ConnieLene – KnitDesigner

This piece was created as a challenge to me as I have not created a garment using only one brand of yarn before, let alone alpaca for many years. My philosophy has been to add another colour and then another type of yarn and then if it is looking great then add some more. I just cannot get enough colour and texture.

I had intended to create a piece for evening wear including a cape as well as a knitted silver wire neckpiece which would also incorporate the yarn. But then I didn’t plan on buying yarn on the internet – to satisfy the requirements for NZ alpaca for the New Zealand Alpaca Expo. I had no idea of the quality of the yarn, nor whether I liked the colours, or if indeed the yarns I had brought with me would work with the Alpaca. There was no problem, the yarn is beautiful, lovely to handle and to work with.

Thank you to the lovely people at Flagstaff Alpacas for making certain that the yarn was at my daughters when I arrived in New Zealand. The first thing I did with the yarn was to enjoy it – that is touch it, smell it, and feel it against my face – I lay it out on the bed with all the yarns I had bought with me to use in this dress. I played with them, stared at them, looked at them in the sun and inside – the design then created itself without any of the yarns that I had brought with me.

The design had to show the wonderful yarn, and present the soft elegant shades created by Doe Arnot for Flagstaff Alpacas. The dress was knitted in one piece from the hemline on a circular needle.

It was divided at the increases for the sleeves and again at the deep V point. At various crucial stages it was tried on by my daughter – to help me decide where to decrease for the waist, increase for the sleeves and divide the neck into that deep V and so on. She is a very patient young women, thank goodness.

I hope you enjoy it as well.

The dress has a ribbed skirt section, fitted to waist (very fitting), with bat wing sleeves and a very deep V neck. It has been created in one piece from the hem line of the skirt and is worked in the round. The increases for the sleeves began above the waist and the front and backs were worked at the same time once the deep V for the neckline was commenced.
One side of the bodice and the sleeve was worked in black and the other side in the wonderful varigated yarns.

I do have a very large stash of yarns some of which is in New Zealand – and I am going back to New Zealand for a holiday – and to create a piece for the Alpaca Expo 2009 and maybe to begin my piece for WoolOn at the the Alexandra Blossom Festival.

Each piece I create is unique – that is even if the style is repeatable – the way I use the yarns within any piece is not. I work from an overview idea maybe of colours, or fibres or an idea or picture that arrives as I am knitting. I may begin with a concept which alters as I go as the yarns can speak for themselves.

These two events have caused me to pause and focus on the design process prior to picking up the needles as the yarns required are New Zealand Alpaca and New Zealand wool. I have found a great source of New Zealand Alpaca and I know that my yarn will be waiting when I arrive in NZ. I found just what I wanted at Wonderful Alpacas and they have been very helpful in making certain that I will have the yarn I need as soon as I arrive.

I am focusing on the Fashion Parade for the Alpaca piece and maybe the Special Occasion section for the WoolOn creative Fashion event.

I have sufficient New Zealand wool to begin my WoolOn piece here in the Netherlands before I leave and complete it on my return. I am experimenting with felting my knits so it may be that I will create a felted piece.

I am leaving the summer of the Netherlands for the cold damp miserable winter in New Zealand – the bonus is that I am also going to spend a great deal of time with my wonderful daughter and that special grandson of mine.