The Spark & The Reinvention -- "Opulent Cowl"

Shortly after announcing the release of a new pattern, I enjoy putting a post together about its design origins (the "spark") and the design process leading up to its final finished form...

My latest design "Opulent Cowl" was first inspired by this designer inspiration Pinterest page put together by Knitscene editor, Amy Palmer, for Knitscene Accessories, 2015.  The board revolved around three themes to inspire designers: "LBD -- Little Black Dress", "Capitol Couture" and "Around the Home".

"Little Black Dress" caught me and took me to the internet...

Of course, I found Coco Chanel and Audrey Hepburn... too bad about the smoking... but keep that jewelry in mind...

Next, I did some searching for "little black dress accessories", and before very long I found something that I wanted to recreate...

Photo Credit: Net-A-Porter, +Eleven Everything

I do love this kind of high fashion spark... "Foil Print Merino Wool Snood" (then available at Net-A-Porter for $270)... it made me think of a cowl that was like a piece of jewelry...

It was obvious to me that the ribbing in that snood is fisherman's rib, and the gilded ribbing is two-color fisherman's rib.  I had just seen an article on this kind of ribbing in Interweave Knits, Fall 2014.  (BTW: There is a whole lot that I can write about fisherman's rib and its relationship to brioche, and how cool it is when worked with more than one color, but I will save that for another day.)

I pulled out that magazine and I began swatching (using two colors of worsted weight wool yarn).  Then, I located some Berroco Captiva Metallic in bronze, and Schachenmayr Sun City in black and egg shell.  I made this swatch:

I drew this sketch with two length options (one like a long necklace, and one, a smaller cowl that would stand up like a turtleneck or snood):

I included the swatch and the sketch in my proposal.  About a month later, Amy Palmer sent an email that said that she "really liked" my cowl (Oh, happy day, I really love working with everyone Interweave!)  Amy said that she thought that it would be "great for the Capitol Couture story", and that she would "like to play with untraditional yarns".  Her first suggestion was a tape yarn that came in mostly soft colors and nothing near a metallic.  I told her that I had my doubts, but that I would do my best to find a yarn as close as I could get to that, and do some swatching, ASAP...

Later that day, I went to Gosh Yarn It!, my LYS, to see what they had -- and they did not.  However, the shop owner, Jill, had some very lovely ONline, Linie 346 Arona tape yarn in her personal stash and she kindly gave me a skein for my swatching.  I wound off a small ball of lighter tones in order to have two colors, and then later I tried some spool ribbon from my local Jo-Ann's.  Sad to say, but it just wasn't right.

I included this photo in my next email to Amy:

I wrote, "I am mostly back to where I was before the [latest] swatching. I would [still] like to use a metallic with a solid color."

There were a whole lot more back and forth emails with Amy. I am grateful for her relentless search to find just the right yarns.  We decided on Prism Elise in 'antique' with violet and orchid shades of Prism Petite Madison (for more information see my Ravelry project page).  Amy let me choose the length for the cowl.  I think that both the lovely yarn, and my decision to go with a l-o-n-g length, eventually lead to a very opulent cowl, indeed.
 
My last photos are my own from right before I sent the cowl to Knitscene.

I love the piece and am looking forward to getting it back one day!

Opulent Cowl is just one of 33 beautiful new designs in Knitscene Accessories, 2015 which is available online and on newsstands everywhere. 

Rosebud: My "Spark" & My Design Proposal

My latest magazine pattern, Rosebud Hat, (which appears in Interweave Gifts, 2014) (and which was just talked about on the Knitting Daily blog this week) has what I would call a "blended spark" for its origin.  I combined elements of contemporary textile design with my favorite traditional stranded colorwork.

Though it might seem a stretch at first, it really started last September when I read this post by the well-known knitwear designer, Ysolda Teague.  Ysolda modeled an outfit: skirt, tank and cardigan, that she made entirely by herself.  I used to sew a great deal, and I was very intrigued by the completely hand-stitched tank that she made using the book, Alabama Studio Sewing + Design: A Guide to Hand-Sewing an Alabama Chanin Wardrobe.

Thus began my own love of all things Alabama Chanin.  Of course I bought the book.  (My mother taught me to love books long before she taught me to love yarn and knitting.)

In my sewing and needlecraft lifetime, I have already tried many, if not all, of the gorgeous fabric enhancement techniques: stenciling, embroidery, applique, quilting, reverse applique and bead and sequin embellishments.  I find some of the pieces to be breathtakingly beautiful, as you can see from those that I have pinned (just pinned a couple more right now / can't help myself) on my "Stitchery" board at Pinterest.

Do I have the time to make handsewn garments for myself?  Of course not.  But I thought a lot about how to capture the "all-over" designs in knitting.  Most of the "fabric maps" are too large in scale for any of the accessory pieces that seem to be becoming my design niche.

Fabric Map: Kristina's Rose

But I truly like the repetition-with-variation that I favor in all design and art.  Do you see how the rose motif is copied in three different sizes and rotated in all directions?  And I was inspired by the colors -- there are many shades of gray in the A.C. palette along with deep, moody, and sometimes, vibrant hues.  I purchase some new yarn from my LYS (GYI), Baa Ram Ewe's Titus, in "aire" (blue) and "coal" (dark gray).  At first, I thought that I might make a bucket shaped hat like those appearing on the book's cover, with a facing on the brim.

As my design evolved it did become a more wearable classic hat shape, but it does have a deeply faced hem that (according to the magazine copy) "gives it a polished finish and provides an extra layer of warmth".

About the rosebuds:  These are actually quite traditional in Fair Isle knitting.  I charted a single rosebud motif and then I "changed the direction" by mirroring it, for what would be the row above.  I made five different charts (really, I just checked) where I played around to get the spacing that I liked best.  Later, it took a couple more charts to perfect the row of smaller rosebuds in the decreasing section at the top of the hat.

This post is getting longish (and I always think that if I get too long, I will be boring you) but I am proud to share what I did when creating my design proposal which I sent to the editors at Interweave last October.

First (after all the charting) came the swatch made with the above mentioned Titus yarn.

  
This swatch was sent to the editors in Colorado.  It is 4" wide and 8" tall. It is what I would call a hat "section".  I did have to knit it back and forth, and not in the round, but that is not too difficult for me.  It shows a two-repeat wide section of the hat with the "knitted-in" hem and the hat shaping with the reduced size rosebuds.

Then for my "design sketch" I got very crafty.

I started with a sketched hat-wearing head on a piece of printer paper.  I scanned the swatch as it appears in the photo above.  Then I calculated a scale factor to use in my copier to make a reduced size "hat section" that would fit on the drawing. I printed 4 of these hat sections and trimmed and pasted them in place on the drawing.  I really think that was clever.  (And I always love to get crafty!)

Thanks for reading!  Knit Happy!