Sunday, June 17, 2007
THIS THING ABOUT HAND
Soft to the touch, silk slips across the needles for the cowled capelet
When I was deep into sewing and crafting clothing, I used to focus on 'hand'—how a fabric draped and felt to the touch. I'd forage through fabric stores, squishing, feeling, hanging, lifting bolts up from shelves and letting lengths hang so I could get a sense of the textile in motion. Not so much of this goes on in my knitting life. If a ball looks good and feels good, I'll happily drop it into a recipe. Until recently.
Faced with the prospect of making two different garments (a shrug and a cowled capelet) out of a similiar mix of yarns but for two very different purposes, I realized I had to study the hand of each very closely to create the effect. The Florentine shrug, a feast of crispy shantung silks and thick, glossy ribbons, only needs a body to come into its own whereas the cowled capelet required a lighter, more fluid, hand to enable the cowl collar to fall softly around the neck. Too many crispy ribbons is too bulky.
SO, I forced myself to edit, choosing the same Tilli Tomas Burnt Pepper beaded silk and Mikado ribbon for the blacks but choosing a mix of sleek, soft silks for the golden shades. I finally found a use for the two rare skeins of pure silk Italian ribbon in the shade of Cafe Americano (coffee with milk, Italian-style) that I found in Beatrice Gallo's shop in Florence. In with that I mixed a Habu Textiles lash so soft and polite, it's like fairy whispers. You can see the result in the photo just as a rare shaft of sunshine glossed up the golden hues.
The shrug's crispy silks hold up beautifully
Composing plants in pots is much like knitting: add a dab of texture, mix in some color and -voila!
Posted by Jane on 06/17 at 04:23 PM
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Tuesday, June 12, 2007
SHRUGGING THROUGH SPRING
A Shrug goes relaxed on my deck
Remember the Watergarden and Dune shrugs, one of the first patterns I ever made? Well, I keep making it. And making it. By changing the yarns and mixing up the stitches, experimenting with finishing details and adding or subtracting embellishments, I find the same design keeps creating new looks. The one above, knit in gold, cream and black ribbons and textury tapes, has turned into this elegant slouch of a garment. How can one be elegant while slouching, you ask? Easy. Put it down to a relaxed insouciance.. In any case, the same pattern worked in different yarns can bring about quite dramatic results, methinks. The one pictured above just sold in Toronto, by the way, but it inspired Jackie and I to design a kit with all the necessary yarns to duplicate the look.
I LOVED working with these yarns: Tilli Tomas silk shantung ribbon like crispy cream strung with tiny beads, Tilli Tomas black silk woven with copper beads (Salt&Pepper in 'Burnt Pepper' ), a black tape from Crystal Palace, a hand-dyed ribbon from Judi&Co (Cappuccino) that feels like vanilla icing between the fingers and mixtures of Prism yarns in tasty, sugary shades complete the look. Oh, it's luxe all right. This is a project for the fiberholic who needs a bit of indulgance. This is a sensual feast of yarn with the end result a gorgeous shrug wearable any season, any time.
These colors reminded me of Florence, the center of luxury goods for centuries so I named it 'The Florentine Shrug'. The design, however, is exactly the same pattern as seen here: http://www.janethornley.com/patterns_shrugs.html#4 . Now I'm plotting on how to take the same pattern and further embellish it with beads.
More kit information on this design to come!
Posted by Jane on 06/12 at 09:56 AM
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From the entry 'Wild, Mysterious Australia'.
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| By Christine Jones on 2008 12 28 |
