Beading the Seagrass Cape

You all know how much I love to embellish (Jane doesn't do plain) and almost everything I design has a bead or two hanging around somewhere.  I can't help myself. It's an automatic response: finish knitting, fetch beads.

So, for the Seagrass Capelet design I deployed a jeweller's technique to make the beaded fringes. Using eyepins -- a piece of straight wire with a loop on one end (available in most hobby stores)I dropped a bead down over the eyepin (in the case of the Chianti version pictured here, turquoise beads from Fire Mountain), added a seed bead or two and then opened the loop, tucked in a few lengths of yarn/ribbon, closed the loop and then folded the ribbon lengths together with an overhand knot.

Viola! A tidy festoon of beads and ribbons which can then be wrapped through one of the cape's bottom stitches and secured by folding the wire around with the fingers before snipping off the extra wire with a pair of wirecutters.

What you see is the finished Chianti Seagrass Capelet in the midst of being adorned with three beaded fringes on the back. The ribbon featured so gloriously is another of my beloved Judi&Co Luminesse varieties, this one in a color called 'Mexican Hatdance'. Who would have thought of pinks, greens and turquoise living together in harmony? And, if you're wondering about that super texture bubbly yarn in the capelet, that's Prism's aptly-named Bubbles (available from the Yarnlady.com) which, even when applied sparingly, can greate a striking effect.

Sometimes the simplest flourish can lift your knitting to new heights while a little bead here and there can keep it from lifting at all. Lifting without permission is called 'flapping', by the way, and unless you're a pigeon, you don't want to be caught flapping in public.

Interior Worlds: Tea at my House

If you were to come to my house for tea on this chill March day, I would usher you into the hall  right away. It's too cold to linger over the river or the garden, soon though. Besides, I'd like you to see my March vignette assembled on the table (beachy, tropical-inspired straw matts, shells gathered from far away places...). Interior worlds can nourish us in winter.

I'll offer you tea and a seat by the fire while I put on the kettle and root around for those fabulous oatcakes Mollie brought me the other day. looks like I've eaten them all (sorry) but I have other treats to compensate and, while I fix our snack, please feel free to eye-walk around the room investigating my little compositions.

Knowing you to be a knitter or a beader or an appreciator or both, you'll probably notice the scarf morphed into table runner on the other long table. Don't you think these textured lengths make fabulous household decorations? So, why don't we festoon our house with our knitting more often? A scarf can easily grace a wall or a table, 

Do you take milk? I have herbal teas, too, by the way,  a huge selection, if you're keen (the tea boxes keep falling out every time I open the cupboard).

 Oh yes, you've spied my African vignette. I'm inspired by a mood of cultural adventure, you know. It reminds me of the big wide world beyond my doors. That's my collection of earthenware pots from Zimbabwe sitting beside a real witchdoctor's clay pipe and the snuff bottles I bought in a market in Harrare (we have other, more warrior-like artifacts which we keep grounded downstairs in case the energy comes unloosed).

My friend, Mollie, gave me the Masai plate--isn't it stunning?-- and the pussywillow vase was my grandmother's, a piece of  true turn-of-the-century genteel hanging out among the Nebele and Shona tribes. Come to think of it, that rather symbolizes the British colonial occupation of Rhodesia many moons ago, doesn't it? Don't go there, Jane.

So, you've noticed the candles. I do love candles, especially interesting, textured ones. The pine cone comes from California and just ended up where it's perched... just because. Neutral colors, yes. Surprized? Well, the room is almost all windows and I don't want to compete with the forest light. Besides, these soft colors (the walls are painted a shade called 'Ivory Sampler') gives me a canvas upon which I can romp. And romp.

I think the tea's ready.

SEAGRASS CAPELET PATTERN (NOW ON SALE!) AND INTUITIVE KNITTING

What you see above is called an inspiration collage, a kind of gathering of mood elements around a design or color, which for me are closely connected.

The Seagrass Capelet sprung from a handful of green and brown jasper beads with the faintest of teal inclusions. From those stones, I crafted both the necklace seen in the collage above and the Seagrass Capelet, both reminding me of green-brown sea grass swifting underneath a salty breeze while the sea edges a line of blue green in the distance.

The capelet turned out to be so enjoyable to knit, I decided to add it to my spring line (oh, don't I just sound so, um, Ralph Laurenish...ah, no, Versaceish? Probably not. Ah, how about .. plain janeupish. Yes.) and to knit it in many different colors just for the pure joy of it.

But I need to expound a little on my approach to pattern-writing. In truth, I am an intuitive knitter who wants to guide knitters to also knit intuitively. I believe absolutely that you can all develop the confidence to do just that. It's an artistic approach, a bit anarchistic and adventuresome, perfect for divergent thinkers. That's the idea behind Adventure Knitting, my book proposal. At the same time, I also realize that many knitters want to buy patterns that follow the row-by-row instructions and are most comfortable with the knitterly code (k2tog, k1, etc.) so I've capitulated and written somewhat traditional patterns while trying to inject as much narrative as I can. I walk the line while designing tangents along the way. 

The instructions for Seagrass Capelet  (and all my patterns) are too long for knitting magazines. I shortcut very little, assuming you don't want/need to  remember the k2tog on every row just because I told you once ten rows back. I'm assuming your memory is no better than mine. I also encourage you to stray off the road with your yarn choices and not even try to find every last yarn I used. I'll give you the main ones but suggest you try others, too-- you know, adventure knitting. In some cases, like this capelet, I don't give specific measurements because I guide you to measure as you go to suit yourself. I have also abolished the tyranny of guage because it's too difficult to fix in a multi yarn, multi stitch and two needle-sized piece anyway so why be throttled by it? So, while to some degree I'm holding your hand in ways most patterns don't (you can always swat me off), I also want you to take an exploratory leap and knit like an artist.

Every time you pick up more than one yarn to blend, you are taking a step into the realm of creativity. It's true. My patterns are designed to be explorations into the beauty of yarn, texture and color: simple stitches, beautiful results. For that reason, I include more narrative on color and yarn choice than strictly allowable in most patterns. And, if you want me to help, I'm only an email away.

A magazine was interested in publishing Falling Leaves but I declined. I didn't want to give up copyright or amputate it for any restriction. I wanted to keep those 15+ pages just as they are, a bit unorthodox in places but working towards a vision. The more I develop these patterns, the more determined I get to do it differently as well as the same. Whether I can really write a pattern that's all things for all knitters, I don't know, but I'm trying. And I'm open to suggestions!

So , click on that annoying big yellow button if you want to buy Seagrass and I'd love to know what you you think if you do. I'd also love to hear about your yarn choices, even do a knitalong if anybody's interested (I'd publish the photos and the back and forth among willing participants).

Just an idea...you know I have all these ideas...

And I'm still looking for one more person who bought Falling Leaves. Please contact me!