The Proserpine Shawl and the Arts & Crafts Movement

Yesterday I had a long conversation with my friend Natalie about life, work, and the whole big thing. I mentioned a long-term project that is slowly coming together, and Natalie laughed: Art history, storytelling and knitting. That is so very you, Karie. It is nice when others can see what I try to do. Still, I suppose it is rather obvious when you look at my latest collaboration with Knit Now magazine. This is a bit of a first for Knit Now. I collaborated with a host of talented designers on a mini-collection inspired by a 19th century design movement, Arts and Crafts. I was also asked to write an article about the Arts and Crafts Movement. It was one of those pitches where I was on board from the very first sentence. You can read more about the design movement in my article for Knit Now - I wanted to explain why so many designers continue to be inspired by it, how core ideas spread throughout the design world and - crucially - why it continues to influence knitters throughout the world (whether you know it or not).

The Proserpine Shawl is my contribution to the mini-collection. It is a semi-circular shawl knitted in a stunning custom dye merino/silk 4ply yarn from Triskelion Yarn in Wales. Caerthan was inspired by 19th century tiles at the V&A  and came up with this stunning teal especially for my shawl.

It was very important to me that the yarn should be something special as I was designing the shawl with the Arts & Crafts idea of truth to material in my head. Truth to material simply means that you take the material that is best suited to your project and you showcase it honestly. The long stretches of stocking stitch are designed with a stunning yarn in mind. I am a big fan of basic stitches (like stocking stitch and garter stitch) precisely because they let your materials take centre stage.

Still, you do get lace sections in the shawl. Proserpine was named after a painting by 19th century painter, poet and all-round bohemian, Dante Gabriel Rossetti. I read a lot of his poetry when I was an impressionable teen and it remains absolutely lovely. Quite apart from wanting to capture the drape of Proserpine's gown and sighing over DGR's the dragon-fly / Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky, I also took inspiration from the Roman myths of Proserpine. She was the Roman equivalent of the Greek Persephone: a goddess abducted to the underworld but restored to the world where her arrival heralds spring. So if you look closely you can see some leaves sprinkled into the shawl.

I am really quite in love with the entire project. It combines so many of my core beliefs about design - many of which I have inherited from the Arts and Crafts Movement.

I have been asked the following by a lot of people: if  you are outside the UK you can buy a digital copy here, though most UK shops should also stock the magazine.

All photos are © Practical Publishing.

(PS. the shawl edge looks a bit wonky. I was trying to block the shawl not long after I injured my knee in a serious accident. That was interesting)

Revisited & Loved: Florence & Fyberspates Cumulus

There are a few things I cannot resist: lemon meringue pie, puppies, red lipstick, and fine alpaca yarns. If you put either of those in front of me, I am helpless. So, when I was asked if I wanted to have a look at Cumulus, a new alpaca/silk lace yarn from Fyberspates, I jumped at the chance. And Cumulus is indeed the yarn equivalent of a lemon meringue pie; it's impossible to just have a tiny bit. Then I was asked if I would mind of a few knitters had the chance to play with Cumulus using my Florence pattern - and I got terribly nostalgic. I'll tell you why in just a second but first look at this photo I was sent yesterday.

Isn't that just pretty? One of my favourite colour is red but it's so gosh darn it difficult to photograph that I don't use red yarn as often as I'd like. Thank you, Jan, for taking such a great photo!

Florence was one of the first patterns I ever wrote down.  I remember being asked for a sweet, pretty scarf pattern by a yarn shop and I came up with Florence. The yarn shop handed out more than 1,500 patterns over the next three months and I was floored.  Florence turned out to be one of those patterns that take on a life of its own: it has been downloaded more than 7,000 times on Ravelry and I know several yarn shops have used it for teaching classes. It's one of my few freebies on Ravelry and I took the opportunity to revise/update the pattern now that people were using it to try out Cumulus. The revised version has a couple of changes. I've cleaned it up (I like to think I'm a better pattern writer these days than when I first designed it) and - much more importantly - I have added beading instructions.

(You know what? I  think Florence looks just perfect in Cumulus. Rawr. )

A lot of people have used beads on Florence and I have had many emails over the years asking if I could add beading instructions to the pattern. I have made sure the beading is still optional, but I do love how beads add weight to the scarf. It's really great to see that both Jan and Amanda chose to add beads. For my beading instructions, I wanted to emphasise the vertical lines in a pattern that has a lot of things going on horizontally - and also to keep the beading relatively simple and clean.

A big thank you to Team Fyberspates who brought the Florence love (you guys rock) and especially to Jeni who just knows colour.

