ConnieLene – KnitDesigner

This creation is no long available – BUT the style can be re created.

It is a unique piece due to the way the colours and yarns are used, therefore it cannot ever be repeated exactly.

It was created with many many different vibrant and gorgeous pinks in many many different yarns. The yarns have been knitted using short lengths, in simple intarsia and stripes. I carefully weave in the ends as I go, to reduce the finishing required once the knitting is completed.

The Jacket was knitted from the bottom to the shoulders in one piece including the lapels.

A pattern for the Sleeveless Jacket will become available soonish. It will not include the specifics of how this was created – the yarns and colours, line by line, it will include information on playing with simple freeform intarsia on a pattern.

I Love Colour
I Love Colour Work
I love Intarsia
I love playing with colour in my creations

So you are not sure about how to proceed with adding colour to your work?

Cheat a little

Don’t knit a picture in intarisa
Don’t knit with a design in mind

Do knit with a colour theme
Do knit with an abstract free form kind of freedom

go with the flow of the yarns you have to hand and this is especially easy if you have variegated, self striping or oddments of various thickness, colour or texture in your yarn stash. This is stash busting 101.

You can add colour to your knitting with the help of those yarns – whatever they are – be they variegated, self-striping, or two or more different colours of yarn knitted together. Let the yarns do the work and take away some of the guesswork and planning to add the colour to your knitting. Simple intarsia or stripes with these yarns adds excitement and drama to whatever you are creating. Whatever you create this way cannot be repeated ever. You will create a unique piece.

Self-Striping Yarn:

Creating with a self-striping yarn is an easy way to add colour and drama to your knitting as the yarn changes colours for you. These are great for knitters who want to add colour to their work, but are not yet confident about choosing and knitting with many yarns as in intarsia, or on deciding on a colour range.

When I am creating with self striping or variegated yarns I often use a solid for my bands. But I may change to a range of solids – one colour each for the two wristbands and the bottom edge as well as another colour for the neck edge. Or I will use black or brown for every band or edge but I will cast on with the coloured yarn. Either way it produce a unique piece and the effect is wonderful.

The garment or piece created with a self striping yarn will most likely have colour changes that line up more or less in stripes along the piece. The stripes will be deeper on a narrower section of knitting such as the sleeves and thinner on the body or wider section of the knitting.

But you can still play – You could choose two or more self striping yarns or one complimentary solid along with the one or more complimentary self striping yarns and create a unique piece by doing free form intarsia with only two or three yarns.

Self-striping yarn can be used with any stitch, but depending on your design wish, the stripes can display more clearly with a Stocking Stitch (Stockinette Stitch), or reverse Stocking Stitch project. But this is colour work – and any stitch or pattern that that you like and enjoy is perfect. There are simply no rules in this. Just Play.

Working with Multiple Strands:

Knitting with two or more strands of yarn together is another way to add colour, drama, magic, individuality, uniqueness and texture to a project.

There may be some technical management issues for you when knitting two or more strands together – that is the yarn will tend to twist and tangle – NOTE that it does not adversely affect the finished knitting and there are ways to reduce the problem should it drive you crazy.

You can wind the yarns together in a ball, or feed the individual yarns from a separate ziploc bag. Or you could go with the flow of the knitting – you are playing with colour after all, and you are creating a unique piece – SO be brave – Break the yarn, add another colour and continue knitting. Wind the tangled yarn back to the ball it came from and add it to the knitting again later.

Variegated or Multi coloured yarn:

I love variegated yarns – and I love the surprises one gets as the knitting progresses.

Variegated or Multi coloured yarn can create colour pooling which may be an issue depending on your view of it. You could also call it a design feature and just take advantage of it.

Colour pooling is a bit unpredictable. Manage it by changing the yarn when you can see that you are developing a pool – for example: The colour red has a couple of sections/rows together – so break the yarn when you are back at the red section. Reattach at the red point on the yarn to be knitted so that the Red pool becomes bigger – and a design feature. You will have a short section of yarn of other colours – keep it and you will find somewhere else to add this into your knitting. Weave in the yarn ends as you go.

