ConnieLene – KnitDesigner

Right now I am working on a vest for myself. It is so unusual for me to create a piece for me, but I am. I am deciding just how I shall include the intarsia. I have all the yarn (many colours). I am already knitting a k2 p2 rib band and constantly looking at the yarns out of the corner of my eyes, wondering how will I use it.

That started me thinking about my very first intarsia knit. It was a sweater for my son. It was so cute, it was in two colours, chocolate brown and cream. The intarsia (a word I had never heard of) was so simple and it started me on the wild wild world of free form knit intarsia. Prior to that my intarsia work had all been in crochet.

I crocheted shawls and vests in the main. And I created all sorts of weird and unusual shapes with the yarn that I had available to me.

My very first crochet commission was for 3 crocheted shawls and a poncho. They were many coloured, but formal – that is no free form work at all. The patterns if I remember correctly, might have been from the Mon Tricot magazine which I just adored. Yes, I created for sale shawls from someone elses patterns, and I was even paid to do it.

Shock, horror now.

That was in the very early 70′s. I knew nothing of copyright at that time.

BUT back to the first knit intarsia.

It was a bought pattern and it may have been a Shepherd pattern, I simply can’t remember. But it was a straight forward sweater (jersey or jumper). The cuffs and a band of about 10 or 12 stitches straight up the front were in cream and the remainder of the sweater was chocolate brown.

I had to learn how to twist the yarn so there were no holes at the join of the two colours. It was knitted in pieces – back, front, 2 sleeves, something I rarely do today. But it started me exploring knitting and the excitement was probably not immediate but it slowly simmered and very soon I was creating wild, wonderful and wacky intarsia sweaters, jackets, vests and cardigans.

I still love my wild and wacky knits.

And now I am going to knit a wild and wacky vest for me. I still haven’t decided in what way I shall incorporate the intarsia but I will.