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Episode 34: Wolf Graf
193 Plays1 year ago
Nicky and I chat with Wolf Graf. This man has more knitting and sewing expertise than should be humanly possible and a philosophy of sharing that you won’t want to miss!
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Transcript
Introduction to Craft, Design, Edit, Sleep, Repeat
00:00:13
Speaker
Welcome to Craft, Design, Edit, Sleep, Repeat with hosts Lisa Conway and Nikki Jensen. Listen, as we take a deep dive into the business of fibercraft design.
00:00:37
Speaker
Hi Nikki, how are you today? Great, thanks, how are you? I'm a little cold today for being June.
00:00:46
Speaker
Oh, yeah. It is Alaska. Yeah, it's it's been kind of gray and windy today. Just yuck. Anyway, um, I'm super, super, super excited to introduce you to a man that I have talked about more times than I can count on this podcast. And the reason I talk about him so often is because his skills are just
00:01:13
Speaker
beyond anything I've ever seen. He's just an amazing human being.
Meet Wolf Graf: The Mischievous Grafter
00:01:18
Speaker
So Nikki, I would like you to meet our wonderful Wolf Graf, the mischievous grafter, which we'll get into at some point. Yes. Hi, Wolf. Thanks for being here.
00:01:32
Speaker
Hi, Nikki. Hi, Lisa. And thankfully it's not a video podcast because otherwise he would have seen me being clawed by a cat. Yes. Catherine has decided his taking her chair is just not acceptable. Anyway, Wolf, would you please let our listeners know a little bit about yourself and your crafting background?
Wolf's Crafting Journey: From Crochet to Knitting
00:02:00
Speaker
Okay. I'm a German living in Australia of all things. And as you just said, it is cold. Contrary to beliefs that Australia is hot, it is freezing. I've been crafting for over 50 years. I started with crochet, knitting and sewing when I was about four or five years old.
00:02:30
Speaker
And it was a grandmother that taught you those things, correct? Yes, it was my grandma and my mother. And my grandpa taught me how to do carpentry, masonry, and all the other crafty things that you will need. I kid you not, Nikki, if there's something this man doesn't know, I haven't found it yet.
00:02:54
Speaker
Oh, I can tell you, I can't seriously make any coffee. Of all the things. Well, you can outsource that. That's okay. Yeah. That's why I only have it in tiramisu. He's a tea drinker and the high class teas that he has introduced me to are just amazing. What was the one that was the blue color? Oh, that was, um,
00:03:26
Speaker
A sweet pea tea. It's a butterfly sweet pea, which tints any tea blue. Yeah. I think I've heard of this. It's really, really blue, like blue Curacao or something.
00:03:47
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, they have a. And that is standard with that. Okay. Since you have done that now, you have to tell us how many languages you speak. Oh, goodness me. Yeah, which I'm getting back into, but, uh, as a child, I learned seven languages.
00:04:18
Speaker
Yeah. That's pretty common in Germany, isn't it, to have many languages because there are so many countries surrounding that speak different languages, right? Oh, absolutely. And because I also grew partially up in the Netherlands, the Dutch always say we defend ourselves with the languages. So you have Dutch, you have German, you have French.
00:04:44
Speaker
you have English and, except of Dutch, all those languages are taught in school in Germany as well. So you have to take at least one foreign language. Okay. Well, and to get back to your crafting, it
00:05:08
Speaker
There was a question that I had that's not coming out right. When did you turn crafting into a profession? Because I know now you teach sewing, but I also know you did couture tailoring. Yes. And you've done knit design. Yes. And fashion design. Right. So when did it become part of the career?
00:05:37
Speaker
Uh, surprisingly, I supplemented my allowances when I was a teenager already. That's what I thought. Yeah. Uh, I did little jobs here and there for other people. Uh, knitting wasn't one of the things that I did for other people until later in life.
00:06:02
Speaker
when I found some people that were knit worthy or that paid. But sewing, yeah, I've done basically when I was 16, 17, starting onwards, where I was making pieces for other people. Okay. And I was going to ask which came first, your knitting or your sewing, but basically they kind of all came at the same time, didn't they? The first thing I'd done was crochet.
00:06:35
Speaker
I'm not sure if I was three or four, but the first thing that I'd done was a knitted kimono for a teddy bear that was about eight to 10 centimeters tall. So that was the first thing.
00:06:56
Speaker
That was where I got my start, too, was making doll clothes. Actually, I didn't. I went straight into clothes for myself. But that was because I did have a mother who sewed and taught me to knit and sew and that sort of thing. And it was all garments from the very beginning.
00:07:20
Speaker
For me, it came because I watched my grandma do crafty work and also Christmas, we done the whole nativity scene. So with my grandpa, we went out and got moss and wood and tree roots and set up a whole scene there. So for me, it was natural to do something with my hands all the time.
00:07:49
Speaker
And when I started sewing, I always say my grandma was a really smart woman. She knew exactly what reverse psychology means.
00:08:04
Speaker
She told me not to use her sewing machine, so I didn't follow those instructions. And one day she caught me while I was re-hamming a unfortunate tea towel that sort of lost its hem along the way. I still didn't admit to her that it was because of me, but I re-sewn it.
00:08:33
Speaker
My grandma just gave up and said, you know, if I can't keep you from the machine, then at least I will teach you. So I learned how to sell on a trade on machine, but I also learned how to knit on a knitting machine. I've done a bit of that in my past as well. Yes.