(Fun fact: Jeni hosted the first ever luxury yarn trunk show I ever visited; I have never spent as much money on a simple skein of yarn as I did at that trunk show. Hey, it was green cashmere/alpaca/silk. It's still in my stash six years on. I told you I was weak in the presence of fine alpaca yarn)

Doggerland: the Vedbaek Shawl

The Vedbaek shawl is the latest pattern from my Doggerland collection. Vedbaek is also one of my favourite things I have ever designed. When I began designing the Vedbaek shawl, I started by reading a lot about the Mesolithic finds of Bøgebakken, a site within the small seaside town of Vedbæk, Denmark. Between 1987 and 1990 more than 79.000 Mesolithic artefacts were found in a small contained area.The finds spoke more of a community than any other Mesolithic site I had read about up to that point.

And so I wanted to design something that spoke of people whose lives were inextricably tied to the sea and the rhythms of nature. People whose lives had a rhythm tied to seasons and a specific landscape. I also sought to design something that had a meditative rhythm to its own construction - something that would give comfort both while it was being made and afterwards.

Vedbaek is a story of continuity. It is also a story of making sense of life and carving out a space within everyday life.

One of the most poignant stories uncovered by the archaeologists was the one of the mother and child found sharing one of the graves on site. The mother was young - maybe no more than eighteen years old - and had died in childbirth. Her new-born baby had been placed right next to her. The mother had been adorned with snail shells and animal teeth; the baby was resting on a swan's wing.

That image of a swan's wing offering comfort captured me. It is a powerful image. We will never know what a swan's wing meant to Mesolithic man, but we can imagine words like flight, preciousness, grace, and (as anybody will know if they have disturbed a nesting swan) protectiveness.

The Vedbaek shawl is the end result of that design process. It has long, deep ridges that end in elongated points. I thought of spears used to capture fish and I thought of flint arrowheads secured to long, thin reeds. I also wanted to capture that wonderful, affecting image of the swan's wing. I wanted to make something with the weightlessness, grace, and beauty as the single swan's wing cradling something lost, something precious.

I knitted Vedbaek in Snældan 2ply (which is actually a 4ply) and I used almost 2 skeins of it. The yarn is lofty and soft (particularly when blocked) and the shawl is big, yet lightweight. Absolutely perfect.

It has been a long time reaching this point of finally release Vedbaek. I feel it is a bit ironic that my own life fell short of its own internal rhythms and comforts to the point where I could not release a pattern which is intrinsically about framework, rituals, rhythms, and solace. But we all muddle through somehow, don't we? Life takes its own quirky detours and I did have a beautiful shawl to wrap around my shoulders when life got cold.

I like telling stories through stitches.Vedbaek holds so many of them - both deliberately and accidentally.

Freebie Pattern: My Heart in My Hand

It is that time of year again. February. February is my favourite month of the year. It is short; the days are getting longer; Valentine's Day means presents; my birthday means even more presents. This year we also have the Winter Olympics in Sochi to make the month seem even more colourful. So I thought I'd post a little free pattern for all your Valentine/birthday/Sochi needs.

Fuelled by coffee and my love of late 1980s synthpop, I give you..my heart in my hand. It hasn't been tech-edited, it's nothing earth-shattering, and you won't get a fancy PDF (or a glossary). On the other hand, it uses up tiny amounts of yarn, it is very quick to knit and it is versatile. I am going to wear my heart in my hand as a brooch - but you can turn it into bunting, use it as a bookmark, stick it on a card or (if you make two) a pin cushion. The last bit is particularly useful if you want to practise voodoo on an ex!

(Why am I mentioning Sochi? Why am I doing a rainbow heart? What does it all mean?)

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MY HEART IN MY HAND

Materials:

sportweight/light DK yarn (shown using Rowan Felted Tweed) - 10 yrds max 3.25mm needles tapestry needle for weaving in ends

gauge is not important but aim for roughly 25 sts over 4 inches, if you must.

(Rainbow version uses the same pattern as below but changes colour every fourth row. I used shades 150, 154, 161, 167, 181 and 186 - take care when you weave in ends)

Instructions: CO 2 sts

Row 1: Knit Row 2: Kfb into both sts. 4 sts Row 3: Knit (slipping first st of this row makes for a prettier edge)

Rep rows 2 and 3 another 6 times. 16 sts

Knit 4 rows

Row 19: k8, turn w rem sts put on waste yarn (or kept unworked on needle) Row 20: ssk, k4, k2tog. 6 sts Row 21: Knit Row 22: ssk, k2, k2tog. 4 sts Row 23: ssk, k2tog. 2 sts Row 24: k2tog and pull yarn through st.

Pick up rem 8 sts and rep rows 19-24.

Weave in ends. You can make the heart shape even more prominent if you use the end of yarn from where you rejoined yarn at the top to pull in the centre of the heart a tiny bit.

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If you really, really enjoy this pattern, please consider donating to your local LGBT charity.  Spread the love. Love is never a crime.

The Picycle Shawl - Designing for Baa Ram Ewe's Bespoke Collection

The cat is out of the bag. Meet the Picycle shawl which I designed in Rowan Kidsilk Haze for Baa Ram Ewe's The Bespoke Collection.

