ConnieLene – KnitDesigner

The Carbon Footprint graphs.

The photos are not of the full graph – the graphs are of 2 complete feet. One left foot, and on the angle, one right foot. They each fit on an A4 page. There are no instructions included for knitting them, as there are many online sites and videos that can assist you with that.

This is the graph of the carbon footprints only. It can be used to knit the footprints, using the intarsia method, on an item such as a bag, afghan, wall hanging, or sweater, where ever you might like to include the footprints and make a statement.

I do give permission for the graph to be used to create and sell a finished knitted or handcrafted product. The carbon footprint graph itself however, may not be sold or distributed in any form including within a knit, crochet or other craft pattern. Please point anyone that is interested in the carbon footprint graph to this etsy shop – to purchase the graph themselves. I would appreciate that. There will be another graph which can be used for shadow knitting the carbon footprints as well.

All rights reserved ConnieLene © 2010

I am now on beret six – there is some minor madness when one keeps on playing with a piece. These have all been created using Vero yarn but in the different colours that I have here in the Netherlands.

I do miss my yarns that are still in New Zealand.

How can I miss yarn? I cannot even remember what was in my stash there – just that there were lots of yarns, in lots and lots of colours, from many different places in the world. But I do miss the variety in colour, yarn type, do not have sufficient variety here to create pieces as I was doing in New Zealand. I have purchased a lot of different yarns here in the Netherlands and some in Switzerland and in Denmark – I just do not have the quantity, colour range and yarn types here as I did have at home. It takes time to build up a new stash, doesn’t it?

What to do?

I don’t know.

So right now I am knitting berets.

Originally this was in response to a commission from a friend in Australia. But now I need to consider – do I continue with these? Do I complete the commission? Well yes that I must do, which means that beret 7 must be a funky, fuzzy, multicoloured piece. Then I must write up the pattern and then get back to that carbon footprint bag. Maybe I just put the two graphs out, one for the intarsia footprints and the other for carbon footprint using shadow knitting and leave you to decide – should it be on a bag, blanket, pram cover, cushion or on a sweater – should you happen to want a sweater with a foot print or two on it.

I guess that is what should be done.

The beret pattern – will include one in stocking stitch, and one felted from a stocking stitch knit. I won’t try to define the multicolour, multi fibre, intarsia one – that will be free form with little guidance.

I have had a really wild week.

It is has been freezing, snowing and my hands have really struggled with the activities we have carried out out in that cold wintery environment.

On Wednesday I was interviewed by Leandra and her team on Amsterdam English Breakfast Radio. That was a great experience, and the radio interview is also on video. (Radio with pictures – was a New Zealand TV programme many years ago).

We then tested a ball for size in a freezing Maastricht, and followed that with the ball dress rehearsal in Haarlem. Both of those freezing activities are on video. We are amateurs for sure, the commentary is bizarre – that is I didn’t realise it was recording the activity, let alone what we were saying. We will change it when we work out how. But in one wild wintery week I have been on video in three separate cities.

I do have to get away from these balls. My black formal ball warmer is progressing well – and I keep seeing ideas in my head for new ball pieces.

So I am not creating ball warmers anymore, that is until the next time

I am creating an intarsia piece with hairy “carbon footprint” design. This may well be my only ever graphed intarsia piece. I just don’t knit pictures.

I am a free form flowing kind of knitter, I just don’t like graphs. I know I can do it – but when I am surrounded by many yarns and many colours of yarns I really just want to play.

So I am going to work through the list below until I can play some more

1. Knit Carbon Footprint in intarsia

2. Complete Carbon Footprint – shadow knitting version

3. Knit 2 berets for a very dear friend – I have the yarns and I am playing with them – sorting, changing the colour order, thinking about what other colour or yarn type I could add.