00:09:01
Speaker
So, oh, go ahead. Oh, that basically screwed me up before life, but that's not a story. Really? I thought that's what we were here to talk about. How do you find that sewing influences your knitting, if it does?
00:09:25
Speaker
You know, when I seen that question on now hearing it, I was, this is interesting because something might surprise you because knitting influenced my sewing. Okay. I am known when I sew to eliminate seams wherever I can.
00:09:52
Speaker
Oh, okay. That is very interesting. I mean, for somebody who's been sewing for over 50 years, yes, some of the decorative seams have a place, but I also think that other seams that don't need to be there shouldn't be there. And that came from
00:10:18
Speaker
looking at knitting designs and how you can actually create a collar with the increases and decreases and make that shaped in sewing when you slash a pattern. So slashing a pattern means you make incisions and you move pieces around.
00:10:41
Speaker
You can create the seams in a way that it takes an extra seam out or a dart out. But with easing and with form pressing, you can actually shape a garment depending on the fabric you use. Oh, wow. So give me an example of a kind of a seam that you can remove.
00:11:08
Speaker
What seams do you commonly find are not really necessary? Uh, at the moment I'm working on a seam. Oh, not on a seam, on a pair of pants. Oh, you know, you mentioned that the other day. Yeah.
00:11:31
Speaker
So when you have a placket like this, that is a high-waisted pair of pants, and then you have the waist seam in the front, the two front pieces that I have on the front side up to the pocket, there won't be a horizontal seam in the next piece.
00:11:57
Speaker
Because it doesn't make sense. And I was like, okay, that makes sense. Yeah. And those are things that came from knitting where I knew, okay, if I do this a little bit differently, I can eliminate that seam. Because I mean, quite frankly, who likes seaming knitting?
00:12:20
Speaker
Not very many people. There are a few people. The thing of it is, is most of them that do come from a sewing background.
00:12:33
Speaker
That's what I find to be a common thread with designers I've spoken to that like to make sure they've got the seams. Now, there are some seams that do help with certain stability. Like the shorts. I can't imagine doing a pair of cotton knitted shorts without seams. I just can't because the seam really does help provide stability.
00:13:02
Speaker
It seems like all of the designers that I've talked to that really insist on don't take my seams out of my patterns. They have started in a sewing background and come forward into knitting and they see those seams as necessary. I think I must have missed that memo in the 70s. You missed a lot of memos, let's be honest. Oh, yeah.
00:13:29
Speaker
Absolutely. That is really interesting, though, because it really flipped our question and our expected answer right on its head, didn't it, Lisa? Yes, it really does. Even though I've known Wolf for a while now, I missed that one. But it makes sense. Now the name makes sense, too. Yes, we will discuss that more later, I promise. I'm starting to clue in.
00:14:01
Speaker
Nikki, you're getting a small picture of what my Thursdays are like. Yes. You don't want to repeat the Zoom meeting here because that would be a long episode. Yeah. The last one was.
00:14:22
Speaker
How many years? Yeah, you broke our record. I did. You said one, two weeks ago, no, three weeks ago with 12 hours, you'd done 13. 13. But that was for a good reason. I was there supporting one of our members who lost her best friend and she just really needed people to be with her. And there was no way I was going to leave until she was ready. I just stayed up all night if Ida had to.
00:14:50
Speaker
Wow. If you needed a thumbnail for this podcast, Nikki's expression when we said 12 and 13 hours, that would have been it. I don't have that kind of time yet. I wish I did. You'll get there. You'll get there. I promise you've got that little one that takes that time away.
00:15:15
Speaker
Yeah. And a day job, plus your editing, plus editing a book that I can't wait to hear more about that. Anyway, to move on. Yeah, well, I guess to move on, we could move on to the next question, unless you had more about seams, I unfortunately don't have a sewing background. So I
00:15:46
Speaker
But you knit and you crochet. I knit and I crochet, yes. And I try to seam as infrequently as possible, but I do understand. When you think about it, when you have shoulder seams, in knitting they get longer and longer and longer and longer and longer. If you don't have a seam with a crochet hook, you can solve that. How so?
00:16:15
Speaker
You make a chain underneath. Make a chain underneath. Yeah, you pick up the pearl bumps if you eliminate the seam. You pick up the pearl bumps underneath and go into every second and make a chain underneath. And it gives it that stability. So that gives you the stability. Oh, I like that. So these are the ways that we avoid seams.
00:16:44
Speaker
Yes and it's also a technique that came from when I was working with a furrier. I did the fabric collection there and I always wondered how do you keep a fur coat in shape?
00:17:02
Speaker
You have so many seams there, skins move. They live, even though they're dead, but they're still not stationary. And it is a thin cotton ribbon that's being sewn in as well that holds the whole thing in place.
00:17:23
Speaker
Same thing you can do that if you eliminate seams on the shoulder or where you have gravity pull a lot. You just take one of those cotton strips and stitch it in by hand.
00:17:38
Speaker
I've been looking at how to use my hand-woven in garments, and that's the very same thing that they talk about in stabilizing the seams for hand-woven fabric because hand-woven fabric is more likely to fray. And so you stabilize the seams with
00:18:07
Speaker
It's an iron-on stabilizer.
