The Official Colours of Fall 2016

Where do colours come from? By that I mean, how do designers and manufacturers of clothes, paint, furniture, appliances, cars, flags, lipstick, nail polish, and, yes, yarn, decide on the colours they will use? The Pantone Color Institute helps them by standardizing colours across industries so Pantone 2985C (Sky Blue to you and me) will be the same shade on a website as it is in a can of paint. 

In addition to the "Color of the Year" for every season, every year, Pantone releases its picks for top colours....and these often include new colours (six this time). There are over 2300 Pantone colours. 

So, enough preamble...if you like being on trend when it comes to the colours you choose for knitting projects, have a look at the 10 colours Pantone has identified for this fall. Now you know why you'll likely see, for example, a lot of mustard and green in fall clothes. 

The colour report is here, and an article on the colours from Women's Wear Daily is here. 

Tech Talk With Jude Skeers #9 - Intarsia

Here is the last Tech Talk from Jude Skeers who will be our Knitter-In-Residence in one week! So exciting.

As noted in the first Tech Talk article (posted January 15, 2015) he has sent these articles to Roisin to be shared with us. 

The article was first published in the Australian magazine Yarn which you can see at the store.

Intarsia Knitting

By Jude Skeers

What we know today as Intarsia knitting became hugely popular in the 1980’s. When the Princess of Wales was photographed wearing Jenny Kee’s Koala motif jumper hand knitters flocked to create what at the time was commonly referred to as picture knitting. Before this popularity, Intarsia technique in hand knitting was used in limited styles as in Argyle and a feature in children’s garments. It took someone very famous to launch intarsia as a ‘must-have’ adult knitting fashion.

The word Intarsia is derived from Italian, which according to Wikipedia is “an elaborate form of marquetry using inlays in wood, especially as practised in 15th-century Italy.” Richard Rutt, in the Historical Glossary appendix in A History of Hand Knitting, (1987), writes, “Intarsia 1863. An Italian term for decorative wood inlay; 1957 applied to multicoloured flat knitting in which a separate strand is used for each colour area, the fabric being held together by twisting the two yarns at every colour change, without stranding or weaving on the wrong side of the fabric.” 1957 is the year referenced  in the Oxford English Dictionary. However, the term wasn’t used widely in publication until the 1980’s.

An intriguing aspect when researching Intarsia hand knitting is the lack of reference to it among the major knitting book writers. Mary Thomas who wrote, two reference books, in the 1930’s makes no reference to Intarsia technique. Barbara Walker in the 1960’s and 1970’s wrote seven books on hand knitting including three in her ‘Treasury of Knitting Patterns’ series without including Intarsia.

Authors writing after 1980 began to include the term, Intarsia. Montse Stanley Knitter’s Handbook (2001), originally published as The Handknitter’s Handbook (1986) gave a detailed description, “Intarsia. Also called geometric, tartan, collage or patchwork knitting. A technique used for working totally independent blocks of colour, as in large geometrical arrangements and ‘picture knitting’”. A more detailed description of the technique came with Kaffe Fassett in his first knitting book, Glorious Knitting, (1985). He distinguished the technique of Intarsia from stranded knitting: “Intarsia, where colours are knitted in place and knitting-in where they are carried across the back of the work and either stranded or woven in. Intarsia method creates a single thickness fabric whereas knitting-in creates a double or triple thickness depending on the number of colours in the row.”

Liz Gemmell was one of the Australian knitwear designers who created Intarsia patterned garments in the 1980’s. In her book Knitting for the home (1991), she uses the title Picture Knitting when detailing the technique, but writing in the description “... this method, also called intarsia.” This suggests that term Intarsia wasn’t being widely used in Australia. Liz was one of a group of Australian designers including Jenny Kee, Ruth Fitzpatrick, Michael Glover, Jenni Dudley, Robyn Malcom, Ken Killeen and Yolanda Chommley Smith. They were known for their use of brightly coloured motifs, many of them with a distinctive Australian flavour.

Tech Talk With Jude Skeers #8 - Slip Stitch & Mosaic Knitting

Yes, the Tech Talks by Jude Skeers are coming faster...because his time with us is coming close fast!
Here is #8 in the series...As noted in the first Tech Talk article (posted January 15, 2015) he has sent these articles to Roisin to be shared with us. 

