One of Priyamvada's works | Source: Special arrangement

These days, Priyamvada spends most of his time doing experiments in the kitchen. Before you ask, this is not the recent lock-in obsession with toasting bread or preparing sourdough appetizers. Instead, she was watched suspiciously by her cat, who cooked various mixtures of pomegranate, beetroot, turmeric, tea and coffee. They are stirred patiently and each one is taken to a different level, all of which are to create natural, beautiful hues for her sustainable handmade knitwear collection Knitsanyasini.

For the 26-year-old, this brand is the culmination of the journey she started at the age of seven. "When I was growing up, I saw my mother, grandmother and aunt knitting. My mother always tried knitting. My first contact with needles was in the third grade. She taught me how to use rib knitting for school projects. Scarf," said the artist living in Pune, who went on to study a degree in knitwear design at NIFT Chennai in 2013.

Priya Mwada | Source: Special Arrangement

Upon graduation, she collected and upgraded all the extra yarn from her family's early knitting projects and her NIFT course. "For many years, my aunt and mother would knit winter sweaters and collect the remaining yarn. I took these and the yarn I saved during my degree (mainly cotton, wool, acrylic, bamboo and linen blends) and started knitting. ”In 2019, she started Knitsanyasini with a hand-woven tube top, camisole and turtleneck sweater. Her product line now includes headbands, cardigans and pullovers. In addition to upgrading recycled yarns, she also uses ethical organic wool and cotton to create loose, free-flowing silhouettes.

In literature and art, knitting is often associated with vacillating elderly women or practical housewives. Joe March of Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women" described it as something that only "clumsy old women" would do. But considering how everyone from adolescents to their 30s has accepted art forms over the years, this is far from reality. For example, when the camera zooms in on Tom Daley, a British diver at this year’s Tokyo Olympics, he is almost always knitting.

Natural dyeing process | Image source: special arrangement

His hobby made headlines, especially when he admitted how it helped him control anxiety. For Priyamvada—his work also appeared on The Woolmark Company’s Instagram last year—knitting has become a way of expression. She has met many young people learning art forms from their elders. “But since this is a slow process that involves making fabrics and shaping garments at the same time compared to quick cutting and stitching methods, there are very few professional knitters,” she said.

When explaining her process, she said that she used vegetables, fruits, leaves and roots as dyes-which she obtained through exploring weaving. "It was inspired by traditional Indian fabric dyeing techniques, leaving no harmful by-products." She likened the experimentation process to "walking in the dark and looking for colorful jewelry along the way" because it requires months of trial and error. Each natural ingredient is prepared according to its own characteristics-for example, marigold and pomegranate peel need to be boiled for different times to extract their best color. After the dye is prepared, the raw materials (hand-washed cotton and skein of merino wool yarn) are immersed in the container and left for 12 to 48 hours or more depending on the type of color source. Then wash it several times to reduce bleeding and dry it.

The creation of Priyamvada | Source: Special arrangement

"The washing, drying, rolling and winding process of the yarn is done by hand. The only tools involved are the basic kitchen utensils and my knitting needles," Priyamvada said, adding that it takes two weeks to one to make a sweater Time of month. She accepts custom orders and has clients in India, New Zealand, New Jersey, Spain and California.

Talking about the past two years, she said that this spacecraft is a tactile balm that can cope with all the uncertainties of multiple blockades. "It's a way to escape and find comfort in my mind."

@Knitsanyasini on Instagram starts from Rs 5,000.

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Printable version | November 22, 2021 11:17:57 AM | https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/fashion/knitsanyasini-priyamvada-knitting-2021-sustainable/article37574550.ece

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