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Twist Collective BlogTrousseau
Carol Feller's latest design is Trousseau, a shawl in two sizes. This marks Carol's fourth contribution to Twist Collective, along with Parcel, Azami, and Necco Wafer. In today's post, Carol talks a little about designing her shawls. Check out Carol's site here and find out more about Trousseau here. I love the concept of the ‘Pi’ shawl; working outwards from the central point with increase rows being spaced further and further apart. After the first few increases you have a wonderful large canvas to use for your lace stitches without needing to worry about fitting the increases in! This can make for very relaxing knitting as there is less counting as you work though it to ensure you have worked all of the increases every row correctly.
Smaller Raspberry Shawl
Larger Caribbean Shawl Rosalia
Mary Ann Stephens has a way with color and she shows it off beautifully with her Postwar Mittens, Sleepy Monkey, Polar Chullo and now with her extravagant Rosalia. This post combines two of Mary Ann's blog posts, found here and here, from her own site. My “Rosalia” is now out in the Winter 2010 edition of Twist Collective.
"Rosalia", by Mary Ann Stephens. See also Twist Collective Winter 2010.
The usual suspect in "Rosalia".
The departing view
What the heck is that thing??? When I was a child, unless it was Christmas or Easter, we were simply not allowed in the living room, which housed all manner of my mother's fascinating and delicate treasures. These treasures were not at all suited to inspection by a tree-climbing, rope-swinging, ball-playing tomboy like me, so naturally, I could often be found there. Among my favorites were her pieces of Rose Medallion, a type of 19th century Chinese porcelain awash in roses, depicting scenes from imperial life. (Plus a few mysteries, too. Can anyone tell me why this bowl features a belt stuffed in a pastry bag? Or is that a hacksaw sheathed in a diaper? What the heck IS that thing?!) As a busy breakables investigator, it was obvious to me that everyone who was anyone had a kimono. I vowed that someday, I would have one, too, one with plenty of deep, rosy pink in it! Over the years, my dream of a full-length kimono silhouette became a bit more practical. The internet was a useful tool in reshaping this silhouette; I found happi coats – short, practical variants of kimonos, made for festivals and adorned with mons (crests) on the back, to identify the festival goers. Rosalia lies somewhere between a Nordic cardigan and a Happi coat, complete with its very own mon.
Most of the motifs I knit are either purely geometric or floral; Rosalia’s main motif is a combination of the two. As I sat wrangling pixels in Excel charts, it occurred to me that the motifs I was favoring reminded me of two things: pomegranates, and stained glass windows. More thoughts of stained glass brought to mind rose windows, the magnificent blossoms of stained glass that highlight the main entrances of many Gothic cathedrals.
As I charted out the crest, I felt like I was creating something entirely original; later, when I googled the images for rose windows, I noticed a striking resemblance to the one from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine,in upper Manhattan. The rose window this New Yorker has seen innumerable times, unconsciously imprinted in my memory. Between the Rose Medallion and the rose windows, I knew it should be called “Rose-something”, so it is named “Rosalia”, in honor of my Danish great-grandmother. I used Dale of Norway Falk for my original Rosalia, mainly because of the great range of colors available in that line. But there are plenty of other sport weight yarn options you could use, like Dale of Norway Heilo, which incidentally, is the yarn I would take to a desert island. As for colors, of course, you could knit Rosalia in whatever five colors strike your fancy. Actually, you could get away with just 2 colors, if you’re so inclined. Although I love the vivid colors of the original, I kept imagining a little voice – with a heavy New York accent – saying “Dahlink, you need this in neutrals!” There are 3 sleeve options in the pattern and the body length is also adjustable. I really wanted to show you some of these variations, but after knitting my original, my arthritic hands weren’t thrilled with the idea of an encore. Enter Debra Thayer, the most wonderful test knitter I could ever ask for. Debra knit “Rosalia Encore” for me in Heilo, using charcoal grey, mist , grey heather, light steel blue, and petrol. She used the full-length sleeves with only one shoulder stripe and she added an extra repeat in the body length. She used the middle size (as I did for my original) and incidentally, with her variations, used exactly the same amount of yarn as is called for in the largest size. Whichever variations you choose, I hope this pattern helps make your kimono dreams reality.
(That’s my husband’s shadow, to the right, and no, thankfully, he doesn’t really look anything like that!)
Designing Chambord
Karen Maple's first design for Twist Collective is Chambord, which features a wide and elegant short-row garter collar. In today's post, she discusses designing this piece. This post can also be found on her own blog.
I was thrilled and honored that my first ever design submission was accepted and published in the latest issue of Twist Collective! The seed of the idea behind Chambord was a stitch pattern in a scarf that used short rows with two colors of yarn. I loved how with short rows, you could easily incorporate two yarns without stranded knitting and even without wraps and turns. Looking at the simple stitch pattern, I played with how could I use it for a sweater. I thought the best placement would be around the neck, and I created a simple cowl. The first try with the short rows created a three dimensional fabric that nicely falls around the shoulders. When Kate Gilbert first emailed me, she asked me if I would turn the cowl into a boat neck. That same evening, I took out the very simple seaming for the neckline, and draped it on my dress form as a boat neck. I loved the simple modification because the back and fronts could be identical, which provided a nice symmetrical feeling to the sweater, and the back is as dramatic as the front.
The big challenge in designing Chambord was creating a matching sleeve detail. The short rows easily made the collar wider around the edge for a nice drape but created a challenge for the cuffs. I did not want the sweater to have bell sleeves as they often get in the way of daily tasks. I created three rejected samples before I discovered the solution. I could mimic the shaping of the short rows with reverse darts on the back of the cuff using the main color!
Because Chambord is designed to be close fitting, I offer three different versions of shaping on the body: straight, waist shaping, and also bust darts in four different heights applicable to all sizes. The design is offered in 10 sizes from 32” / 81.5cm to 50 ½” / 128 cm. For color selection, I would simply recommend that the two colors have sufficient contrast. The contrast could be with two different colors or the same color but one color be a light version, the second a dark. A variegated yarn could also be used for the contrast color as long as it does not contain long repeats of color that blend too much with the main color.
I hope you enjoy the sweater and the other great designs in Twist Collective. You can find the pattern page with purchase information here. Something new...
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