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