Add Swiss darning over your knitted stitches, when you have completed the piece – to alter the way the colour looks either by making the pool of colour larger or by adding another colour to distract from the pool if you do not like the effect.

Include slip stitches to break up a block of colour – the slipped stitch colour then shows in the next row – breaking the colour section of the new row.

Free form design on Beret

Add a Stripe where you do not want the colour to pool, or insert a two row stripe of another colour every 4 or 6 rows of the varigated yarn knitting.

You can also work from the centre and the outside of the same yarn ball to knit two rows with from the inside and two from the outside.

or do what I do – call it a design feature whatever happens.

It is your project, do what feels right for you.

Trust your own instincts

and Play with Colour

Just now it is not easy to find something to tell you about.

Maybe this is called Writer’s Block
Maybe it is called Designer’s Block
Maybe it is called Knitter’s Block
Maybe it is Ball Withdrawal Block
Maybe it is just called Blockety Block

Whatever it should be called in my case – I do believe I have a big case of whatever it is just now.

I am knitting – slowly.
I am thinking about new designs all the time – but slowly.
I am quietly frustrated trying to slowly complete those creations that I told you I was knitting.

So yet another to do list

1. mohair shell sample
2. 100% wool shell sample
3. finish and photograph the carbon footprint bag
4. publish the carbon footprint shadow knitting graph
5. complete and publish the pattern for the sleeveless jacket in English
6. translate the pattern for the sleeveless jacket into Danish
7. maybe translate the pattern for the sleeveless jacket into Norwegian maybe
8. finish black ball cover
9. decide where and when to install black and white ball covers
10. Intarsia E-book or print book planning
11. I may be thinking about knit kits (thank you Constance for bringing that up)
12. I may also be thinking about cloaks again (thank you Constance for bringing that up as well)
13. I may be thinking about the Alexandra Blossom Festival committee invitation to participate in the WoolOn Creative Fashion Event of the 2010
14. I may be thinking about the Fibre and Fleece Exhibition
15. I am NOT thinking about creating for either event while I am in New Zealand
16. I may be thinking about “King of the Mountain” run/walk in NZ on the first Sunday in July

And I am planning a trip to New Zealand to see our very special small person (grandson), our daughter, my courageous Mother In law, and family and friends – and that seems more important than everything and anything else just now.

Maybe that is the cause of the blockety block.

Because this a state of Blockety block – or is that Blankety Blank – if I have forgotten anything then please please remind me, thanks.

And in case it occurred to you, the Constance mentioned above is not me, myself and I. My name is really Connie Lene and not not Constance.

Oh, and did you pick up that my Norwegian is not as good as my Danish, which is certainly not as good as my English.

I created a series of Jackets – sleeveless and with sleeves for the “Colour Play” exhibition in late 2007. I have had requests for the pattern without sleeves, and I will write the pattern and make it available for purchase. My personal knitting shorthand is not easily understood by others. I have been asked to provide this pattern in Danish (possible), and in Norwegian (may not be so easy).

These jackets were all created from the one basic pattern – more or less. The body of each jacket is knitted in one piece from the bottom edge, including the shawl collar to the shoulders. The basic pattern will be produced in English, Danish and maybe Norwegian.

More photos in my Jacket album on Facebook You will be able to see the various well shaped even fitting jackets or waistcoasts that I created, including more photos of the Blokes Smoking (not a PC name, I know) jacket, which is not fitting at all, but it did develop from the same basic pattern idea. I will create the Smoking Jacket pattern separately as it is quite different – even though the base was the same. It was called the smoking jacket because it was a bit of decadence, a mohair jacket for a man.

I am not sure yet, but I might redo the pattern in double knit (8 ply) as well as in the original bulky (12ply) creation. The originals were each knitted with 2 yarns together, most in very simple Intarsia.

