Friday 5 December 2008

Knitting machines and Christmas Trees





On my way back I dropped into our knitwear factory to have a cup of tea and see how the top up cable knit hats and scarves are coming along. Well they are due in next week and are looking great.

What caught my eye, apart from the festive additions to the factory was the linking machine. This is the cylindrical machine in the images that attaches the sleeves, ribbing, body and other trims together making the seem invisible.

Linking takes great skill, so much so that each loop of the knit has to be hand applied to the machine and then for the joining part before they can be fastened together. Great skill, and a real craft. Something that unless trained we would not be able to do.

When I left I just thought how much skill has been lost and with it the personal satisfaction of making a garment that someone will wear. Not sure that stacking all the shelves in the world could give you that feeling.

2 comments:

Lark said...

All the pictures of your factory visits are great! The process of garment making is always fascinating to me.

Chris Matthews said...

Nice pictures - Where abouts in England is the factory?