Moodboard | Beyond The Dunes | SpringSummer 2024
A big goal of mine for Miss She’s Got Knits this year was to dedicate time and energy to designing a full collection; pulling from the past, feeling the textures in the present, led by my heart to ‘create’.
Indulgent? Absolutely. There’s a reason so many independent designers release only one or two ‘new’ pieces a year, but I won’t bore you with that here. Right now, I’m hear to remember my dreamy state of mind when it came to bringing ‘Beyond The Dunes’ together.
For this collection, inspiration came from those endless days of childhood summer. For me, it was my mother (see above!, mam and me under an umbrella not too far from Royal Dublin GC!) and her gorgeous sisters, setting up down in the Dunes in Dollymount, and us not getting home until evening. Only now I see so many elements of strength in a simple day by the beach. What women do.
As usual, the images, textures, stitches and colours stayed swirling around my head for weeks before it all came together on a run.
I found myself pulled towards the sea and on a beach in Gran Canaria, surveying the bikinis and movements of the women around me. Everything in an instant: Effortlessly picking up a child from a standing position, belly laughing with her pal, digging her toes into the sand as she shouted over to the elderly couple, saying something I couldn’t understand, pleading with her partner for just a few minutes alone to read her book. Tender, strong, smiling, pissed off. A simple day at the beach.
I wrote a poem. Actually I wrote two. Just words. On the 17th of March. A few days before a big meeting.
My nerves replaced my mind at that meeting. I couldn’t tell you what was said or how it went, only that it went, and the world kept spinning.
But so, to the sea…
I wanted to evoke the Aran sweaters the ol’ Emerald Isle, but with my interpretation of the sea.
I’ll be honest, we weren’t an Aran Sweater family. My mother and her mother and my aunties all knit, everyone crocheted, sewed… but my own family never went on trips to the west. We did venture to Howth, and I’ve vague recollections of Bray, but I didn’t get to know Ireland until I was much older.
Back to this piece. I chose a deep green (don’t believe what they say about the sea being blue) and went diving for a stitch that spoke to me.
I found two: The Herringbone, and ‘Old Shale’ stitch.
The herringbone stitch, normally seen in tweed in clothing, or in upholstery, creates a solid, rigid base. The old shale stitch, manipulated to increase, evokes the waves.
This is one piece I’m particularly proud of, I can’t tell you how many times I knit and ripped and re-knit this piece. Writing the pattern however, was quite fun. I write in my own language, you might know how much i admire those 'real’ knitters who can read a pattern like a classical musician reads a stave. But it’s not me. I’m a bit jazz when it comes to this.
Have a look below.
Another piece (below), in sand, uses the same two stitches. The Herringbone sits rigid, like a breast plate. With this piece it evokes a classic silhouette, with almost a feeling of armour. The split Shale took hours and hours to perfect, but I know it will provide the base for future, unique designs at Miss She’s Got Knits.
'Beyond the Dunes' is the title of my SS24 Collection. Many thanks for taking the time to learn a little more about it from me x