00:18:10
Speaker
Oh, yeah. It's not, but it's, but it's not, it's not, um, polyester. It's, it's a cotton. It appears to be a cotton rather than a polyester is that. Yeah. You get woven interfacings, you get nitricate interfacings, you get, uh, heat, spun fibers. Like, yeah, not really a felt, a felt should be out of wool, not polyester or acrylic.
00:18:41
Speaker
But you get all those different swords. Yeah, these these were the the woman that I was watching was using a woven interfacing. Yeah, cut real into the real thin strips and then just exactly down the seam line. So yeah, that's it makes sense to me that the stabilizing is the key factor here. You only need seams when it needs to be stable. Exactly. But
00:19:11
Speaker
It depends where your seam is and what type of seam it is. Right. And, and shaping. Some shaping would need to be done in seams. Handwovens, you can actually press into form very easily. Yes. Specifically if they're made out of wool. Yes.
00:19:37
Speaker
what I'm hearing is that some of the places where we think we need seams can actually be replaced with other techniques. Exactly. So for me it is the elimination of visible seams. Yes, in the background there might be some hand stitching or invisible seams that hold a piece in place.
00:20:02
Speaker
So for me it was always when I did my apprenticeship as well, I looked for ways to make simple things complicated. That would be a rule of his life, yes. That's really cool though.
00:20:24
Speaker
In the end, it always seems to reverse itself because by the time you've made the simple thing complicated, you've found a way to take the complicated back to the simple. Yes. Which maybe not simple so much as just more realistic to do.
00:20:44
Speaker
It is. One of the things is when I make sewing patterns, I eliminate the seams, use a lot of techniques, but in the end it is less work, but it is more skilled work.
00:21:07
Speaker
Well, certainly in knitting, the more seaming, the more work it is. So if you can find a way to get around it, that does make things easier, but maybe not simpler. Yeah. I'm picturing your corsets in my head and how you did, how you would make those
00:21:38
Speaker
what you would do to form a corset that used fewer seams? With corsetry, it is almost impossible. Okay. Unless you use stretchy materials. Right. Or you are not talking about corsets, you're talking about corsolettes or corsages.
00:22:06
Speaker
Okay, now you've lost. What's the difference? See, I told you, this man's knowledge is just as broad as the world. So what's the difference? So, disclaimer, I'm a trained corsetier. Yes. I used to do medical corsets, so it's a little bit different, but then I also worked in New York tutorial.
00:22:34
Speaker
A corset is the structure that shapes the body. A corset is something that supports the body, specifically the breasts. So it is a bra but with more under structure. So the bra band is more than 10 centimeters wide. A corsage
00:23:05
Speaker
not the one you have on your arm. It is the overstructure that you build over a corset, a decorative part. Gotcha. Okay. That makes sense. Okay.
00:23:22
Speaker
Yeah, you got me when you said that. I think that I associate the word corset more with a corsetier. Am I saying that right? Corsetier, yeah. Corsetier. Oh, corsetier probably in the US, yeah. Yeah, I think I picture in my head when you say corset, I think I picture a corsetier instead. A corsage, you mean.
00:23:53
Speaker
Okay, I've lost it. All right, nevermind. You just got the corset confused with the maker. Yeah, yeah. There's a big learning curve there. And there is. Because I think too many people use the word corset to mean all three. Yes.
00:24:15
Speaker
But then again, it's a dying art form and I know a lot of people in the US have started to create corsets again and
00:24:30
Speaker
teaching themselves or learning from the School of Historic Fashion in the UK. They brought out a book on corsetry where you can learn a lot of things. Others went to courses about corsetry and then they started their business and selling courses now online.
00:24:58
Speaker
but the- Yeah, I keep needing to look into those. Yeah, I call those more the fashion cosets. The ones that I learned with Elphidenrich in Berlin was more for women who needed the support because of the size of their breasts or because of medical reasons or because of surgery.
00:25:27
Speaker
And see, that's why I would be interested in looking into it more completely because they're much more supportive than our current bras. As a matter of fact, there's some research that says that what we wear today is actually causing damage to our breasts. Not just your breasts.
00:25:51
Speaker
I just keep thinking about the first episode of Queen Charlotte where she's talking about her corset with whale bone in it and how it could literally stab her to death if she bent the wrong way and I'm thinking
00:26:06
Speaker
That might not be for me. We don't use whale bone anymore. So we have violin, we have metal burning and so on. It is less dangerous, but definitely corsets have their place in
00:26:28
Speaker
the whole overall clothing part and it is part of the slow fashion movement as well, where people going back to the old patterns from the 16, 17, 1800s and towards the new ones and 20s and 40s and 50s. I mean 50s fashion without a corset is almost unthinkable unless you cock a Chanel.
00:26:55
Speaker
And all the trendy period television shows must be having a part in driving that interest. Oh, absolutely. And a lot of the costume makers and reenactors and
00:27:21
Speaker
YouTube as well as Instagram is full of imagery of vintage wearers. Yeah. There's some really, really interesting work out there being done on researching the history of various clothing and textiles. It's a big thing these days.
00:27:44
Speaker
So, well, if you've told us you've been a furrier, a corseteer, a tailor, what have you learned from all of that wealth of experience that you wish that knitting designers were more aware of? How to eliminate seams and it works.
00:28:03
Speaker
Yeah. Basically, I didn't work as a furrier. I worked for a furrier, but I got the information about it. Yeah, sorry, German, really to the point. Yes, I have a couple German clients.