The article was first published in the Australian magazine Yarn which you can see at the store.

Slip-Stitch and Mosaic Knitting

By Jude Skeers

Slip-Stitch knitting is usually grouped with stranded knitting, Fair Isle, Intarsia and other techniques of colour stitch manipulation. While coloured Slip-Stitch designs have a similar appearance to stranded knitting, which uses two or more yarns in each row, Slip-Stitch has only one yarn in each row and could be seen as the lazy knitters approach to coloured knitting.

Along with ribs and moss stitch, Slip-Stitch is one of the basic knitting patterns. The technique requires slipping one or more stitches between knit and purl stitches. Slip-Stitch motifs are not attributed to any particular knitting tradition. Writing in her 1943 book of knitting patterns, Mary Thomas describes the technique:

“Slip-Stitch Motifs are very simple, but they make the most effective patterns, and permit of a pretty ply in yarn movements. The method consists of slipping a stitch from the left to right needle without knitting it, while carrying the yarn either behind or before the stitch so slipped.”

Mary Thomas uses the term ‘Slip-Stitch Motif’ when the stitch is slipped to the back of the fabric creating a vertical pattern; when the stitch is slipped to the front of the fabric a horizontal pattern is generated which she calls ‘Stranded-Slip Motifs’.

The simple technique of slipping stitches opens the way for a multitude of possible variations and permutations. Many patterns have been published with this uncomplicated concept. Stitches can be slipped to the back or front of the work. The number of stitches to be slipped can vary as can the number of rows that a stitch is slipped over.

Single coloured Slip-Stitch motifs are used where the design is about texture, for example to create a ladder or herringbone effect; using more than one coloured yarn puts the emphasis on the variations in colour. Montse Stanley in her 1982 book Creating & Knitting Your Own Design for a Perfect Fit emphasises that slipping stitches is always done purlwise. She points out that a woven look is achieved when the strands are slipped on the right side.

When working with slip-stitch it is good to remember that the technique will tighten the fabric, although the knitted fabric is not as dense as a fabric knitted with stranded knitting using two or more yarns in a single row.

The use of the term Mosiac Knitting for Slip-Stitch motifs can be attributed to Barbara Walker, first used in her ‘Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns’ published in 1970.  Most authors, although not all, have credited the title to her. In her first book, ‘Treasury of Knitting Patterns’ (1986), Walker had a stack of single and multiple colour Slip-Stitch patterns with no particular name. In her Second Treasury, she calls “sophisticated designs in slip-stitch color knitting” Mosaic knitting. In the introduction to the chapter, Mosaic Patterns, which included over forty patterns, she points out that once the slip-stitch technique has been mastered any number of patterns can be created. “Mosaic knitting features a technique of the utmost simplicity and an application as broad as human ingenuity itself.”

Barbara Walker’s 1972 ‘Charted Knitting Designs’ also has a chapter titled “Mosaic Patterns” consisting of over fifty multiple two coloured slip-stitch designs, predominately geometric. In each of her book Walker increased the number and variety of her Slip-Stitch patterns leading to the publishing in 1986 of her definitive book ‘Mosaic Knitting’.

In the introduction to ‘Mosaic Knitting’ Walker writes “Mosaic knitting is a new term in the knitting vocabulary. It describes a novel development in color-knitting techniques and a whole new class of patterns, each different from any pattern that has ever been used before. The term was coined, and the patterns of this class have been invented by the author of this book.”

Most wide-ranging books on knitting, whether they be encyclopaedias, treasuries, essential guides or handbooks, include a section on slip-stitch and mosaic knitting. There are many excellent recent publications with coloured slip-stitch motifs, including ‘Colorwork for the Adventurous Knitter’ (2012), by Lori Ihnen, which is excellent for the knitters wanting to start experimenting with this technique. For the more experienced knitter, ‘Pop Knitting’ (2012) by Britt-Marie Christoffersson is recommended. ‘The Essential Guide to Color Knitting Techniques’ (2008) by Margaret Radcliffe has an extensive range of slip-stitch patterns.

