Group Buy: Turtlenecks, Made in NYC

[ballmouse]

I wonder what happened to this

Wow! I suppose I'm embarrassed that I've left you all in the state where you need to ask (though I am slightly pleased that someone cared enough to resurrect this thread)!

Long story short: I'm not working with the knitwear manufacturer I found anymore. I go into more depth in my podcast (The Designers Must, "Death of a Sweater" episodes). But I had this feeling in the back of my head, and it sadly actualized itself.

Good news is I found another one in NYC which I find much easier to work with, so I'm a bit more optimistic on how things will turn out here.

But onto the bad news again; designing and making sweaters is really dependent on the factory because of the machines they use. This one doesn't use the same machines, so they have to be redesigned which is what we're doing. Even with samples from the previous factory, we still need to tweak them more to get them the way I want them.

Back to good news: I hope to actually get an interview/podcast/recording with the owner because she's wonderful. So hopefully that can shed some insight on what we're doing, what she's done, etc.

 

[ruvort]

Wow! I suppose I'm embarrassed that I've left you all in the state where you need to ask (though I am slightly pleased that someone cared enough to resurrect this thread)!

Long story short: I'm not working with the knitwear manufacturer I found anymore. I go into more depth in my podcast (The Designers Must, "Death of a Sweater" episodes). But I had this feeling in the back of my head, and it sadly actualized itself.

Good news is I found another one in NYC which I find much easier to work with, so I'm a bit more optimistic on how things will turn out here.

But onto the bad news again; designing and making sweaters is really dependent on the factory because of the machines they use. This one doesn't use the same machines, so they have to be redesigned which is what we're doing. Even with samples from the previous factory, we still need to tweak them more to get them the way I want them.

Back to good news: I hope to actually get an interview/podcast/recording with the owner because she's wonderful. So hopefully that can shed some insight on what we're doing, what she's done, etc.

I hope things will work out with this new factory. I'd be still interested in this.

 

[ballmouse]

I hope things will work out with this new factory. I'd be still interested in this.

Hi ruvort. Things are working out well. Just tried on the latest sample at the factory and it's much closer to what I envisioned. The neck area needs some tweaking and I want to try on the garment again now that I'm home to see if anything else needs to be done, but it's a lot closer than what the other factories got. And I can see this relationship turning out much better than with the last 2 factory owners.

Anyway, I wanted to let you (all) know progress is being made. It's just really, really slow sadly. Too many customers and not enough employees. I dropped something off in March at another factory and they're just getting around to it. And another factory I've been checking in every 2 weeks for what seems to be a month or 2 to see when I can drop something off there.

 

[ballmouse]

I'm not sure if anyone is still following this thread. If you are or are just interested in what sweater design is like, continue reading.

The factory (or, more of a studio to be exact) I've been working with since the last post has been excellent. In fact, sometimes I feel like they're reading my mind in terms of changes to be made. That's how well they understand my vision, which is very atypical given I'm willing to work on a pattern for years AND that nearly all the knitwear designs in the industry are for women.

That said, the knitwear industry is one wear the vast majority of designs fail to reach the market (probably 80-95%). The reasons are numerous because of how many steps are involved in the process of making knitwear: animal, yarn, dyes, and manufacture, with multiple intricate steps for each of the aforementioned and the general makeup of yarn. Any slight change in each process can result in a completely different end result, which may essentially kill a design. This is the reason most big brands have tens, possibly hundreds of knitwear projects at once so that they can have a handful of completed designs for sale when needed.

Where I'm going with this is that the turtleneck has hit one of those snags. The yarn supplier had changed dye houses, which created colors that varied from slight to extreme when put through the same knitting process. We're talking about how to proceed from here. It's a shame because the turtleneck was seeing very nice improvement with each iteration. But it may not be feasible with the given yarns for consistent production.

Anyway, that's it for now on the turtleneck. However, I do believe I'm nearly done with another project (men's trousers, higher rise, draped so well that when I wore them to the Armoury every employee there was asking in secret where I bought them). So...maybe keep your eyes peeled.