00:28:27
Speaker
What I got out of this whole thing is I'm looking into structured garments, but most knitting designers shy away from it because there is a huge learning curve behind it. Yeah. I noticed that I, I noticed that I tend to work on a lot of yoke sweaters and a lot of drop shoulder sweaters and
00:28:58
Speaker
there's opportunities to make things fit better if you go beyond those very kind of basic shapes that maybe a lot of designers might be intimidated to do.
00:29:16
Speaker
Well, and there's some grading issues in there, too, that those are much easier to grade than a more fitted garment. A more fitted garment will require a complete different instruction for every size. Yeah. And in today's world of we've got to be inclusive, we've got to have 10 sizes, that becomes a huge hurdle. Yes.
00:29:48
Speaker
Yeah, we'll be talking more about that in our next, well, actually we'll be talking about that before this episode. So go back and listen to episode 33.
00:30:04
Speaker
the choice of time travel. Yes. The interesting part about recording out of order, right? Which we record according to our, everybody's schedules and that can be challenging. So is there anything else though, that, that you wish knitting designers knew more about from the, the sewing tailoring side that you think that they could apply?
00:30:34
Speaker
like the grading? It's a little bit of a double-edged sword because grading and designing for knitwear is different to designing and creating in fabric, in woven fabric. So when I did my grading and pattern making designs, I learned it for fabrics that are woven, but then also for knitwear.
00:31:04
Speaker
It would be interesting to see if there's somebody around that actually does the course specifically for knitwear. But then again, I can tell you as soon as you go into garments that are structured as a woven fabric would be,
00:31:29
Speaker
you have the same problems again that you have with sewing. With sewing, we have it solved with the multiple size patterns where you trace different forms. The instructions are the same. In knitting, you would have to translate that completely differently because you're going row by row by row by row.
00:31:55
Speaker
So it's basically you can't transfer one to the other. There's a lot of patterns. I see that you end up having to break out, you know, size one, three and five, one, two, four and seven, you know, because where you can find commonalities in some of the sizes, you have to have uniqueness in others. And so there is.
00:32:25
Speaker
that trick of figuring out where can I cut back on verbiage by including everything in one place and where do I have to break out those things and how do I make it read well. So from an editor's point of view, that's probably one of the trickier parts of dealing with that.
00:32:47
Speaker
Yeah. And think about it when you customize the ZOC, you're basically following the principles that you use if you would lengthen or shortening address.
00:33:02
Speaker
Yes. In a dress, you lengthen and shortening above the bust, below the bust, at the waist, between the waist and the hip, between the hip and the knee, and between the knee and the ankle. With a sock, everybody does either the cuff first or the toe. Then you knit up to your
00:33:31
Speaker
gusset increases toe up or you knit up to the heel flap for top down then you have your turn off the heel and then you go the other direction but in that section between cuff heel and toe
00:33:55
Speaker
you can lengthen and shortening that sock and you can customize it for different people. If we would have more of these building blocks, it would be easier to apply the actual pattern making skills from sewing into knitting.
00:34:21
Speaker
You could do it with widening a garment, but then the curves would be sitting differently. If you take a front piece, for instance, and for every size you add three stitches or four stitches in the middle and then move that out, it is possible that way. And most people who sell will do that eventually anyway.
00:34:52
Speaker
They realize, okay, here we have so much positive or so much negative ease. I don't like that. So I'm just adding something. It is more difficult when you do color work because then you have those three additional stitches or 10 additional stitches or whatever. So are you moving a color work out to the side and then
00:35:21
Speaker
basically adding the stitches there? Or are you creating a different design with the color work? For instance, Juanita, I adore with the designing Elistamo. Yes. Her color work is extraordinary. There is shaping in the color work. Yes.
00:35:49
Speaker
Yes. And that's tricky because wherever you've got a new size, does it fit within the stitch pattern as far as the number of stitches in this piece of color work and the number of rows in this piece of color work. And she has found ways to actually add increases and decreases in such a way that the color work itself expands and decreases with the work. Yeah.
00:36:19
Speaker
You look at her work. It's just amazing. Yeah.
Exploring Juanita's Innovative Designs
00:36:23
Speaker
And I came across her early on in my knitting and I always thought, this is one person who understands how to translate sewing into knitting. I'm going to have to look again because I never equated it the same way, but you're right. Yeah.
00:36:46
Speaker
Well, one thing that you said that I wanted to come back to about the lengthening and shortening the sock, I think that that is something that can be applied in garments as well and most of the time probably should be applied in garments as well if you can because sizing charts are for
00:37:07
Speaker
average height, they're not for every height. So if someone can make the length of sleeves and body adjustable in their pattern, I think that that is really helpful to the person who's knitting it.
00:37:24
Speaker
And that's one of the things that's missing in knitting patterns where exactly where you say with this slashing part in a fabric pattern, you have those double lines where you lengthen and shortening the pattern. If you have a stretch of fabric that you knit and your stitch count remains the same,
00:37:52
Speaker
go for it. Come the rows out if you need to or add to it. What you need to remember is the ratio from the shoulder to the breast point, from the breast point to the waist, from the waist to the hip. Anywhere there in between you can make that garment fit for yourself.
