As a final post for this semester, I wanted to share the questions I sent to Hayley Mortin, knitwear designer and editor of Needlebound (the publication I mentioned in an earlier post), since she graciously offered to share her perspective on my topic and her view on the knit world. (Expecting the answers by the end of February)
Part 1
- Can you share a bit about your journey into textiles and knitting? What first drew you to this field?
- How did you develop your unique aesthetic, and what influences have shaped your design style?
- Your interest in AI and your interest in knitting seem quite contradictory, could you talk a bit about how these fields relate to you/how you created this connection and intersection where your work now resides?
- Do you feel like the rising interest in knitting and other textile crafts can be connected to fears or doubts about AI?
- Since you mention the community building of crafts a lot in your work (esp. Needlebound), how do you experience the community and culture of crafts in relation/contrast to your field of design?
- Which aspects around the craft of knitting and fibre arts/textile arts would you like to transport into the design world? Or your daily life in general?
- Where do you see the influence and importance of textiles in contemporary thought and design?
Part 2
- How do you approach the design process when working with knitted textiles? Do you start with sketches, swatches, or another method?
- Are there any designers, artists, or textile traditions that have particularly inspired your work?
- What role does technology (e.g., digital knitting machines, software) play in your work?
- Which possibilities do you see in fibre arts and knitting as a medium for data visualisation, as someone with a background in data analysis?
- Besides your captcha series and images from data report, did you experiment with any other combinations of the digital and analogue in your work?
- I read that you create your knitting charts on stitch fiddle, and mock them up yourself. In which ways do you feel like the limitations of the grid, and the inaccuracy of v shaped “pixels” contribute to the design, your vision of the work and the process?
- Do you have a favorite material or fiber to work with? How does material choice affect your design decisions?
- Do you see a difference between works like yours, and purely practical knitwear designs? And if so, where do you draw the line?
- How do you balance functionality and aesthetics in your textile designs?
Part 3
- What do you think makes knitting unique as a medium within textile design?
- How do you see knitting and textiles evolving in fashion and design today?
- If you could push the boundaries of knit(wear) and textile design in any way, what would that look like?
