Monday, November 03, 2008
HOW TO KNIT AUTUMN PART 2
The 'truncated' vest stands in my yard
All right, I'll admit it: these autumn designs you've been catching glimpses of during these recent posts (all arranged so that they'd post automatically while I was Knitalying) were to be part of a new evocative knitting guide entitled 'Knit an Autumn Wood'. Formatted much like the popular Knit a Beach, I had decided to expand the evocative knitting techniques to include this most lush, most glorious, time of year. Knit a tree festooned with flaming leaves while catching the golden light inbeween the trunks! Yes, I know you're keen. I've received many emails asking for the patterns but I'm sorry to say the guide won't be ready until next fall now. Too many things have converged during the weeks leading up to Knitaly and I simply ran out of time. The guide is only half-finished and I figured nobody wants to knit autumn during the holidays when the needles turn to gift-giving projects anyway. Meanwhile, pardon me if I tease you with things to come, maybe setting fire to an idea for your own autumn knitting project along the way.
Above, you'll see one of the designs in next year's booklet: a vest that options for a pullover. The design features four trunks, positioned evenly around the circumference, each rising up from a ground of fallen leaves. The background, colored the fluid gold of autumn, is knit in four different hues moving from dark to light up to the canopy which is a blazing raucous burn of color. Knitting those leaves was such a blast: pure free-range with little regard to where a yellow went over an orange, just free-wheeling knitting applying color like finger paint. Okay, so needlepaint. The point is, you won't need a chart. Trust me on this: you really can get beauty from random. Nature does it and so can you. Wait for this project next year knowing those autumn colors you've been stashing will someday find a home.
Trunk bottoms
The trunks themselves are purled against a stockinet background with double strands of yarns such as a wool mixed with a boucle to micmic the trunks roughened texture. And, see those little tuffs happening along the base of the tree? Ribbons tucked in and out with a tapestry needle. If you loved Knit a Beach, you'd love Knit an Autumn Wood.
Here's the thing: despite the success of this year's Knitaly, the glorious countryside, the food, the company, the knitting, I doubt I'll do a Knitaly 09. I miss my own backyard in October. Nova Scotia is at it's glorious best in the autumn as our maples burnish bright and the hills unfurl in hot color. Even Italy can't compare (okay, so we won't mention the food, the art, the wine...). I'm thinking of maybe offering an autumn Nova Scotia retreat instead, a Knit an Autumn Wood in Prince Edward Island or my home town Nova Scotia. Just thinking outload here. For the second year in a row, I returned home from my Tuscan frolic to find all the leaves raked and gone. My burning bush is toast, my trees standing bare and forlorn against the enameled sky. 'Where were you when the show was on?' they seemed to say.
My burning bush smokin two years ago...without me
Posted by Jane on 11/03 at 04:03 PM
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Tuesday, October 28, 2008
How to Knit the Fall
Glory fall
Let's say, hypothetically, that you sucumb to fall fever. Visions of blazing leafery, abundant harvest offerings at every roadside nook, and colors far along the heat scale are sending you itching to knit something evocative of the season. You study all your pattern books, flipping through everything flippable, launch a major Google iniative, and still, um, fall, short. You, my knitting friend, are having a seasonal hot flash and there is no cure except to give into your yearnings: dive into the season.
May I make a few free-range, free-fall, suggestions? First, start with color: go forth and dig up a basic brownish hue as a kind of autumn foundation garment. Don't worry if you're not a brown person as there's a shade of this earthy hue for every taste from grey-brown to red-brown. Next, go forth and seek those heated colors you crave. If gold wanes your luster, head for red which, like brown, offers a variation for every complexion.
All right then, thus suitably stashed, look for a design you love, preferably one with a pronounced ribbing along the torso. It could be one of mine (the Siena Jacket, for instance) or another's as long as it will serve as a blank canvas for your autumnal cravings. Consider knitting the bottom half of the pattern in brown (preferably rib) to evoke tree trunks and the top (shoulder/neck area) in a mixture of your preferred autumnal hues. See below:
Sienna Jacket (back) gets an autumn makeover
Siena jacket original
For the Sienna jacket above, first I measured out the preferred length of my desired torso ribbing and cast on accordingly. Knit side to side on circular needles, the bottom 'random rib' is worked in three different brown yarns with the right-side purls worked in brown and the right-side knits in olive green. The evocative effect of these ribs is that of a forest of tree trunks marching into the distance (merrily slimming your hips in the process).
Once I reached my preferred width, measured across the circumference of my hips, I bound off. Then, I changed to larger needles (size 9 mm/size US 13) and picked up along the top of my 'trunk'. This is multidirectional knitting in action and I love the flexibility it provides. My leaves are a mixture of flagged, tuffed, novelty yarns that lay languishing in my stash for a long, long, time. Try blending yarns together or rooting through your local yarn store's sale bin for these highly-textured novelty yarns. Look for brands like Great Adriondack or rism, known for high concept yarns, or visit artfibers.com for more possibilities. This is your knitting, fall for it!
Posted by Jane on 10/28 at 12:39 PM
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From the entry 'Wild, Mysterious Australia'.
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| By Christine Jones on 2008 12 28 |