I want to write a bit about the design process because even though my name is on the design, the whole process was all about teamwork and having a great group of people supporting you.

Verity of Baa Ram Ewe commissioned the shawl and gave me a very cool and tight moodboard to work with. I outlined my initial thoughts for a design that would combine lace and bicycles - Verity was super-responsive and playful. We decided upon doing a Pi shawl Elizabeth Zimmermann-style.

The Pi Shawl construction is genius - with just 6 or 7 strategically placed increase numbers, most of the circular shawl is actually a blank slate upon which you can place your lace motifs and patterns. For a designer, this sense of "blankness" is fairly irresistible and the temptation to go overboard is always there.

I spent a lot of time taking away elements and trying to nail the essential elements. Eventually I ended up with a central bicycle spokes/wheel motif and a recurrent bicycle wheel running out the outer border. I am a big fan of early 20th century art and the design brief made me think of Umberto Boccioni's studies for Dynamism of a Cyclist, so I really wanted to capture the idea of dynamism, of perpetual movement, within the shawl. With this in mind, I designed an asymmetrical mountain range which gave this essential sense of movement to the shawl. The outside border also denotes speed with its small oblong shapes - the shapes are not circular but are forever moving onwards.

Italian Futurism. You wouldn't know the influence was there unless you knew where and how to look for it.

And then teamwork ensued.

Nicky came on board and proved an enthusiastic, perceptive tester with a lot of great suggestions (the outside border would be very different without her input). Elly was a great sounding board for technical conundrums. Rachel remains one of the best technical editors I know. Ashley is a very smart lady who pulled things together like nobody's business. And Verity, of course. Each of those ladies made a huge contribution to my pattern and it is all the better for it (and it even comes as a half-circle! I nearly forgot to mention that) . It feels a bit wrong to have just my name on it when it was a team effort in every sense. A huge thank you to everyone involved.

The Bespoke Collection features a lot of great designs - I am honoured to be included along such names as Ann Kingstone, Sarah Hatton and Rachel Coopey. Ann's Woodrup cardigan with its fanciful little bicycles on the yoke is one of my favourites and Rachel's Frame mitts are incredibly clever.

Bespoke is currently on pre-order from Baa Ram Ewe (any orders will arrive towards the end of this month) and will be available to buy from Rowan stockists this spring.

Wow. That's one way to start 2014, isn't it?

With Love from Glasgow

When you read this, I am currently on a much-needed break. The past year has been a whirlwind of activity and I was startled when I realised I hadn't had any time off since Christmas 2012 (when I had the flu so I am not sure it counts). I have spent some days on Aberdeen with family and now I am making my way towards London (where I'll be at the Pompom Magazine Christmas Party - hope to see you there?) and then Denmark. Hopefully I'll return with my batteries recharged and some major decisions made. I will be knitting whilst I am away - I am currently collaborating with Quail Books on an exciting project and I'm also working with Knit Now magazine on what promises to be their best issue yet - but I am not stressing about deadlines for once. But first I am really happy to unveil a collaboration with my original partner-in-crime, Ms Old Maiden Aunt. We had so much fun running our Sherlock-inspired project in 2012 that we wanted to do something similar this year. Instead of doing a three-month long club, we decided to do a one-off kit that combined our love of Scotland, local history, and Art Nouveau. We began working on this some eight months ago  so when Lilith received the small booklets last week, I whooped.

The Tenement Tiles pattern is inspired by the late 19th century tiles found throughout the Victorian apartment blocks ("tenements") in Glasgow. The pattern booklet includes a small essay about the tiles and Glasgow - the story of the tenement tiles is absolutely fascinating (it involves both cholera and false teeth!) and I have also included photographs of some of the tiles in my neighbourhood.

I see these late 19th century tiles every single time I leave my home - the entry way to my tenement is tiled with deep green titles depicting stylised lilies. Lilith and I began working on how to work the tiles into a design and the obvious solution was colourwork.

The Tenement Tiles gloves come in three sizes and the kit includes an exclusive Old Maiden Aunt colourway that won't be available anywhere else. We were really passionate about trying to capture a slightly weathered green-grey and Lilith came up with a colour that just blew me away. It is the exact shade I had in my head when I first started sketching all those months.

(An addendum: Glasgow's the first place I have really felt at home and it feels so very poignant to have worked on something so quintessentially Glaswegian at a time when Glasgow has been hit by tragedy.  It feels even stranger to be writing about my beloved home when I know this blog post will be posted when I am not here. Glasgow has a reputation of a hard, tough city but it is a city of beautiful architecture, amazing art and (most importantly) an incredible community spirit. )

Many thanks to the overwhelming response to my post about appreciating hand-knitting. I have much I want to say in response to your response but first I have some travelling to do. Also, in lieu of a big gift guide for the knitters in your life, I have compiled a small Pinterest board of some good gift ideas.