The cuddly, lushious, almost opulent (maybe the words are too much for a blokes jacket – but it seemed to me to be all of these things) Smoking Jacket, is actually knitted in stripes and rib. The stripes are loose – the jacket is knitted in rib – which swaps direction at a colour change in one of the yarns as well as being striped with another yarn colour change. I might need to be more formal with that option as well.

Anyway you get the idea – the pattern will be knitted from the bottom, it will be in one piece including the shawl collar. I will create a pattern for the bulky (12ply) option first, and then I may well redo it in 8ply or DK – depending on interest. So if you have an opinion — do let me know please. Either in facebook or here, thanks.

Creative Coverings I have created and added to the Creative Coverings Photo Album on my Facebook Business Page.

If you are new to Intarsia you may have questions that I could answer which will help you with what you are creating now. Those questions may also give me additional ideas on what should be included in my Intarsia book.

I have started a topic “Intarsia Knitting”, on my Facebook business page under the tab Discussions requesting questions and queries on Intarsia knitting.

The book, which has no name as yet, will cover the skills of knitting using the Intarsia method from working with a basic graph to how I work in the free form way.

It will cover the technical aspects – geared to a learning Intarsia knitter and develop the skills in increments from graph, geometric to free form, over a range of projects. The project patterns will be included. So far projects include a small wall hanging, a sweater, and a jacket.

This is an important project for me – and it has been rummaging around in my head for a long time. Now is the time for me to make it happen. Please join me on the ride as we can all benefit from each others skills, interests, and especially queries.

This will be a great knitting day – I am discarding my Haarlem Ball Project, as without balls there can be no project (that is the news today)

It is a real pity because I was planning a Delft intarsia or fair isle piece, and an orange piece in preparation for Queens Day.

So back to real work today

Knitting, Designing, Colour, Yarn, Abstract ideas, Thinking, Ball Warmers.
Writing, Colour, Intarsia, E-book, Carbon Footprint, Beret’s, Intarsia Jacket, Pattern for Ravelry, Thinking,
Ball Warmers.

It is not as if I have nothing to do.

I have been trying to add pattern information and links on Ravelry – and have decided that it is in the too hard basket. Fortunately the pattern link I was trying to add is neither of those I have promised to add.

The pattern was to be my Vertical Asia Crossover Jacket – which I was going to make available free. Should it ever be there I will be very glad.

This is a pattern which can be used to reduce some of that stash. In my example I used 6 different colours, mainly mohair but all yarns that knitted up at 12 st / 19 rows for 10cm. If you want this pattern please contact me using form below and I will send you the PDF.

In the meantime my Carbon Footprint bag and Kiwi Cape Patterns will have to wait until I get my brain in order so I can unravel the process on Ravelry to make them available to you. I am sure it can be done as many have before me, but today the braincells are struggling. It must be all the snow we have had here in Haarlem. I am too cold and the brain doesn’t work.

So it is back to the knitting and I will update on progress as there is any.

Please email me using the contact form stating in the subject field that you would like a copy of the pdf file of my Vertical Asia Crossover Jacket pattern.

I have just looked at my pile, no, my mountain of UFO’s. So the sweater or jacket will have to wait until the new year. In the meantime I am finishing my unfinished pieces.

3 x Danish Shawls
4 x Moebius scarves
6 x Capes requiring buttons, trims, etc
1 x large bed cover – Christmas present
and 2 pairs of red socks to be created by Christmas – and I have not started them as yet, and they are orders, family orders but still orders.
and 2 hats to be created for 2 boys – also Christmas presents
and 1 cardigan to be completed which could be a Christmas present. It was indirectly a request, and the colours were chosen in April, and I started knitting it then – but it is too stripey in design as per request, and I am not in love with it. I love the colours, I just cannot get into these stripes – too formal, not challenging, not interesting but I shall venture on, maybe add some other colours, maybe slip in some intarsia or even try some fair Isle.

The big thing is that my very own magically coloured, intarstia knit, free form, creation, in many yarns, is not going to get a look in for a while.

I have never never made, knitted, created a pair of socks before either – too many challenges and not enough time.