00:38:17
Speaker
Yeah. And that's where our modern knitters, our current day knitters haven't been because unlike you and unlike me,
00:38:29
Speaker
They weren't taught by family that taught them how to modify for their bodies as they learned. They're learning from YouTube. They're learning from written patterns or books. And they're not getting the advantage of, OK, well, here's where you can make the adjustments. So we need to do a better job. And it's a challenging job of directing them. This is where you can make changes.
00:38:58
Speaker
Yes, and one of the big disadvantages of living in this time is the motivation. In the 70s and 80s, if we wanted to learn a technique that we didn't know, we had to search for it. Yeah.
00:39:19
Speaker
was word of mouth or this individual knew it and then you got together and you exchanged information. You had critical thinking and you already made up your mind. Okay, if I do this, how can, in my case, how can I make it easier on one hand, but then also it might be more complicated for somebody else. But in my thinking pattern for myself, easier.
00:39:51
Speaker
You also didn't have the amount of misinformation. I see a lot of knitting tutorials and sewing tutorials that are highly edited. The mistakes are not there. There is no way of fixing anything. Mistakes are being hidden, even though they're made on camera.
00:40:20
Speaker
And I don't get it. I mean, if you want to teach other people, show them how to make the mistakes and how to fix them. Yes. That's a really good point. That's how we all learn. You can imagine, Nikki, that the people who take his sewing classes get the most
00:40:47
Speaker
phenomenal teacher because A, he's not afraid to make mistakes in front of them. Oh, goodness me. Because he knows that. And when a student makes a mistake, I've heard time and time again from him how, Oh, look at, we've got this wonderful learning opportunity here.
00:41:07
Speaker
Yeah. I love that. They all start laughing. Yes, they all feel awkward the first time it happens, but five minutes later, they catch themselves laughing at somebody else and they realize, you know, this helps. Yeah.
00:41:26
Speaker
I love that because I think maybe there's a pressure for some reason if you're teaching to have to be perfect in order to be an authority or to be a teacher, but making mistakes is part of making anything. I'm going to go back into my past. I was an elementary certified elementary teacher.
00:41:56
Speaker
And I worked for a brief period of time in a school for gifted and challenged students. They had to test at an IQ of at least 160 to be admitted. And this was from preschool up to
00:42:13
Speaker
about 12 or 13 year olds and then they had a separate school for the high schoolers. And as I did my student teaching there and one of the biggest lessons I learned very early on was if I made a mistake
00:42:32
Speaker
to use that to show kids it's okay to make a mistake because if there's anyone in this world that is a perfectionist and is hard on themselves when they make a mistake, it's gifted and talented students. These kids have more mental anguish
00:42:53
Speaker
And it, it was, I had one student one day come to me and the funny part of it is her name was the same as mine. We were both Lisa and she loved that. And she came to me, miss Lisa, you've made a mistake when you corrected my math and went, Oh, I did. Let me see. Show me where, show me where the mistake is and show me what I did wrong. And she showed it to me and I went, you know what? You're, you're right. I blew it.
00:43:23
Speaker
you know, and just was very matter of fact, changed her grade on that piece of paper. And she was just like, you're not gonna cry. Literally, you're not gonna cry. And it was like,
00:43:39
Speaker
No, I'm human. I make mistakes. I make mistakes all the time. We all do. You know, it's, it's, it's part of life. And so yeah, that was probably the most important thing I ever learned in my entire adult life. That was, it was just amazing. So yeah, I love listening to Wolf tell stories about his class. What can I say? Anyway.
00:44:07
Speaker
What kind of things inspire you or inspire your design? Oh goodness me, I'm a person who lives in details and takes the details and creates the bigger picture.
00:44:25
Speaker
So anything from a blade of grass to a drop of water to a cat scratching me inspires. Your friends drinking glass. The cat scratching me definitely I need to make a fabric that's thicker so the claws can't get through. But for me it is I have a constant sensory overload.
00:44:55
Speaker
My, yes, thank you. There we go with the cats again. I constantly see something that inspires me. She's gonna talk to us now. Yes, she is.
00:45:25
Speaker
Yes, I watched him change an entire direction for a pattern because of a friend's drinking glass. Oh, goodness me, that pawn show. I would love to hear more about this.
00:45:45
Speaker
Well, we don't want to go too deep. Yes. So the pattern is going to be edited by Michelle. Good. And its name, and thankfully I can show you because I have it right here.
00:46:11
Speaker
It's too, okay, can you do me a favor, Wulff, and make sure we get photos to include with the show notes? Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. Thank you. Kept on the keyboard. Nope. You definitely will get that. In the front, there is a shape, that's the back, that goes from, so it's double knitted brioche. It goes into the shape of a glass,
00:46:42
Speaker
And then the middle, the rib forms the stem and then with some wiggle braids or traveling stitches over double knitted brioche. That's where the stem is. I see it. The pattern went through a few stages of naming.
00:47:10
Speaker
Several of them I can't repeat on camera or on the microphone because I rarely swear, very rarely swear, that individual complements me.
00:47:34
Speaker
She makes up for the little of the swearing that I do. But after about seven or eight different names, it is now going to be called blasted cinnamon vodka. Yes. And there's a whole long story behind that that we're not going to share because I think it would embarrass this poor person a little too much.
00:48:03
Speaker
No, she would be highly entertained. Oh yes, she would laugh at herself for sure. We were so concerned about her, but then on the other hand, I was, oh my gosh, this needs to be memorized. We were all laughing so hard.
