Designing for Sustainability
Knitting your own clothes inherently leans toward sustainability. Designing knitwear for other people to knit their own clothes encourages that sustainable practice to grow.
Over the last few years, knitting has banished any notion that hand knit clothing is frumpy or grandmotherly — unless that is exactly the style you’re going for! The resurgence in lovely knitwear designers like you has brought modern clothing design into the handknit sphere. And as a practice for making your own clothes, it is pretty accessible.
What can we be doing as knitwear designers to be sustainable?
Fibre choices
As I said, knitting is already pretty sustainable. No matter what fibre we use, if it goes wrong or we don’t like it, the project can be frogged and the yarn reknit. Okay, maybe not mohair… Mistakes don’t mean waste.
From the beginning, we can make decisions so that the fibre is sustainable in the first place.
Use acrylic sparingly
Acrylic and plastic-based fibres have their place. They are invaluable for people with allergies and for those on very small budgets. We shouldn’t demonise it. But we should, ourselves, use it with mindful intention.
Consider locally sourced yarns
Locally sourced yarns travel less far to get to your needles. That means less carbon. Where we can, let’s use locally sourced yarns and encourage our knitters to explore the same.
Follow your own style
Chasing trends feeds into the fast fashion mentality. While you’re designing, consider whether this project will sit in the back of your wardrobe waiting for the day it ends up retired and disposed of.
Knitting thrives on premise of slow fashion. When you’re investing a huge amount of time into a piece, and asking other knitters to do the same, it is most worth it when that piece is going to be used again and again.
Scrappy projects
Not everyone is a fan of scrap yarn projects – I’ve never been drawn to one. But if you are, incorporating scrap yarn into your designs is a great way to encourage knitters to use up all of the bits and pieces they have.
This can be in the form of colourwork details, particularly in cuffs of sleeves of socks where less yarn is needed. Alternatively, the could be used for pompoms of other adornments. Get creative with it. I bet you could stumble onto a use for scraps that no one has even thought of yet.
Planning for repair
Handknits are certainly not delicate. They’re more likely to use quality materials and have strong structures that stand the test of time. Even so, your favourite jumper will still wear some holes after wearing it everyday for three winter seasons.
A good way to make your designs as sustainable as possible is to give indicators for your knitters as to what might face the most wear and tear. You can then provide guidance on how to mitigate of fix it.
Sock darning! A small tutorial on how to darn socks will encourage your knitters to take up the practice.
Patching up holes. Similarly, you can instruct on where holes might form (armpits, cuffs, etc.) and what method would be best to fix it.
Reinforcement. Suggest to your knitters that they hold nylon thread in spots that get the most wear. If your design uses mohair held with your main yarn to increase the tensile strength, tell your knitters!
Knitting is an incredible way to reduce consumerism and to put real thought into how our clothes are made and where all of the material comes from. As designers, we have the power to communicate the importance of these decisions to our knitters.
