ConnieLene – KnitDesigner

Being a Wednesday, and a rest and recreation day for me – I thought I should look for a “W” project; little, sweet, easy, no brain required – and decided on a Wimple.

Wikipedia: The wimple is a garment of medieval Europe worn by women around the head.

It is a cloth which usually covers the head and is worn around the neck and chin. At many stages of medieval culture it was unseemly for a married woman to show her hair. A wimple might be elaborately starched, and creased and folded in prescribed ways, even supported on wire or wicker framing (cornette). Italian women abandoned their headcloths in the 15th century, or replaced them with transparent gauze, and showed their elaborate braids. Both elaborate laundry and elaborate braiding demonstrated status, in that such grooming was being performed by others.

So what can a wimple be on this wet, windy, wonderful & woolly Wednesday in Haarlem? A search on “Wimple knit” bought up quite a few hints, ideas, patterns and examples such as the following links.

Simple Wimple
Wrap turned Wimple
Gorgeous lace Wimple

AND then I remembered a “Wimple” or two that I had created back in early 2000s, not knowing at the time they were wimples. They were head and neck coverings, headgear I called them. There were a couple of others for which I do not have photos, so if you read this and you have one of my wimples – please send a photograph.

So today I am going to recreate my Wimple – I said simple, didn’t I – Mistake I think.

WoolOn™ Creative Fashion Event Oct 2010 is the creative fashion event of Central Otago, New Zealand. All the garments or outfits must be there by 15 September 2010. Yikes!

So I must go knit and knit and then knit some more as stuff posted from the Netherlands can take a long time to reach the New Zealand destination.

So you can see how they do Creative Fashion at WoolOn™ and if you are in New Zealand and intend attending then please take some photographs for me.

Do consider celebrating the arrival of spring as they do in the south at the Alexandra Blossom Festival, in Alexandra, Central Otago 24th September to 9th October 2010.

Laurel Judd was Supreme Award winner in 2009 at WoolOn.

Aug 17, 10:51pm

Will I dream the skirt stitch counts? k1 – 25, slip 1, k1, PSSO, k1-25, slip 1, k1, PSSO, k1, will it work like counting sheep? snore bizzzz

Aug 18, 10:42am

Skirt is still in progress – think about the lace, not sure yet if I will add it. Maybe the lack of time will influence the decision.

12:31pm

Brain dead in the knit dept today. Skirt is at crisis point – what to do?????? stop or go on ???

12:35pm

should I be tweeting, kweeting, kneeting, knieting, knitting? I think I should, I think I could, I think I will, I think I am KNITTING now!!

2:30pm

Skirt at 200 stitches, casting off, then I will check my brain & decide what next. Brain is a little strung out just now, need colour & drama!

7:40pm

Skirt is sitting on chair saying go on, do something, do something else, go on. So I did do something. I bought yarn at De Afstap in Amsterdam

10:19pm

Thinking of top part of this outfit. Is it really called that today? I don’t know. I am to create full deal – top to toe for the parade.

10.25pm

Top design loses, bed wins. Brain is shutting down. I was skyping NZ at 1.30am my time (NL) to talk with sister at 11.30am her time (NZ)

Aug 19, 9:19am

Pile of mags, internet, knit books, ideas file, friend Meredith in Adelaide, We have to design the perfect top to go with the perfect skirt.

From Connielene – NOT A TWEET: There will be no more pictures – as I do have to keep the lid on what I am creating. I will still tweet a little of course so there may be a further chapter in the story of Lake Hawea.

Tweets for the uninitiated – can be no more than 140 characters. If you take the trouble to count the tweet characters you will see that mine here are 140 or 141 or 142. What that means is that I have added a full stop, or a space when I added them to my blog – which I ignored when I tweeted to keep the piece within the 140 characters.

11 Aug:
Knitting a skirt with Touch Magic Merino for socks. Will knit at least 1000 metres or 1 kilometre & up to 1,350 metres as that is all I have.

12 Aug:
Skirt is a very short frilly number right now, what to do next. Struggling with the picture in my mind which is not appearing on the needles.

16 Aug:
Sock Yarn skirt – has reached 688 stitches – far toooo many I think.

Skirt for WoolOn at the Alexandra Blossom Festival

4.30pm: A skirt knitted with sock yarn takes a very long time.

10.18pm: I have just tried the skirt on my mannequin – and it is soooo short. Why am I knitting a fullish type skirt in a sock yarn???

10.19pm: Twas the colour of course – “Lake Hawea” I found it in Hastings Knit World while I was in NZ and I was smitten.

10.21pm: I bet Touch Yarns in Alexandra have the same colour in other yarns – where I could have been knitting this skirt on 4mm not on 3mm needles.

@colorjoy – Sockyarn makes a wonderful fabric. It has great drape, is washable, bounces back. Bet you’ll love the finished skirt.

@sewknitty – It’ll be gorgeous and you’ll forget the time (I hope lol)

to @colorjoy – Thank you, just the refocus I need, as it looks lovely, problem is it is for an event in NZ, I need to knit a top, too little time.

So it is back to the needles, but this is a twittering story or is that a story by tweets – there may be more tweets or twittering to come.

I hope the news will be all good – as right now I am not so confidant.

The skirt on my needles is being knit in the round from the waistband. The increases and now the decreases are being managed using the hyperbolic plane method. I have used this for increases many times now, but this is the first time I have used the concept for my decreases. It will be very interesting to see it a little further on as I am unsure just how it will hang. I hope it doesn’t add a twist to the skirt. BUT I will have to continue and wait with you to see the result.

I am knitting with Touch Magic Merino for Socks which is from Alexandra and WoolOn is included in the Alexandra Blossom Festival. It is such a pity that I will not see this skirt on the stage there.

It is jumping the gun a little – I have to finish it first, and then the top, and then the capelet and the beret, maybe. It depends on time really.

I will endeavour to keep you posted.