My BA (Hons) - Inhala, Exhala

My first project of my BA (Honours) degree was of course inspired my Mindfulness which I have spoke about my initial inspiration and research in the previous blog post. I decided to name this collection 'Inhala, Exhala' which was inspired by one of the mindfulness techniques called breathing techniques; this is training your body to breathe more fully and slowly as the oxygen is very important for our brains.

I began looking at Aranwear and other themes of chunky knitwear and hand-knitting, as well as mindfulness techniques. I seen that hand-knitting is a mindful technique through my research on wellbeing magazines.I also found the Danish lifestyle technique called Hygge, which refers to a mental state of cosiness and togetherness. Creating a comforting space for yourself to relax and wind down. Through my research, I also found that collaging is a form of mindfulness, which I incorporated into my creative development for colour and pattern.

Various development pages from my sketchbook

Through my development, I really liked the idea of turning this collection into a form of finding mindfulness and having the experience of feeling mindful while looking through my work. I decided to define the development I done in the sketchbook and turn it into a 'Chapter' book, as well as create a concertina book to create that personal experience for the viewer.

Through this research, I curated a collection of womenswear fabrics which were mostly made on a 3.5 Dubied V-Bed knitting machine (chunky!). I was inspired my the trend and market research that I collected that showed trends of cocooning fabrics. The fabrics were made with natural fibres including merino wool, cashmere, yak, silk and lambswool. The use of a feminine and earthy colour palette allowed me to connect with nature from the mindfulness technique of mindful walks, mixed with another inspiration of rose quartz to release relaxing auras. My mood boards really allowed me to reach my full potential of research and explain my market appropriately;

Below I have attached images of my final hand in. This project was really important to me, I feel that I really began to understand the knitting machines fully and successfully created a collection that reflected my inspiration. The inspiration was my personal experiences of using mindfulness to enhance my wellbeing and little did I know in September to December 2018 would be the beginning of me finding my place in the knitting world, and where I would fins my passions/strengths!!