Knititude

Happy Chinese New Year!

A few weeks ago I finally finished my Year of the Monkey design, the Shadow Monkey Hat-- just in time for the end of the year. Now that we've entered the Year of the Rooster, I've started thinking about what to create for this year's design. For me it will do double duty as a nod to my last name, Hahn, which means rooster in German.  

Although I've done several stranded designs in past years (Sheep, Horse and Rabbit), I try to mix it up a bit, doing lace one year (Year of the Dragon) and cables another (Year of the Snake), and I've tried not to simply translate a picture of the animal into knitting every time. For the Sheep/Goat/Ram project I did a fairly abstract representation of a ram's head, made into a border; for the Horse project I used the Chinese character for horse. For the Shadow Monkey Hat, I tried several different motifs before choosing the one I derived from the "Barrel of Monkeys" game, even though it didn't look like the monkeys usually depicted in artwork celebrating the Year of the Monkey. (Nor did I use the bright primary colors found in the game, preferring the slightly sinister effect of dark monkeys marching in rank...I suppose you could add wings if you really wanted to get scary.)

So I'm thinking about doing something more abstract for the Year of the Rooster; whenever I look at rooster photos, I find myself focusing on the gorgeous iridescent feathers. This led me to wonder whether there was an iridescent yarn, or a variegated yarn that imitated that effect, that I could use in my design. In just a few minutes of Googling, I found Tahki Tandem yarn (above), which is a blend of different fibers and has an iridescent sheen, and Manos del Uruguay Wool Clasica Space Dyed (below), which is 100% worsted wool.

So now I'll have to think further about how I could incorporate an iridescent-effect yarn into a rooster-themed knitting pattern. Fun, fun!

(Top photo found here.)

 

Colubrida Wrap

The Colubrida Wrap pattern appeared in the Interweave special issue Enchanted Knits 2014: Knits Fit for a Fairy Tale. The submission call for this issue, sent out in late 2013, stated:

    Be inspired by the generations who have imagined magical worlds filled with fairies and elves, spindles that can hop, skip, and jump, talking mirrors and magical handkerchiefs, witches and wizards, ghosts and giants, flying mortar and pestles and magical combs, and heroic journeys out into the world and within oneself.  

As it happened, I had recently been working on snake-themed ideas, since 2013 was the Chinese Year of the Snake. I had already completed the Nerodia Cardigan for Babies and Children and the Nerodia Cardigan for Women (above), but I had another idea that I liked, for a wrap that incorporated a snake motif. I had found the undulating lace stitch pattern in a Japanese stitch dictionary, and fiddled with it to create a head at one end and a tail at the other. I thought that this design would fit well with the theme of the magazine, and sent the submission into the editors with this description:

    “Colubrida” is the family name for many common snake genuses. Snakes have been featured in many different mythologies as a symbol of power, whether good or evil; I like to think of the serpent within this design as a sort of guardian, wrapped protectively around the wearer."

Above is a photo of the swatches I sent in with the submission, with the head end on the left, and below is a photo of the finished pattern sample, showing the snake's head (on the left) and tail (on the right). If you are feeling the urge to make one for yourself, the pattern is also available as a kit, with yarn included! (At the time of writing this post, the kit was "on sale," from $130.49 to $129.00-- a savings of a little over 1%. Not sure what that's about.)

 

It was fun to look through the magazine and see some of the other fanciful knits; three of my favorites, pictured below, were: Maleficent's Cloak by Vicki Square, the Hunger for Rampion Pullover by Jennifer Hagan, and the Honest Woodsman Pullover by Kathleen Danes. You don't often see a man with an ax in photos of knitwear! (Top photo and the three photos below are courtesy of Interweave Press.)

 

After this magazine was published and the sample was returned to me, I draped it on the mannequin in my office, and noticed one day that the head of the snake bears a passing resemblance to, well, a certain part of male anatomy. So I'm going to modify the pattern to remove one of the eyes from the head end, add a couple of pompoms to the tail end, call it the One-Eyed Trouser Snake Wrap, and offer said pattern in a kit with flesh-toned yarn... April Fool's! (I figured that anyone who reads this far at least deserves a laugh.)
 

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While updating my website, I realized that the five designs I mentioned in my last post were not the only ones that I have not yet blogged about. Add to those the Plumage Wrap and Zephirine Cardigan (both from Interweave Knits Spring 2014), AND several of my self-published designs: the Amphorae Shawl, the Nerodia Cardigan for Women, and the Fiamma hot water bottle cover.

Since there are so many, I'm not going to go chronologically, but instead pick the one that I feel most like blogging about at this moment, and that is... the Nerodia Cardigan for Women.

Like the Nerodia Cardi for Babies and Children, I created this design in honor of the Chinese Year of the Snake (2013), and the repeat for the snake bodies is the same. I also used garter stitch edgings (pun intended) and snap closures for both. But after that, these designs diverge: on the version for women, the snakes adorn the yoke, not the lower body. In addition, two of the three snake heads overlap the other front and actually form part of the front closure, so I reworked those heads to be 3D (a fun part of the design process!). I also moved the tails, to make room for these heads to fit between them when the cardigan fronts are fastened.

The snake band is worked sideways for both cardis, with the two 3D snake heads added after the rest of the band stitches have been bound off. Stitches for the body are then picked up from the long edge of the band, but unlike the Baby/Child version, the body and sleeves are worked down (body flat, and sleeves in the round). Decreases shape the curved front hems. For the upper yoke, stitches are picked up from the other long edge of the snake band, and rapid decreases follow the contours of the shoulders, ending in a garter stitch neckband. The front and hem edging is added in finishing, and snap closures are sewn on (you can see them in the above photo). And don't forget the snake eyes and tongues!  

I really love the Madelinetosh Tosh DK yarn I used for this project; it's a pleasure to knit with and holds up well, and the Filigree colorway, a lightly variegated mix of greens, golds and a bit of blue, is a wonderful match for the design. In fact, after this colorway was chosen for the Arc & Line Cowl in knit.wear Fall 2012, I liked it so much that I used it again (held doubled) for the Rockweed Cowl.

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