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!

From the entry 'Wild, Mysterious Australia'. Jane, it's lovely to hear my everyday world described through the eyes of a newcomer....it makes me look at things afresh. Looking forward to meeting you in Sydney shortly.

By Christine Jones on 2008 12 28