4. Finish formal black ball warmer

then

colour

colour play

and then colour play some more

that is the plan

I am going to write an ebook on my favourite knitting subject – Intarsia. The Intarsia free form process is my passion – but the technicality of working in the round, using a graph, working out the colour scheme etc will all be covered. It will be Intarsia from go to whereever it could take me and of course you. I would hope that my passion for Intarsia knitting might also make a convert of you to this method of colourwork in your knitting.

Would such a book be of interest to you? If so please let me know by emailing me with “I wish to be informed on the progress of the ebook on Intarsia knitting” in the subject field.

Intarsia knitting is where sections of color are knitted in different colours and yarns and the yarn is not carried across the back of the work as is done in Fair Isle knitting. The yarn ends are left to be picked up and knitted on return to that section of the knitting.

Intarsia is a woodworking term, where it refers to inlaying different colours or types of wood to create a design.

When knitting using the intarsia method yarn is wound onto bobbins, or long strands of yarn are used for each block of color. At the point where you are changing the colour in a row, one drops the colour in use and picks up the next colour from underneath the original yarn to reduce the risk of holes showing in completed piece. The main difficulty with intarsia knitting is that your yarns WILL tangle. According to many books and articles on intarsia knitting one should use bobbins to wind the lengths of individal colour and allow loose only the length that you are knitting with.

I have bobbins – but I do not use them and yes I do get into a tangle from to time, but this adds drama to the process. I knit on circular needles and whenever possible or practical (which is most of the time) I knit the body of a sweater, the fronts and back of a jacket or cardigan at one time – this means the intarsia sections travel around the piece in an interesting fashion. With careful management when using one colour of a manageable length, dropping it, picking up the next and maybe having 10 or more colours in a row and your yarns are hanging down as they should and you turn the work always one way and then back the reverse way they do not get so crossed over and messy. Well that is the theory anyway.

Because my intarsia is freeform, that is I work to an idea, not to a written or graphed design on a piece – if it is too tangled then I break the yarn and continue with a new colour, or if required I rejoin the yarn. My artist friends tell me that knitting this way is an art form – that is I paint with yarns. I am happy with that view.

The biggest issue with knitting this way is not the tangles BUT the ends. In early days I left the yarn ends to the end (foolish) and then sewed or wove the ends in when the garment was completed.

**** DO NOT DO THAT****

Take the time to knit / weave in the ends as you go – otherwise it can take as long to finish the piece as it did to create it. You do not need that.

When I knitted my cloak (The Great New Zealand Cloak), I left all the yarn ends to the very end. My darling daughter sat over nearly a whole day and night trimming the ends as I sewed them in. She vowed to never do it again with me – but she still helps if I get so excited at what I am creating that I do not judiciously finish as I go.

And then of course she does owns a large collection of unique intarsia knits.

There is no way to ever repeat exactly a piece using my method of knitting intarsia – so if you want to knit a unique piece – try the intarsia free form system – let your creativity rule, play with your colours, mix your yarn types – spread them out, select a garment type and go and play.

I didn’t know what Intarsia was until long after I was knitting with many colours of varying lengths and no longer knitting only in stripes as I had been doing.

I have never knitted “pictures” as such – but played with the yarns, sorting the colours into something very pleasing to the eye – and leaving them on a large white sheet on the floor in front me.

I could then move the colours around, test one colour surrounded by the other colours in the piece I was knitting. When I was knitting something in many colours – and that was usual – my family carefully stepped over the yarns on the sheet. They didn’t dare lift it in any way as that could have discombulated my arrangement. Mind you had that happened something new and wondrous might have pinged out at me.

The way the yarn was knitted up – using the Intarsia method – was free form. The shape of each colour section in the knitting has always been decided on the needle. Hmm – that looks okay – but that is not balanced – so I will change colour or move it up in a different section or whatever took my fancy. hmm – like that and so on.

I have been lucky with my results.

This gallery highlights a small selection of unique designs created prior to 2000. They have been created for various exhibitions or as individual commissions.