Twist Collective Blog

Inkberry

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Published on Friday, 17 December 2010 09:00

Sivia Harding has designed 3 beautiful shawls for Twist Collective; Aphrodite, Dryad and Inkberry. In today's post, she talks about the inspiration behind her latest designs.

See more of Sivia's designs at her site and you can see more of her photos of Inkberry on Flickr. 

Inkberry formed itself in my mind over a year ago during a stroll at Reed College in Portland, at a moment that I happened to be under a huge cedar tree, gazing upward through the spiraling branches. This may sound strange, but that momentary gaze inspired me, the queen of paneled triangles, to turn my inspiration toward circular forms. Amongst other ideas, in my mind's eye, I saw almost immediately a simple ray-formed circular wrap with an intricately cabled back panel and a beaded border.

Then, the search for the perfect yarn with which to implement this vision that was born of the forest. Fortunately, Schaeffer Yarns' Laura Nelkin had just sent a package that contained a lovely skein of Audrey in the Spruce colorway. This yarn is a silk/wool single ply, incredibly soft, light as air, yet with great stitch definition. The sheen tempted me to play with beads... which of course I did. And the border grew beaded leaves in the process.

This is the description from the submission that was sent to Twist Collective:

This unusually shaped wrap integrates my favorite back panel shawl treatment with halfcircular side panels.Interestingly, the combination of shaping techniques produces a Faroese-like shoulder hug although the shaping is not Faroese.The overall effect is of wings which are anchored beautifully at the back. This is a wrap that will stay put where it is supposed to, and will feel wonderfully generous at the same time. This wings can be wrapped in several ways and are suitable for many body types. The structure is topdown. The back panel is cabled, and there are beads decoratively placed throughout, using the crochet hook method.

Inkberry evolved into an lyrical, flowing design that I hope is intuitive AND intriguing to knit. Not your grandmother's tablecloth by any means. And very nice to wrap up in.