Unit 1

Unit 1: "Let me out, please."

For my first unit project I chose to crochet a sweater and matching ski mask. This assignment was supposed to represent a personal part of our own identity, and I used the sweater to express my issues with tactility. My biggest inspiration for the body of the sweater was from the company, Gudrun & Gudrun. Gudrun & Gudrun is a knitwear label founded by two nordic women. They create delicate and feminine knitwear pieces using traditional Faroese knitting techniques and yarn from the Faroe Islands. While I didn’t have access to the mohair yarn that they use, I used a similar pattern to their sweaters and a bigger crochet hook to create space in between stitches. A majority of their knitwear is also monochromatic and made with many different shades of the same bright colors.

I’ve never been able to wear sweaters that touch my body due to the material’s itchiness and the feeling of entrapment it gives me, so I ironically chose to create a sweater to creatively express that feeling. Growing up I couldn’t wear irritating or tight clothing, meaning that a majority of the time I could only ever wear masculine and baggy t-shirts and sweatpants. For the sweater I used various shades of pink for the sleeves and body and gave it quite an oversized fit. The pinks were meant to represent the lack of femininity I’ve been able to explore through clothing and how now that I’m older I’m trying to find a way to convey femininity while also staying in my comfort zone.

Firstly, I picked out the yarn and sizes of crochet hooks I needed. I wanted the yarn to be itchy to get my point further across, but unfortunately I couldn't work with uncomfortable yarn because I was constantly touching it with my hands and it was incredibly intolerable. So, instead I found yarn that somewhat gave the impression that it was itchy, but instead was fuzzy. Because I wanted the sweater to be baggy so I used larger crochet hooks to create space in between my stitches and because the stitches were so large the sweater is able to stretch when put on to create an even larger look. For the hem of the neck and cuffs of the sleeves and bottom of the sweater I used a half double stitch with the pale pink fuzzy yarn. For the rest of the body I did a double stitch throughout the entire sweater and used various chunky shades of pink. After creating the body of the sweater I went in with a contrasting and complementary lime to embroider text onto the neck of the sweater. I tried embroidering text into the middle torso part of the sweater, but it didn’t work due to the spacing in between my stitches. The embroidery string didn’t lay right and ended up bunching up my yarn and created a lumpy fit. After removing the embroidery from the body, I stitched into the neck hem, “Let me out, please.” The quote was meant to represent the feeling of entrapment itchy yarn can give me against my body.

Because I wanted to further convey the feeling of entrapment from certain clothing I added another element to the piece. Originally, I was thinking of adding buttons and sewing the arms to the back of the sweater to recreate the feeling of a straight jacket. While I played with that idea, I decided to create a ski mask instead to portray physical confinement and further articulate how it feels to be completely suffocated by a clothing item. I used the same fuzzy yarn as I did the hems of the sweater, but in a deeper and hotter pink. I used the largest crochet hook I had, size 14, and started with a magic circle, used for beanies and other hats. From there I just finished the mask with double stitches and added to the bottom of a few hanging chains to drape down the neck of the sweater.

Process Documentation