ConnieLene – KnitDesigner

Vogue Trend report for Autumn – Winter 2010 – 2011

from A-Z my own comments are in italics

A-Line – easy to knit

Beehives – hard to create knitted or crocheted hats for. Me, I remember the Beehive, I will not be going there again.

Camel – Colour, fabric or animal. I love the colour, I love the fabric. Camels spit.

CAPES – okay with you? I design and knit capes and cloaks.

Dryclean only please – knits are embroidered or feature colourful prints. It is good advice, but I think the trend should be

Delicate Knits to be drycleaned only please.

Expensive Simplicity – I like that statement but what does it mean for me – expensive yarn, one colour, great design – okay

Fur – If you don’t say it with fur next season then say it with feathers – knitters can knit both and I like to play with both faux fur and feathered yarns. [according to Vogue - fake or real, it’s too big to be a trend, on and off the catwalk it was more of a deluge]

Grunge Glamour – when you’re not dressing up, dress down in high quality – I not sure I understand this one, maybe it is an age thing, not understanding Grunge and Glamour together

Hairbands – I had a pattern for a knitted plaited headband from my mother-in-law. Perhaps I need to resurrect it especially as I am riding a bike often here in the Netherlands

Intricate details – beading, pleating, twisting, draping, embroidery. For me and my knitting – I love twisting (moebius), plaited (cables), Pleats with colour hidden in them and lots of colour. I have been playing a little with a bit of beading in my knitting and I am not in love yet. I have also knitted silver wire with beads. I really enjoy the challenge of that – but my results are not interesting enough as yet.

Jewellery stories – big necklaces still an outfit make – they could well be knitted or crocheted by other wonderful knitters and crocheters. like the Bloomin Neck Gardens by ScarfitUp.

Knits top-to-toe – the perfect trend for me, although socks have still escaped my needles. I have those IOU’s to complete for red socks. Leg, arm and neck warmers and dresses and even skirts and of course sweaters, jackets, vests you name it I have probably created it somewhere sometime.

I like the letter “K”, what a great trend “Knits top to toe” is

Lace – Forget the cold, it looks beautiful over goose bumps. And if you don’t like lace, buy a leather dress, possibly with pockets. Knitted or crocheted Lace is beautiful – I can, and have created shawls and scarves in lace, in simple lace that is, I do not call myself a lace knitter

Mad Men Secretaries – I do not know what this trend is really

Navy – Wear it with everything. Wear it with black. It is the new black – well all knitters and crocheters and yarn creators and dyers – I hope you are ready for the new black. Navy looks great with purples, turquoises and Red and ……..

Orange – Colour trend – Orange also will go extremely well with the new black – Navy or be bold and knit orange with actual black.

Polo Neck – great knitters style

Quantum Leap (futuristic) – knit futuristic is real

Retro hair – with a net I presume to keep it sitting soo still – great to show off the knitted and crocheted hats see Constance Willems marvellous Hats

Shearling – ……. Just about everywhere – include with your knits if you can afford it or knit loopy to fake it as faking is always an in trend

Teddy Bear fur – Faking it in true style and apparently it was everywhere – WHY?

Understated – supremely good quality but passive in colour and shape. It’s the new way to show off. My trend here would be

Unique Knits and we all understand that.

Victoria’s Secret models – Curves are back, ladies. Where did the curves go? I think this trend should be called

Vogue and Vintage knits, knitted for the real woman or it could be called Vogue Knitting.

Weather – was on display at many of the fashion shows. Me, I think of weather and knitting as

WOW, the Winter Wonderland of Opportunity to create wonderful, sexy, in Vogue, trendy, fitting, colourful and creative knits

X – was a band at the shows – Is that a fashion Trend? I think not, so lets stick with

XRX Books – The Knitting Universe

Yeti – You could knit in the Yeti Look if you wish – not for me.

ZigZags – herringbone tweeds, chevron furs – tesselations to be knitted sometime. It is on my knit radar.

The two Big Trends

1. A celebration of womanliness that will allow us to use traditional wiles and graceful curves to ….. You need to go and read it yourself.

2. Is for absolute, supreme, take-your-breath-away quality…….. I like that.

Cape knitted with mohair and faux fur fibre

Kiwi Cape Pattern is available on etsy at uniqueboutiqueknits

So that is my “in Vogue” trendy news for knitters.

I may change the information as I find new reports or items of interest.

Meantime remember that Capes are in – okay!

I hope that after looking through the site you will choose to be a fan of my Facebook Page or as it is now on facebook I hope you will choose to like ConnieLeneKnits

You can find me in many places on the net –

My Etsy Shop Unique Boutique Knits for patterns and garments

Crazy but this is my other Etsy Shop Connielene Capes and my unique and unrepeatable knits Capes because I adore cloaks and capes, the others because I cannot tell you exactly how I created them other than the pattern for the style but not the intarsia on them.

And because I managed to create and install a Ball Warmer and really enjoyed the experience and the story World Urban Art – a site still in development – Installation art in the urban environment including Knit Art Graffiti or Yarn bombing.

Our travels in Europe – two oldies from New Zealand exploring the Netherlands, Denmark and Europe as time, money and energy allows.

You can find me on Ravelry here and believe it or not I am also on Twitter here as Connieleneknits

I am a Freelance designer, knitter, lover of colour; lots of colour, Intarsia lover, pattern writer, fashion knit trend follower, Colour and yarn trend follower.