00:48:27
Speaker
Then with that poncho, I created the shape of it and you will see it in the notes. But when you look at the front, how this goes with the shaping here, this is the easy part when you look in the back.
00:48:50
Speaker
Oh, yes. So there are different lines coming together. And this is where the corset tree needs, meets knitting. Right. A lot of my students already said you should turn this into a dress pattern. Yes. Yes.
00:49:17
Speaker
There was a few of us within the knitting group that thought, you just added some straps, right? If you have the figure, it would be beautiful.
00:49:32
Speaker
So yes, I've watched Wolf over the last three years create some absolutely amazing things that I don't think have ever hit for sale in terms of a pattern, but oh man. Where are the patterns, Wolf? Oh, I'm starting and yeah.
00:49:56
Speaker
I was waiting for this pattern. I mean, I needed this about two years ago. I was waiting for this pattern because of Nathan's book. So that I don't publish something before the book actually is out. That makes sense. And again, with the inspiration, it comes from anywhere. Out of talking about the technique and me
00:50:24
Speaker
like Nathan, trying to do something with less work but getting a better result. The whole thing with the development of double-needed brioche came and at one point we realized we were approaching it exactly the same way with the same outcome. However,
00:50:50
Speaker
me being an imperfect perfectionist and him being an perfectionist, he took it 15 steps further than me and I remained with that. Because, I mean, I could say I'm the smarter one, I let him do all the work.
The Art of Double-Knitted Brioche
00:51:18
Speaker
Yes, if you're trying to do less work and get the better result, you can do less work by letting someone else do it.
00:51:30
Speaker
So he got some knitting out of it and I had entertainment. But yeah, for me it was, yeah, okay, problem solved. You can look for something else. Then we'd done some triple knitting and
00:51:51
Speaker
I found some ways there to make it complicated again, but easier again. For instance, Nicole, with the designs that she brought out, there are a few things that are still in the pipeline. One of them is a triple knitted where she used cables. But I looked at the cables and I was, hmm.
00:52:21
Speaker
too noisy for me. So what did I do? I used the technique from the double knitted brioche with the latrion braid or the travel stitches in the travel knitting technique to move the traveling stitches from one line and then going into the fabric. So instead of having the
00:52:48
Speaker
traveling stitches being flat and the fabric being up and down and textured. My fabric is flat, but the traveling stitch is going back and forth and down.
00:53:07
Speaker
I haven't seen that one yet. I can't wait to see that one. You've seen it a while ago, but that's the one I need to shoot the video. And I'm at the round where I'm starting with the lead reembrane again to get that all the way around. But there were a few test knits in between and
00:53:27
Speaker
And for our listeners, he's referring to Nicole Stein's Argyle, which is spelled with three R's, cowl, that just released. You can find pictures of my version of that on my Instagram, or you can find the pattern on Ravelry. And there's Wolf's version of it in the neon colors.
00:53:50
Speaker
that is actually got a UV strand worked into two of the colors so that it glows in the dark. Oh, very cool. Oh, it's amazing. And her flutter mittens with the triple knitted mittens that have the butterfly that comes together on the hands.
00:54:12
Speaker
It's on the front, it's little butterflies that create on the palm, it's little butterflies that create a heart. And on the back, it's a split butterfly. So there's one wing on each. Oh, wow. And then she's working on some other patterns as well. So you'll see those coming in the future. And so look for a flutter and argyle. Wonderful.
00:54:37
Speaker
at the Flutter, I had the perfect yarn for it. And it was just, I couldn't believe how that came out. And yeah, I'm so happy I needed it. I'm so happy it's with my friend Julie now in New Zealand. Yep, yep. And they made her very happy. Yes. And I might make another pair.
00:55:08
Speaker
I might. But yeah, you can see that one on Nicole's pattern as well. Yeah, that's the other one. So obviously, you never shy away from anything that's complicated. I've never seen you once look at a complicated pattern and say, No, I can't do that.
00:55:29
Speaker
What do you feel are the best ways to overcome fear of the unknown? And this can be unknown for the beginning designer who is not sure how to move into the business. It could be knitting techniques. How do you overcome fear? Make the mistake. Learn from it.
00:55:54
Speaker
As simple as that. Don't be afraid of making mistakes. And certainly in, in knitting, I mean, it's just knitting. There's not really a lot to lose. Dysponcho. I frocked five times. Yeah.
00:56:21
Speaker
And I'm not talking about the upper section. I'm talking about the section below the glass. Because I wanted to find a way how I can get the stripes of the shaping to go onto the sleeve or onto the arm.
00:56:43
Speaker
but hold the shape for the poncho. So if you go in, you know automatically because of the shaping of the neck. This goes over your ears. If you turn it down, it sits perfectly on your shoulders. But when you're walking around and you see once of a sudden that your diagonal stripes are in the front, you know, move it and it's normal again.
00:57:12
Speaker
in a position where it should be, not to set off other people. And it was just something that I realized when I was knitting a brioche pattern that I thought, oh, this is fun. But then realized, oh, there are some shortcomings. First of all, it was brioche. It wasn't double knitted brioche.
00:57:42
Speaker
because at that point the technique wasn't there. But the other thing was also, I never knew, where's the front, where's the back? Why does it sit awkward? So I constantly had to adjust it and then I remember for myself, okay, this is where it needs to be.
