ConnieLene – KnitDesigner

The Yarn Blues in a Wintery Wonderland

This sweater was created for an exhibition held in Whangarei, New Zealand in September 2002. It was created with many different colours (mainly blues) and various yarn types. The main yarn used was mohair which meant the sweater was warm and light to wear.

The body was knitted in the round to the underarm and the sleeves were knitted as flat pieces. The yoke or top section was knitted in the round with raglan shaping all the while maintaining the striping around the whole piece.

I have created many sweaters this way. Originally I knitted sweaters or jumpers with raglan sleeves with the yoke section as as one flat piece, with a seam required to close the last raglan seam at the back of the sweater. I never quite liked the look of the completed piece – with the one seam and one day it hit me that there was just no need for that seam. I was already knitting the body and the neck border in the round, I just had to think a little outside the square to jump to knitting the whole top section in the round and it makes finishing quicker and easier, and the garment was better to wear without that seam.

I would have loved access to some of the marvellous books out there at the time I was working from knitting everything in flat individual pieces to knitting them in as few sections or pieces as possible. But I got there.

My Best Beloved was gifted this sweater and did not have any real occasion to wear it until we travelled to Europe in 2005. Somewhere on that journey the sweater was left behind. So if anyone out there has seen this lost sweater it would be cool if we could received a photo of the new owner wearing this much loved sweater. Best Beloved has many sweaters and although each does take a reasonable amount of work to create especially pieces such as this which cannot be recreated exactly we are happy if someone else is enjoying it now.

This type of knitting with many yarns in stripes is great for stash busting. We all have those left over lengths of yarn in favourite colours and they will work together well.

Mardi Gras, Colour, and the Hidden was the focus of The Yvonne Rust Gallery’s “Gumbo Ya-Ya”. The exhibition was curated by Melanie FerDon, Trina Garratt and me. “Gumbo Ya-Ya” is a New Orleans Creole colloquialism that means a Little Bit of Everything.

Gumbo Ya Ya Exhibition

Link to Knitty.com to help you create your own sweater pattern the author is © 2004 Julie Theaker; and you too can knit your sweater in the round with much less finishing.

Thank you Meredith for the photograph.

Exhibitions include the following:

• WoolOn Creative Fashion Event, Alexandra, New Zealand – October 2010
• WoolOn Creative Fashion Event, Alexandra, New Zealand – October 2009
• Alpaca Exposition 2009 – Fielding, New Zealand September 2009
• Colour Play Exhibition at the Randolph St Gallery – Whitecliffe School of Fine Arts & Design. September 2007
  My unique knit designs on the gallery walls alongside the work of BFA Fashion design students from Whitecliffe. The Vogue Knitting Tour of Australia and New Zealand 2007, hosted by Nicky Epstein attended.
• “Gumbo Ya-Ya” 2002 – This was an exciting multi-media exhibition of paintings, sculpture and knit garments, held at the Yvonne Rust Gallery, The Quarry, in Whangarei, Northland, New Zealand.
• New Zealand Spinning, Weaving and Woolcrafts Society Exhibition held at Victoria University, Wellington
• The Great New Zealand Cloak -1992 Certificate of Merit: Judged by Lucy Goffin, Textile Artist, Great Britain
• Leather and Wool to Wear – 1992
• Wool to Wear – 1991
• N.Z. Wool Capital Fashion Design – 1990 Nominated: The Peter Dunkerly / Woolrest Knitwear in Fashion Award Exhibition at the Century Theatre, Napier
• The Wearable Art Collection
• The Fashion Parade – 1989 – My work was included in an exhibition and parade in Orewa, New Zealand, followed by a parade in Honolulu. All the artists and designers were from Rodney District, north of Auckland.