Mastering Machine Knitting - Lucia Tarantino

In the world of textiles, knitted fabric is one of the most complicated to work with, but also one of the most commonly used. This is a book for all those fashion lovers who, although fascinated by knitted fabric, have never yet dared to venture into this field and for those advanced knitters who want to systematically round off their knowledge. It includes all the steps necessary to realize a knitted garment, from the choice of yarn to manufacturing apparel, explaining how to use a knitting machine correctly, the linking, cutting, sewing, and, last but not least, ironing of knitted garments. All this takes into account that knowing how to recognize and develop a stitch is crucial, but that it is increasingly important to know how to represent stitches for different machines in a useful way. So, for the first time, the author describes the various stitches in a clear and well-structured manner with a language of symbols developed to be used for all kinds of studio and domestic knitting machines, regardless of the brand: Brother, Silver Reed, Coppo, and Dubied. The book includes examples of working with traditional materials like wool, alpaca, cotton, or linen, but also encourages experiments with paper, plastic materials, and vegetal and metallic yarns, to create sculptures, reliefs, and three-dimensional effects.

Lucia Consiglia Tarantino was born in Taranto (Italy) in 1966, where she grew up amidst her mother's and grandmother's knitting machines which turned into a passion for knitting and sewing. After her diploma as business consultant and accountant she decided to open her own workshop designing tailor-made sample collections of garments. She started collaborating with the Mauro della Valle Design studio, where she had the opportunity to create knitting projects and study trends for renowned clothing and fashion brands and famous fashion fairs like Pitti Immagine and Premier vision. After three years of teaching at the lED in Milan (European Institute of Design, Milan, Italy), she became a teacher for various Masters courses at the School of Design of the Milan Polytechnic (Milan, Italy), a position she holds until today. From 2008 to 2011 she taught at the FlT (Fashion Institute of New York, USA) "Introduction to weft Knitting Principles" on professional Coppo and Dubied linear knitting machines. Since 2017 she has been a lecturer at the School of Design of the Milan Polytechnic University's "Fashion Design" and "Knit Design" technical training courses.