ConnieLene – KnitDesigner

But I have started a project – The Family Tree – trying to find my extensive family from all over the world. We are so widespread – over Denmark, New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands and the USA, and there may be other places to add where the family has or is still – such as a hint of link to France and there are some who may have gone to Sweden. Who knows what we will find out there.

I am still knitting – but the family tree has become a little obsessive – so this little post is to get me back on track.

So as I am looking at Danish things on the internet, that is the family connections and so on – What shall I do about my knitting – that is the question? I need to complete the knit projects that are on the needles – before I fly to New Zealand for a month very soon – like within 7 days even. Don’t I?

Well I could add some hints to things Danish in my knitting, like my Danish Shawls – to pull me back, to refocus me, couldn’t I?

And I could also list what needs to be done in the knitting part of my life again. I could, couldn’t I.

The trouble is the list is too long just now. Maybe I will have to take my knit obsession with me to New Zealand as well.

Now that could work.

I was wandering about the internet – which is remarkably easy to do – and I happened upon a blog I have not read before and there in was the challenge. Knit Sisters Blog – A year of knitting dangerously

Excerpt from the blog: and do follow the link above and read the rest. It is good reading.

Item 1 on the list is – Learn something new

…… However, there are a couple of techniques that I’d like to tackle this year: entrelac and twined knitting. These seem worthy goals. (Please do not unkindly point out that I have not included intarsia in this list; I feel that intarsia should not be asked of anyone.)

I will not be unkind regarding the exclusion of Intarsia.

I will however take umbrage at the vague suggestion that taking up intarsia as a challenge could be somehow “unworthy”

Now I really am in a state of distress, my heart is going crazy. How could any form of knitting be considered unworthy? If you had remained silent, I would never have know of your view with regard to Intarsia.

Below are some points for Intarsia knitting which I personally regard as an important item in the arsenal of any knitter – especially the freeform colour work.

It encourages freedom that other knitting experiences cannot match

It is a stash buster

It teaches one about colour

It reduces stress

It teaches one about yarns and how they work together

It teaches one that there is freedom in knitting

It is beautiful

It always creates a unique piece

And I do have to say it again – I really want everyone to play with intarsia.

I do have to confess, even though I have done so many times before – I do have other knitting skills to be learnt on my list as well, such as the knitting of socks – (still on my to do list for 2010, and they were there in 2009 as well, and I am sad to say I have 2 IOU’s for 2 pairs of hand knitted red socks, for Best Beloved and Son) – and if you take up the challenge to knit a piece of freeform intarsia, I will add Entrelac and twined knitting to my list for 2010.

So to Knit Sister – Sarah

Take up the challenge – Knit dangerously with Intarsia please

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.

The trend for C that I found was for capes or cloaks. Capes began to be fashionable again, or were still fashionable and in Vogue, in 2002. The hits on the Vogue Website to fashion shows which included capes showed 85 results over the 9 years (2002 to 2010). This year – there are 6 hits for summer trends and 8 for winter 2010 – 2011 so the average is under 9 a year, and this year there are 14 shows or designers with Capes in their shows so I am calling the C trend

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.

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!

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 know it is really peculiar.

Well it would be to our mothers; this chatting, writing, blogging, skyping and texting that we do in our world with all the technology that we have at our finger tips.

I am keeping my worldwide family aware of what I am doing using facebook and email, and have sent the link to my first double pointed needle attempt to my Danish cousins who live in America now, and who were in New Zealand as children.

It set me thinking – we need to know about our families, and there may be out there in this wide world many more people from the extended Rohde, Rode and Schrader family in New Zealand, America and Denmark who may not know that in the early years there were an abundance of us in New Zealand, and that we were all taught to cook, bake, knit, sew, garden and embroider by some, or all of the mothers.

The technology now enables us to keep track and to get to know one another again, where we once relied on our mothers to communicate by the hand writing of thousands of letters and sending them to and fro across the world. They are nearly all gone now – those mothers.

I know that all those very very strong women who emigrated to New Zealand, from Denmark, after the war, all had an impact on my interest in various creative forms from cooking, baking and gardening, to embroidery, crochet, and then knitting which has become my big big passion. I never did take to preserving, making jams and pickling cucumbers and there is one other skill that I never did master from those wonderful women and that was the knitting of socks.

All those great women knitted, sewed, embroidered and crocheted everything from dish cloths, hand towels, collars for our dresses, gloves, socks, and all those sweaters and hats and one can just go on and on about what they each did. They baked bread, made yeast buns which had such a delicious warm aroma – that made everyone come in from the fields to eat without even the tiniest call. Children came from everywhere. These mothers made cottage cheese, mayonnaise, pickled everything, bottled everything, and made fruit juice out of the skins of the fruits they had bottled. They stitched and gardened and cooked and still had times to read stories to us and to write letters, thousands of letters – to keep everyone informed. In short they were amazing.

I knit. I knit passsionately as they did, but they were sooo busy everyday that being a little flamboyant with yarns and so on would never ever have happened. Embroidery was the way to colour their lives.

I am so lucky. I am so lucky to have known these amazing women, my mother (mor), my aunts (Tante, Moster, Faster) and all their friends and latterly my mother-in-law. Without them I would not be me.

I am also lucky that I am able to communicate so easily, so readily, with my family using modern technology. What a long way we have come from letter writing to this. We are all so busy, or so we feel. Yet I think those women were really busy and they knew what was important – imparting knowledge, sharing skills, supporting each other and they were full time jobs and were valued and were valuable for the strength and safety of the community.

Anyway – this story all began because of my journey to create “Red Socks” with double pointed needles.

I have put it out there to my family using the technology (facebook), so I do have to add to my TO DO list here again. The RED SOCKS – the Sir Peter Blake Red Socks.

Now Best Beloved and our son requested these for Christmas last. They have an IOU as I haven’t even started these. I have knitted the fingerless gloves using double pointed needles – so I guess the socks will happen sometime, when I have the time to learn a new skill in knitting, if I can stop playing with the technology.