They tell me that I am also artist, graffiti knit artist. I know I am a storyteller, writer, blogger, mother, wife, sister, grandmother, teacher, friend, photographer, and speaker.

My loves are colour, texture, shape, flow, drape, drama, magic, passion and yarn and I hope you enjoy the results.

When I can I do participate in fibre exhibitions, and I have curated two exhibitions with a wonderful artist friend. In 2009 I had a felted jacket in WoolOn at the Alexandra Blossom Festival, and a dress with intarsia of course in the Alpaca Festival in New Zealand.

My Mission is to excite and challenge all knitters, designers and wearers of hand created pieces – to experience more colour in their own knitted pieces and to enjoy the freedom and the magic of wearing such a unique piece because it is created with many colours, passion and with magical yarns

My Major Project with delivery in 2011 is My Intarsia Knitting – Book as yet with no name.

I hope you will be a fan of my Facebook Page or as it is now I hope you will choose to like ConnieLeneKnits on Facebook.

Danish born, brought up in New Zealand and have been living in the Netherlands since Sept. 2008 because Best Beloved has work here at present.

I have been knitting since the mid 1950′s and began designing my own pieces in my early 20′s. These early designs related to the yarns I could purchase very cheaply from bargain bins and at end of the season – so there was not a big range to choose from for any piece. But buying yarns this way meant I became quite innovative in my colour and yarn use and very early discovered that the required yarn for any pattern is simply to force one to buy that specific yarn and is so absolutely untrue.

Designing and crafting has always been part of my life and I have created pieces using various skills including embroidery, basket weaving, marbling, tie dying fabrics, crocheting, knitting etc.

I love cooking and had an experience which will never be forgotten as a young teenager of 15/16 where I was one of 12 finalists in “Cook of the Year” a New Zealand recipe and cooking competition. This meant I had to be part of a bakeoff – where I cooked my own recipe (the one that I had put forward which placed me in the finals) and a recipe of one of the other finalists. Pretty scary as a young person and of course I drew the recipe of the ultimate winner to be created along with my own recipe.

My “real work” work from the end of the 1970′s was in library systems – first helping put the first library catalogue onto a computer system (data entry, form filling), then working with the Dynix Library System first at Auckland Public Library, then with Dynix itself as a library Support person eventually becoming Manager of Dynix New Zealand. In early 2000 I became the Library Systems Manager at Whangarei District Library where my most interesting project was establishing a Mobile Library Service for the Whangarei District – from buying and outfitting the bus, working out bus routes, and sorting out the technology as well as managing the library system itself.

Now I can barely manage my own computer – especially in this last 18 months with my computer in storage for the first 6 months and using Best Beloved’s work laptop when it was available. Once we were established here with our stuff in a house we did get mine out of storage and I lived and worked with blue screens and crashes for nearly 8 months. I have now replaced it and I do not like my very first laptop, and I hate office 2007 and I hate Vista so far.

I have created / designed many many more pieces than I now can remember and they have gone to many places in the world – from New Zealand to Denmark and England. Now that I have a digital camera – I still manage to complete pieces and not photograph them – but I really do try to photograph everything I create.

Craft / Art Experience:

1973/74 – Cook Street Market – Auckland. I designed and created knit and crochet garments for babies & children, hats & waistcoats of many colours for adults. One passion was multi coloured shawls which I knitted and crocheted. I did also create garments after tie dying the fabrics. I am a lousy sewer but did create hippy style shirts to sell at the market as well. I made many natural cane baskets – banished myself to the bathroom with a bathtub of soaking cane and sat there weaving. Loved the results, hated the process (that is sitting in a cold bathroom – I loved the weaving and creating), and it played havoc with my hands and back.

In 1974 or 75 my mother and I had a stall at the Parnell markets where I sold machine knitted sweaters and received my first commisions for fair isle machine knitted sweaters and cardigans – when I had had the machine for only a week or two. Now that was a bit of a leap of faith on part of the purchaser – but it did work out in the end. The knitting machine didn’t last long as a passion as I like knitting whereever I am, in the car, at the dinner table, watching TV (depends on the piece being knitted), at friends and relatives homes everywhere. In fact the knitting machine never really became a passion at all and I gave it away to a friend in the 1980s.

1976/78 – Craft group in Titirangi, New Zealand – often at my home where we pooled our knowledge of knitting, crochet, basket weaving as well as the tie dying of fabrics – probably the first “stitch ‘n Bitch” group in New Zealand.

1982/3 – Craft group at Arahoe Primary School – Titirangi, New Zealand. I loved teaching the kids and they were open to trying anything so I did teach various crafts to them including crochet, basket weaving and creating string pictures and more.

1990 – Workshop “Marbling on fabric & paper” with Maxine Lovegrove – Auckland, New Zealand which helped develop my colour use in my beautiful pieces.

In the Netherlands I have added felting, shadow knitting, Hyperbolic planes, and now knitted graffiti to what I do. It is amazing how a new place can encourage you to extend yourself.

I am passionate about colour and texture and uses my knits to surprise and encourage in the wearer a confidence of expression. A confidence to wear the unusual and to enjoy how it feels and how the colours shift and adjust depending on the light of the day or space one is in. A confidence to wear magic – and it is magic.

I am delighted when someone is passionate about what I do.