ConnieLene – KnitDesigner

and over the years she did knit and crochet hundreds of wash cloths, hand towels, dish washing cloths, floor cleaning cloths as well as baby booties, crocheted and knitted collars for us as children, knitted swim suits (believe it or not), cardigans, sweaters (jumpers, jerseys) and so on and on.

We all longed to be given a parcel of her cotton hand knitted or crocheted cloths as a birthday or christmas gift and we were all delighted if we visited and her pile was too large and we went home with some wonderful knitted cloths to add to our own collection.

My mother passed away 6 years ago. I no longer think of her every day, or miss her as absolutely as I did for some years after her death as so much has happened in those intervening years. My grandson started school, my father also passed away a year later, we moved to the Netherlands, my sister has a cancer that cannot be treated, I had an exhibition of my work in Auckland and so on and on.

But everytime I use one of her cloths for wiping the kitchen bench, or drying my hands I am reminded of her and I wish she was still here with us.

After her passing, we gathered and sorted her belongings and there was an enormous pile of cotton cloths she had been knitting and crocheted for Christmas and we shared them amongst the family. My mother had 7 children, 20 grand children and many great grand children. I have no idea how many cloths there were, but I do know they are in New Zealand, Australia and the Netherlands. And for all of us who use these precious cloths we are reminded of where we came from, who we are and what is important.

I do have an old grainy black and white photo of myself in one of her very dreadful knitted swimsuits – it is in New Zealand and I will post it some time so you can see. It was dreadful not because it was bad knitting but because as soon as you were wet the crutch was at the knees and it was an impossible thing to wear with any degree of style or aplomb. Not that style was an issue back then, but the thing was bloody uncomfortable.

If you are considering “knitting in the round” these are the advantages as I see them.

Knitted in the round from bottom up.

Advantages:

1. No purling – you are always knitting on the right side, so unless you are ribbing or creating a pattern which requires purl stitches on the right side then you do not need to purl.

2. Little or no seaming / finishing

3. May use less yarn if the pattern is altered from a flat or pieced pattern. When altering a flat or pieced pattern one can reduce a stitch at each side of the body front and back – reducing the yarn required but not the finished size.

4. Speed – knit stitch is faster and your knitting rhythm works to your advantage.

5. Great knitting for watching a favourite TV program.

6. Less seaming is better for a knitted piece – it will rest better on the body without stresses and strains of a seam.

7. You can design as you knit. You can adjust length and shape as as you go.

8. You do not need to check that front and back pieces match exactly. Place a marker at the begining of the first row and you will always know exactly where you are and where to measure.

9. Using circular needles means that a large garment rests in your lap and not on the needles and your arms.

10. A garment can be altered – lengthened or shortened for another wearer later by unravelling and knitting down as required.

Disadvantage:

1. Boring knitting – Sweater done in knit stitch in the round can be boring.

2. Pieced or flat knitting is easier to create if starting with a sewing pattern.

Folk knitting was originally created circularly and seaming was very minimal so Knitting in the Round has been the “norm” in many cultures.

think tubes

Socks, arm warmers, body warmers, leg warmers, corsets, skirts, ponchos, cowls, hoods, boob tubes, etc and the leap to knitting a whole garment in the round occurs when one joins the knitted or crocheted tubes to create the desired garment.

Gallery of Examples of My “Knitting in the Round”

In New Zealand in my early knitting and designing days I was totally unaware of the movement toward knitting in the round as reintroduced to the US by Elizabeth Zimmerman. I was a busy young mother and wanted to finish my garment when I had completed the knitting whereever possible and so I worked on achieving that.

Fashion shaping may have been the impetus for creating flat pieces and joining them. I have worked on shaping my pieces when knitting in the round. The other area I have worked on is knitting a waistcoat, cardigan or jacket or sweater in one piece to the underarm or from cuff to cuff – again to reduce seaming requirements but that will have to be another post.

And then of course there is also top down knitting and steeks and ……

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.

But HOW to create a Knitted piece to cover a Haarlem Ball – or other spherical object – that is the question?

You need to know the size of your sphere – ball. My first one was 150cm plus a handspan (my handspan).

I began with 8 stitches, increased to 320 stitches by increasing 8 times on every 4th round (more or less). I knitted this on a circular needle and circularly – entirely appropriate for a circular object.

I used 8 ply or double knit yarn on 4mm needles. The length from the top point to 320 stitches should be around 80cm. I have knitted the last of the top section of about 10 cm in k1p1 rib to help the cover to cling well. It is not a good look to have a baggy saggy ball warmer. There is a bit of give and take – because I didn’t knit this first half with only 8 ply (DK) yarns – I included mohair and faux fur fibres and some cotton yarns. So I needed to measure the piece for length as I knitted and adjust the increases and I will have to do the same when I do the decreases. SO this is not a formal pattern – this is a “suck it and see” piece of knitting.

Decreasing will be the increasing process in reverse – except that I will end up with around 32 stitches because the bottom half doesn’t present the full sphere to you as it is set in concrete. This half will still be created on a circular needle, but is not longer knitted circularly otherwise it will not fit over the ball. So back and forth from the centre down (more or less). I will knit the bottom half in garter stitch to assist it to join more easily – it is awkward to join the ball warmer together as I found with the first Haarlem Ball Warmer. I think I will use velcroe on this one – so that it can be joined more easily and removed more easily. It could then live another day as something else maybe.

There are lots of balls to alter however temporarily here in Haarlem, and also in Maastricht, so maybe they are everywhere in the Netherlands and I have received reports of very large balls in California.

It has taken me a long time to write “My dad had Alzheimers”.

My dad was amazing, father of 7 children, sailed the world in the boat he outfitted himself, leaving New Zealand for Denmark at age 65, returning at age 67. He was fit, active, strong and he had Alzheimer’s.

He could never understand why I knitted, when I could just buy, and why I made my sauces and gravies from scratch instead of from a packet. Now I would answer – because it keeps my brain cells healthy and functional – I hope. And also as he always knew – because I could never not knit.

Since he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s we have all learned a lot about this disease from various sources other than watching his struggles.

One thing I have learned is that knitting may help protect one from Alzheimer’s – so I will keep on knitting because if it will help protect me from what he had to go through, then I shall knit forever. There is no way I want to realise how my life has changed and how little control I have over it – in those early stage Alzheimer’s more lucid moments.

So I keep on knitting – and I have been knitting Alzheimer brain cells – I have created 2 so far, using knitted I-cords. I am not sure I will ever photograph these, but I do look at them and I am reminded that knitting might help protect from Alzheimer’s.

I shall keep on knitting.