The Machine Had Other Plans

The second residency day belonged almost entirely to the ribber.

Some days the ideas are willing and the machine is not. Troubleshooting consumed most of the session, attempts dissolved one after another, the ribber refusing to cooperate in the way I had planned. Machines have their days. This was one of them.

I made a small adjustment and eventually arrived at something, though not quite what I had first intended. I will return to it. The technique itself uses the racking function on the ribber, shifting the needle bed incrementally to create panels of ribs and floats that swerve left and right, overlapping as they travel across the fabric. It is a subtle effect. Deceptively simple and quietly striking.

Time ran short before the second sample of the day was finished. It is still on the machine, waiting. A play on a similar needle arrangement, panels of knit interrupted by ladders, tucks pulling the fabric into movement. An idea mid-thought.

I am still learning how to knit without knowing exactly where I am going. Production habits run deep and experimentation does not come as naturally as I expected it to after years of working toward a finished, sellable thing. But I am hoping that by the end of May the wall tells a story beyond technical documentation. That somewhere in the swatches there is evidence of something loosening. Old habits giving way to something more exploratory, more creative, more honestly mine.

The wall is growing. Come and see it.

248 Johnston St, Fitzroy — Wednesday, Thursday and weekends throughout May