I always start my design process by gathering visual research and creating moodboards. I am heavily influenced by the 1960s counterculture movement and this is prominent throughout all of my designs. Here I have drawn inspiration from 1960s boutiques like Granny Takes a Trip and The Apple Boutique. I also referenced musical artists of this time like Jimi Hendrix, The Fool and The Beatles.

‘The Mood Diary’ was a visual track of my moods, it often helped catch episodes or patterns. Certain colours represent each mood. Darker colours like deep blue, greys and blacks represents depression, red anger. Purple is the colour I associate the most with mania, to me when she experience this, I see everything in a purple tinge.

Spirituality is a big part of my life, I use rituals and crystals. I find this integral to my healing journey. To incorporate this aspect of my life, I decided to grow my own crystals, which in itself took a very ritualistic approach. Initially experiementing with salt crystals and borax, I soon moved on to find something that wouldn’t disintegrate easily. Monoammonium Phosphate mixed with water creates a much more hardwearing crystal. These were shattered into smaller pieces and put inside knitted monofilament pockets so they could be seen within the garment.

Collaging is another way I develop my ideas, especially when I am working out garment shapes. Here I have gathered the knitting samples I have made from my Mood Diary and put them together to create a garment concept. The concept and shapes of the garments are inspired by those seen in the 1960s, especially the medieval revival style that was seen throughout the Counterculture Movement.

I start creating the shaped garment pieces that I have worked out down to every stitch. I started with a ‘block’ that I created to fit my exact size. I then would make toiles from calico which would enable me to make shapes with the knits and create a final garment. I used both domestic and Dubied knitting machines with crochet, hand embroidery and machine embroidery.