up like a dream. It's really fun to select the needles and think of the pattern you want. I'm currently dreaming of making a selection of knitted posters.

Week 1 | So much excitement this morning! I packed up all my materials last night, left them in a heap by the front door, and this morning Ben helped me transport everything to Ceola and Maurik's studio.

The light in the room here is beautiful. I set up my knitting machine and started making a tension swatch. I got some cones to experiment with, and I wanted to find out what tension would give me the nicest fabric/texture. Once I figured it out I began to do a little bit of patterning. It was the first time I used the buttons on the machine and the lever to move the needles and it was cool to figure out how it all worked.

Pretty soon though my right arm started hurting and I had to stop knitting. I have an injury called a tennis elbow and it means that I have overused the muscles in my right arm. It's been bothering me for months now and I really hoped it would have healed by now but it hasn't.

I left the studio feeling quite sad and dreaming of the times where I could just knit for hours on end without worrying. Next time though I'll just have to take more breaks, watch my posture and just come in for an hour or two rather than a whole day. Fingers crossed.

Update: I went back the next day and really watched my posture and that worked. As long as I don't push myself too hard I should be able to continue knitting.

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