ImagesMagUK_October_2020

W hether it’s a plush pullover, a stylish scarf or an acrylic beanie, all knitwear poses similar challenges to the embroiderer, albeit to differing degrees. Namely, knits naturally stretch, and this stretchiness is almost always more prevalent in the horizontal aspect of a garment. Knits of all patterns are largely ribbed, with natural ridges and valleys waiting to swallow your stitching. Pair that with the stretch that spreads these ribs apart, and you have a potentially difficult ground for embroidery. Designed to stand up For coarse knits, designs that feature fully filled areas with no thin or unsupported (free-floating) elements outside of the filled area may need little to no alteration to run well, provided the fill is underlaid and its angle is not vertical. The only modification that may be needed is to add some pull compensation to the outer edge of any element where the design ends and the knit begins. With thick knits, the design will often ‘sink’ into the fabric, and any stitching at the edge of the design or unsupported stitching will require extra thickness to counteract the effect. Similarly easy to address are examples of bold, unsupported text or designs: large monograms, glyphs or designs rendered in a satin stitch can be made to stitch well on knits simply by adding structural underlay and the aforementioned compensation. To mitigate the peaks and valleys of a ribbed knit structure, as well as traverse over any loose or open space, a structural underlay like an edge run paired with a double zigzag can both support and define the edge of a satin stitch while providing a foundation for the top-stitching to prevent it sinking in to the texture below. Although finer knit materials with smoother surfaces may seem a preferable choice for light, airy designs, be careful when placing unsupported straight-stitch detail on knitwear. Even with support materials in place to temporarily hold stitches and prevent them from sinking into the surface, vertical stitching that aligns perfectly with the grain of the fabric can sink in and become obscured, while knits with a fuzzy surface can screen the light detail. Unless you employ more permanent underlays or support materials, you may find the finer details disappearing. A global solution For digitisers, taming the textured surface of a knit garment is not much different from handling any other textured or high-pile fabric. You need to create a smooth foundation on which to stitch and that holds down the underlying material. Toppings can help to temporarily support stitching, while a more permanent, stitch-based solution offers lasting support. For those who have difficult designs with fine detail or unsupported, small satin-stitch text, or who simply don’t want to or can’t create a design specifically suited to knits, the simple answer is global underlay. Provided your customer will accept its debossed look, an underlay object is stitched in a thread colour that matches This design hasn’t been stretched quite enough when hooped and so shows quite a bit of warping around the logo KB TIPS & TECHNIQUES www.images-magazine.com 34 images OCTOBER 2020 Stretching exercises Erich Campbell gets down to the ‘knitty-gritty’ of embroidering knitted garments