I’m humbled by this post every time I read it. Thanks for your clear explanations, Kathleen.

This may have been covered elsewhere, but how does one avoid this issue when purchasing jersey? I’ve noted that nearly all of my t-shirts are twisted after many wash cycles (not only twisted, but they tend to get wider and shorter); I assume that this is a function of the jersey itself. I know that I should order sample yardage and wash-test prior to use, which works quite well if you are doing multiple units, and not so wonderfully if you are doing custom or one-off work.

I guess the real question buried here is, what is the root cause in knits?

Fast fashion and high quality can go hand in hand because of the evolution of technology and the learning from other peoples’ hard work and experience.

About 10 years ago, I went to France and visited the Bayeux Tapestry, which is over 70 m long and about half a metre wide. I’m not sure, but I think it was made sometime around the 10th and 11th centuries. There were only a couple of types of stitches used (my guide book indicates stem stitch and laid-and-couched work, which looked like colouring-in stitches to me). These were probably the only stitches that they knew then. Today, people can learn dozens of stitches in a very short space of time. I found it fascinating to think that it would have taken hundreds of years for these stitches to evolve. Somebody, somewhere would have invented a new stitch, and shown their friends (or be copied by competitive villagers?). Today, a technically more complex tapestry could be completed in a mere fraction of the time that it took for the stitches to be invented.

And anybody who looks at my knitting can see that crap quality can come out of painstakingly slow work.

This has been on my mind, both in my day job in software, and my other job, which includes getting my middle-school daughter’s back to school wardrobe together. I am more short of time than money so it would be easier to just throw my credit card around in the mall. But I feel a responsibility to show her how to dress well while being economically, socially and environmentally conscious. This will also put her on more solid financial footing when mommy and daddy stop paying her bills.

So I put in a little extra time. But it’s doable.

I mean to post about that later this month. When I do, I will definitely link back to this discussion.

Twisting of goods refers to the grain of the fabric, the grid of woven threads on the horizontal and vertical. Goods are said to be torqued or skewed if the grain can be manipulated off x and y.