Sunday 31 March 2013

Steampunk’s Reality and One Knitwear Designer’s Vision

Missed you all and missed my journey. Last year my journey came to a stop because of a nasty cold. Well the cold has gone in a week, but during that week I directed my attention to my bank balance. Well they say that a person always connects with themselves during illness. I think I have connected too close with my bank account and the bills. So there was one thing to do, back to a full time job with a guaranteed income.

I was offered a job in Manchester as a garment technologist.  The job was more than 120 miles away from my home city. The temptation to take it was more than I could resist, so I started commuting between Leicester and Manchester daily and that meant driving at least 1200 miles a week.
Nuts, wasn’t it?!
 So after a year of driving on the M1 and M62 routes, or The Woodhead Pass (when it is not closed), last September, I moved to live in Manchester. My bank balance was getting very happy, but my emotional balance had shifted into an unwelcome feeling of home sickness.  However, my daughter joined the local college and settled down very nicely.

Miles of snow along Woodhead Pass...


... Miles of Heather across Woodhead Pass.

People here are very generous and open hearted. My home sickness was eased up and I am back to being self employed.
The city is very Victorian and the architecture is adorned with sculptures carved into the walls.  The beauty of this city has captured my soul and inspired my imagination. My business has found great inspiration in the steam Victorian era. The travelling, the adventure, the optimism, the imagination and mechanisation. The soul of this era is an attempt to subvert the basics; it is Steampunk’s reality and one knitwear designer’s vision.

Victorian Architecture



This is The Great Northern Railwy Company's Goods
Warehouse. It was built in 1885 and completed in 1898.

Unbelievable...Unbelievable... I was absolutely in a state of disbelief.  While walking down Deansgate (A Victorian street), I came across this building still preserved in its initial look. I was hysterical with joy.  I felt madness high jacking my sanity trying to comprehend the changes that this building has ignited and was witness to within the Victorian optimism.