00:58:08
Speaker
Just think about a circle skirt with a elasticated waistband that wouldn't have any seam. How would you put that one on?
00:58:25
Speaker
And even wearing a skirt like that, if it's got pockets, you invariably figure out that, Oh my gosh, it's moved during the course of, you know, standing up and sitting down and standing up and sitting down. And your pocket is now in the middle of the front and the middle of the back. Yeah. So once officer, can you, can you tell I've had experience with that? Yeah. So
00:58:51
Speaker
That's where the inspiration comes from. Make sure what? Just make sure you turn your skirt back around before you go digging in your pockets. And turn it in the right direction. Not that you're going backwards in your pockets. Do I know from experience?
00:59:30
Speaker
I don't think I will need to explain the name of my company. Oh dear.
00:59:47
Speaker
So what's waiting in the wings? Any next projects on the horizon? Yeah, so the priority is to get that pattern out, do the grading, get the test knitting done, because it will come in a few different sizes. And the sizing is actually going to be very interesting as well.
01:00:18
Speaker
we all know that in larger sizes the front changes more than the back and the poncho is actually not really symmetrical from the front to the back so there will be more added in the front there will be slight change in the back
01:00:41
Speaker
And the glass will get shorter and longer. That's where the sizing will happen, which is also something it took me quite some time to come up with a way not just to slap some stitches in somewhere where it didn't make sense. Right. Interesting. I didn't realize you were going to do that in multiple sizes. That's a cool project.
01:01:11
Speaker
But of course, like we said, you can't do anything the easy way. No, and the other thing is I learned a lot about different sizing and sizing methods by knitting other designers' work and looking through how are they solving the issues. And one of the big ones is Hunter Hamilton.
01:01:40
Speaker
Hunter is a genius when it comes to sizing different things with the socks where you have your stitches per inch and you can change according to your stitches of to an inch and the size of the sock that you want to have you go in and use the different charts
01:02:09
Speaker
And that inspired me where I was brilliant woman. Yay. I have some, I have inspiration from that. And that's where I was, yes, you can do it absolutely elegantly. It's a shame that so many of her individual patterns are no longer available. She's
01:02:36
Speaker
limiting. Yeah, I know she opened it up this weekend for her older patterns. Yeah. But you know, it's it's really kind of a shame she chose to do that because there was some really inventive things there that she's removed. But I get it.
01:02:53
Speaker
When this episode comes out, it won't be on sale. However, Hunter done that before and I think she will do it on special occasions again. So that's something, bookmark them when they come out for sale.
01:03:14
Speaker
Go follow her, follow her Instagram, get on her newsletter because she will announce when they're going to be available and it's worth it to keep an eye out. And there's always her books. Yes. And oh, I can't now have a visitor.
01:03:41
Speaker
the best kind of visitor. Yes, that that's our little blizzard. That's snowball. And I now have to wipe the floor.
01:03:55
Speaker
She dribbles every time she sees me. Oh, that's so cute. Just say it with the words of the woman who inspired me to do the poncho, there are intermediaries to do that.
01:04:15
Speaker
Yes. Well, usually they do, but they were rushing her out. So I'll probably take care of it in a little bit.
Advice for Aspiring Designers
01:04:22
Speaker
So well, given your extensive background, what advice would you give a budding designer or someone who's thinking about designing but hasn't done so yet?
01:04:38
Speaker
Get over the fear. Jump in and as I said earlier, don't be afraid of making a mistake. There are a lot of people out there who will ridicule you. Ignore them. Look for the information that's constructive criticism or supportive and learn from those. The rest is white noise.
01:05:06
Speaker
And if you can get Wolf as a test knitter, you've got the best test knitter in the world. No, not really. Because I change parents.
01:05:18
Speaker
Yes, you do. But you do so intelligently. And you do so with information given back to the designer as to why you did it. I've watched you work a number of test nets for Nicole and both test nets for Nicole. And I've watched you watch work others. And I will honestly say if if there's something he he can tell you that he thinks will help you, he most definitely will share it. He's like I said, he really is a fabulous test netter.
01:05:50
Speaker
Yeah. If you can get Wilfred as a test nitter, he's fabulous. And I mean, good. Okay. I have a huge ego, but I'm not egotistical. I give you the information if you ask for it or not. And I have to agree with your description of yourself there. Um, definitely not egotistical, definitely not, but, but never afraid to be who you really are. And I love that about you. I know.
01:06:20
Speaker
I love and I respect that. I really do. I learned how to embarrass myself when I was a little kid. And I think I perfected it. Okay, so we did promise to tell people how you actually came up with Miss Jeevius Grafter.
01:06:43
Speaker
There is a really funny story because I used to play a game which was called Vampire Wars. And we had a group of people that met up on Facebook, which was called the Mischievous Lands of Duke Gregor.
01:07:03
Speaker
Some of us, after, goodness me, probably 12 years or longer, we're still good friends on Facebook, even though the game doesn't exist anymore. But out of that, there is a group of like-minded people with a mischievous streak. And I was, okay, I really need to use that.
01:07:32
Speaker
I started with an organization here in Werribee, where I am, to get people who are disengaged or isolated out of their shell or their home and people who deal with anxiety and depression. And I called them mischief graftors.
