A Recommended Reading List for Fashion, Design and Machine Knitting

Knitting Technology:
1. Knitting, Fashion, Industry, Craft by Sandy Black
2. Knitting Technology by David Spencer
3. Magazines: Lavori di Maglieria,Libretti Dubied, Le Lane Marzotto,  and Dubied "Maglieria"
4. Pattern Wheel Designing for Circular Jersey Knitting Machines by Mishcon and Abrams
5. Principles of Knitting Outerwear Fabrics and Garments Edited by Charles Reichman
6. Guide to the Manufacture of Sweaters, Knit Shirts and Swimwear Edited by Charles Reichman
7. Hand Knits by Machine by Susan Guagliumi
8. Hand Manipulated Stitches for Machine Knitters by Susan Guagliumi
9. Machine Knitting: Hand Tooling Techniques by Susan Guagliumi

      I love to read. I thought what better way to rekindle my devotion to on topic blogging than a favorite, go-to list of books and reference material?

         Fashioning Apollo chronicles the uneasy connection between NASA engineers and Playtex the lingerie and underwear company. This team ultimately manufactured and developed the Apollo spacesuit. Its a marvelous read as it really explains the gulf between sewing technology and engineering. In some ways it becomes a metaphor for masculine and feminine, and soft versus hard. Just in case you are wondering how it connects to knitting, well its a tenuous connection:) Playtex girdle and bras from that era were made of nylon powernet and four-way stretch nylon lycras developed on circular knitting machines. In some cases these fabrics were dipped into a proprietary rubber mixture which became the basis upon which the spacesuit was developed.

      Sandy Blacks book Knitting, Fashion, Industry, Craft is really an essential book on the intertwined history of hand and machine knitting as well as the evolution of cottage and industrial level knitting. It is very hard to understand where knitting exists in todays world without this valuable tomb:)

     If you are looking for knitting machine information specific to industrial knitting machines, then I highly recommend Knitting Technology by Spencer. It chronicled the Darwinian evolution of the knitting machine and various types of pattern making methods. Who knew that once patterns were recorded on monofilm, or punched out on plastic sheet via an enormous typewriter-like contraption?

        

Pattern drafting and sewing technology:
1. Fabrics and Pattern Cutting by Winifred Aldrich
2. Metric Pattern Cutting for Womens Wear by Winifred Aldrich

Fashion History:
1. Fashioning Apollo by Nicholas de Monchaux
2. Vionnet by Betty Kirke
3. Narciso Rodriguez by Rodriguez and Betsy Berne
4. Fashion in a Time of Fascism by Maria Lupano
5.Christian Lacroix on Fashion by Lacroix