Norwich, England, United Kingdom
Hi, I’m Grace and I’m always thinking about knit! Through knitting, I explore materiality, colour, and process to design and create beautiful and functional textiles underpinned by sustainable practices and natural materials. I started obsessively hand knitting over 5 years ago and have enjoyed diversifying these skills throughout my degree. I design collections that demonstrate a range of material qualities, achieved by hand knitting, domestic and Dubied machine knitting, and industrial processes, such as CreatePlus for Stoll machines. My designs are often influenced by nature and the colours, textures, and patterns I observe in landscapes. Drawing is my second love and strengthens my knitting practice. I draw to capture inspiration, record ideas and technical information, as well as visualise my textile and garment designs. I have gained valuable skills and industry experience from live briefs, with brands such as Habitat and Ricamour, alongside national knitwear and textile design competitions. I am particularly proud of the industry recognition I received in my final year from The Colour In Design Awards, Habitat, The Worshipful Company of Framework Knitters, and British Wool. At university I worked in collaboration with the Sustainability Working Group to develop waste material pop-up shops that diverted and repurposed materials that would have otherwise gone to waste. This collaborative, problem-solving, and sustainable mindset is a key value of mine. My graduate collection ‘To Return’, drew visual inspiration from British landscapes, alongside traditional knitwear and high-tech performance wear to offer a decorative and functional alternative to utilitarian hiking clothes. Merino base layers, lambswool mid-layers, and British wool outer-layers combined with adjustable details, waterproof materials, and high visibility trims to unify material, context, and function. Every aspect of knitwear is chosen by the designer – from material to stitch, structure, and shape. This is why Knitwear Design is so exciting to me: the potential to unify material, process, and purpose to integrate textile and garment design is endlessly inspiring. I am looking for a graduate role and am excited to join the knitwear industry!