01:08:03
Speaker
but crafters with a Z. But my last name is Graf. So the organization I called Mistress Grafter. Okay. And as soon as the individuals knew that they're in a group that is called Mistress Grafters, that's exactly what they did.
01:08:32
Speaker
So it gave them almost a permission to be cheeky, to try things, to fail miserably, but to have fun with it. And I remember before COVID, I had two blind knitters in the group. They learned how to double knit and how to knit brioche.
01:09:05
Speaker
Yeah. Amazing. You've inspired so many people. I know you've inspired me. You really have. Over the last three years, you've truly inspired me. Thank you. You're welcome.
01:09:27
Speaker
Don't know what to do with that, but you're welcome. Just, just accept it as, as being heartfelt and, and know that, that you do inspire me on a regular basis. You make me laugh at a regular basis. You make all of us laugh on a regular basis. And isn't that the joy of who we are?
01:09:50
Speaker
Yeah, I mean there's a few of us who are ridiculously stupid sometimes and we don't shy away from it but that's also the whole thing of my thinking.
01:10:06
Speaker
You know, if I don't fall, I can't get up. If I don't make a mistake, I can't advance. So by rethinking how you approach things, I changed my life completely around. I mean, I used to be a bespoke master tailor.
01:10:31
Speaker
by profession, but then I went back to school and got my medical science degree in community health education and psychology. And used all of that for a while, worked here in Melbourne for an organization, had a really bad work incident, and then had to find a way to put myself back together
01:11:02
Speaker
And that's when the whole thing with mischievous Grafta came where I was, okay, here, I'm doing this now what I've done for myself with other people, because I knew it helped me and it will help them. They moved on. They have circle friends now. They're not isolated. They're doing things together. It's the same thing with my students.
01:11:32
Speaker
They form a WhatsApp. I always tell them leave me out of it. I've done the mistake once. Never again, if you have 70 students in seven classes, so 10 each, and you're on seven WhatsApp groups,
01:11:52
Speaker
The phone is pinging. And then you have that crazy bunch that I meet on a Friday morning, the rest of the world, except of Julie and the other people in New Zealand and Australia. We meet them on Friday. They meet us on Thursday. That WhatsApp group dings 24 seven. Oh, yes.
01:12:23
Speaker
Yes, I have notifications turned off. I haven't muted usually for eight hours and then I come back and at some times you are, you bloody idiots need to learn how to shut up because now I have to read 90 messages. Yes, there are some days like that. There really are.
01:12:45
Speaker
Um, it's my day, my day starts. I get woke up to take my first set of meds and I spent, spend the next anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes in WhatsApp. You know, it has become a routine and quite frankly, I enjoy every single message.
01:13:12
Speaker
Oh, yeah. And we share information and we have the most phenomenal conversations there. It's just it's just like Thursdays. I mean, it's my Thursday. It's your Friday morning. It's been the highlight since 2020. I mean, people, I don't work on Thursday.
01:13:34
Speaker
Sorry, if your email is in my inbox first thing in the morning, I will probably respond if I can. But beyond that, Thursday's my one day of the week that I actually deliberately take off.
01:13:49
Speaker
I hope nobody in my organization is listening to this podcast. But there is a thing that I blocked Fridays until noon because I'm in another business meeting.
01:14:08
Speaker
Yep. And that's what it is, isn't it? It is. I mean, we may laugh a lot, but it's us exchanging ideas and watching each other progress and learn and sharing in that and giving in that. And it's just phenomenal.
01:14:29
Speaker
it's professional development it is it truly well okay honest to god i had thought about becoming a tech editor but it was the support of this group and being introduced to michelle through this group that made it happen so yeah it's definitely professional development
01:14:53
Speaker
All right. Last but not least, Wolf, where can our listeners find you if they want more information and they want to follow you and that sort of thing? Okay. There's two names you need to remember. One is the Mischief Grafter and the other one is Mischief's Grafter.
01:15:14
Speaker
Uh, on Reverie, I'm MischiefGrafter on Instagram, MischievousGrafter on YouTube, MischievousGrafterCrafts, or you can look up at MG dot, uh, no, sorry, not dot, at MGOZ, like in Oz for Australia.
01:15:42
Speaker
OK, wonderful. And I will tell you, he has a few sewing videos on YouTube at the moment. I know that those are growing slowly. Yes. They've been added primarily for his students, but they are there. And wow, I look forward to the pawn show growing and reaching the world and whatever else we can come up with.
01:16:12
Speaker
There will be quite a few. I have to record the technique of the lead re-embrite in the triple knitting. There will be some videos accompanying the poncho. There will be instructions on sewing, putting a zipper in world pocket and all of that.
01:16:38
Speaker
There might be a video on how to avoid scratches from your cat. I think she really wants you out of her chair. She really does. But yeah, that's not happening.
01:16:59
Speaker
Well, thank you so very much. Do feel free to share any other information you want me to put in the show notes. If you think I will send you the photos, photos, please, that I know people will want to see. So they will get this photo here, too. Oh, yes, we must we must share that photo. We must share that photo.
01:17:25
Speaker
All right. Well, this has been great. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, thank you. Join us next time when Nikki and I discuss our favorite books for helping us design, edit and grade patterns.
01:17:46
Speaker
Don't forget to like and subscribe wherever you listen and join the conversation in our Ravelry or Facebook groups. For technical editing, find Lisa at arcticedits.com and Nikki at handknitsandyuga.com.