The Stories Behind our Knits | Jacquard Viscose Knitwear – Genevieve Sweeney

All of our knitwear is made in the UK – from where the yarn is sourced to where it is knitted, we’re British-made, through and through. To offer more transparency into our manufacturing processes, as well as satiating your curiosity, we’re starting a new series on the journal where we’ll be sharing the stories behind our knits. To begin, we’re focusing on our jacquard viscose collection.

Crafted from 91% viscose, 5% metallized fibres and 4% polyester, our jacquard viscose pieces are somewhat different from the rest of our knitwear collection. Viscose is a semi-synthetic fibre, made from natural sources of regenerated cellulose (usually wood pulp) which is dissolved in a chemical solution which produces a pulpy substance which is then spun into fibres. All of the viscose used for our knits is 100% pure regenerated viscose that is 100% recycled and is RCS 100 (Recycled Claim Standard) certified. The recycled viscose is spun in Italy, in sustainable mills that use solar panels for electricity and recycle water for use in agriculture.

For the jacquard collection, I was inspired by the pattern of some lichen I had spotted on sticks when out on a walk. I took the sticks home, sat down with them and did some mark making with the negative and positive shades, eventually creating a repeat pattern. I really wanted the jacquards to have an organic feel to their pattern, inspired by this lichen. I then got creative with the knitting process, using different jacquard textures to create the raised effects of the pattern with reliefs and the holes of the lace.

These pieces are produced in a very small factory located just outside Leicester city centre. There are just five people on the team, all of whom I work very closely with in a collaborative way. I’ve been working with them for almost a decade now; they’re my go-to factory for creating statement pieces.

They have a very creative outlook and a more experimental approach than more traditional factories, allowing me to play around with what you can do with knitwear. Personally, I love textural stitches, jacquard patterns and striking silhouettes such as our interpretation of a kimono with our long cardigan. The kimono, for example, takes almost three hours to knit as it fuses different techniques in a fine viscose. Many traditional factories would not want to knit these pieces, so our Leicester factory really is a hidden gem!

The process began with taking my designs, pattern cuttings and tech packs to see them for the day, I develop the knitted stitches and patterns with a technician. We then worked closely together to prototype the designs, developing the styles together before I passed production over to them. It's a wonderful collaboration of bringing together the importance of design and detail with technical knowledge. A recent stitch detail we developed was the neckline of the Aria vest and Aster dress, a collaborative process that we talked through together, testing several options to finished with a beautiful, unique detail that is functional too.

When you are working with new yarns, you have to test the fabrics to see how they drape on the body. Sometimes, I see the drape of a knit during development and it sparks the idea to add another silhouette into the collection. With the jacquard knits, when we were testing the patterns and yarn, we tried two ends of yarn instead of three to give a sheer detailing to the skirt – this gave me the idea to design a t-shirt using the same technique.

A collaborative way of working, such as what comes naturally with this particular factory, really helps to spark ideas and get creative. As you are working away on the knitting machines, you can test, knit, test, knit – if it doesn’t work the first time, you can watch the machines at work and figure out how to fix the issue and develop the silhouette. This is such a faster, more creative way of fine-tuning a design, compared to sending a tech pack off to be knitted elsewhere and having to wait to receive a prototype, sending it off for amendments, then waiting for the next prototype. Each prototype stage can take 4-6 weeks. I much prefer working in a more fluid, creative and collaborative way.

This factory uses the newest and highest technical knitting machines alongside hand processes such as linking – so both the knitting and linking of the jacquard pieces is carried out here. Their expertise is incredible, especially for hand-linking. As well as working together on the viscose collection, we’ve also designed a new style using new knit and wear technology that allows for seamless knitting, where jumpers are knitted in the round with no seams. This new jumper, the Willow, is crafted from an alpaca merino wool blend, showcasing the skills of the technicians while also alleviating any waste materials. The colourful tweed yarn is a joy to knit with and knits perfectly with this technique and machine.