Tech Talk With Jude Skeers #7 - Fair Isle

Here's another fascinating "Tech Talk" article from Jude. He doesn't mention this, but Fair Isle is a real place, an island in the Shetland group, way off the north coast of Scotland. If you're a mystery fan, you may have read Ann Cleeves excellent Shetland series in which her main character, Jimmy Perez, is from Fair Isle.

Fair Isle: What’s in a Name

Jude Skeers

Knitting with two or more colour yarns dates to the earliest times of hand knitting. An example of this was a child’s sock from between 400-600 AD, that was found on a site in Egypt. Coloured knitting comes in a variety of techniques, including stripes, slipped stitch, intarsia, double knitting, embroidery and coloured stranded knitting.

While Fair Isle and Scandinavian are the best known of the coloured traditions, most knitting cultures have developed their own style and patterns. They can be found in regions around the world: the Andes in South America, the Cowichan/Salish in Canada, Albania and Bulgaria in the Balkans, Arabia, Egypt and most European countries.

Fair Isle patterns and garments were popularised in the 1920’s after the Prince of Wales played golf at St Andrews wearing a Fair Isle jumper. According to Richard Rutt in A History of Hand Knitting (1987) Fair Isle become part of the Jazz age. He wrote, “Since then Fair Isle has never gone out of fashion. Today almost any multicoloured knitting is called Fair Isle.”  The practice of using Fair Isle as a generic term was well established by 1938 when the American author Mary Thomas wrote  “Colour knitting in spite of its long and glorious past has become universally known as Fair Isle."

The English author James Norbury wrote in 1962, “...although there is a tendency to call all forms of colour knitting ‘Fair Isle Knitting’, to do so is quite fallacious.” American author Barbara Walker wrote in 1968, “This type of knitting is generically termed Fair Isle knitting, although such a general application of the term is decidedly inaccurate.” The use of Fair Isle as a generic term is the reality, despite the best efforts of writers such as Norbury and Walker, the main problem being that many knitting writers perpetuate the fallacy.

Another interesting aspect of the shift in meaning has been the use of terms such as Mock Fair Isle and Fair Isle Technique. Pam Dawson in The Encyclopedia of Knitting (1984) writes “Mock Fair Isle knitting, on the other hand, is as new as the technology which made random-dyed yarn possible. The use of one random-coloured yarn to replace several yarns in contrasting colours is an exciting way of adapting old methods to create new efforts.” Mock Fair Isle is more accurately titled Jacquard knitting.  In his recent book, Knitting with the Color Guys, Kaffe Fassett writes that all his two coloured stranded patterns can be knitted with ‘Fair Isle technique’. Many of Fassett’s patterns use this random-coloured yarn technique.

The clearest and most detailed description of traditional Fair Isle patterning came in A History of Hand Knitting by Richard Rutt (1987) “....the early patterns were all strictly horizontal bands of motifs, rarely each more than 15 rows deep. Bands of large motifs were divided by bands of smaller motifs, half or less the depth of the larger one. The separation of approximately circular motifs by four diagonal corners produced the familiar so-called OXO designs. (The X mostly had a vertical line through its centre.)  A second early style of small geometrically patches covering the whole fabric has been called ‘diced’.”

Problems and confusion can result from common use of the title Fair Isle for coloured stranded knitted. Until 2011 in the knitting section of the Sydney Royal Easter Show, Jacquard garments were entered in the Traditional Fair Isle class. This resulted in garments being disqualified and removed from the class. A group of knitters approached the organisers in an effort to find a solution to this problem. In 2012 a new class, Jacquard, was added by the Royal Agricultural Society hand knitting section. The Fair Isle Class being described as, “Traditional Fair Isle should be as elastic as a single strand knitted fabric. No more than two colours in one row. Stranding method plus occasional weaving for long floats. Traditional small border and large patterns (horizontal or vertical), or all over patterns.” The Jacquard Class being described as, “Worked similarly to Fair Isle with yarns stranded or woven at the base of the work. Designs can be geometric or stylised natural forms e.g. flowers, animals. Some of the stitches can be in pattern rather than flat stocking stitch.”

Traditionally patterns were not written, but were taught orally and through working samples. The advent of the publication of knitting patterns threw up the challenge of having to give traditional patterns a title. This was not a problem when patterns were handed down by word of mouth. This problem with language has been a real challenge when it came to coloured knitting.

Can all coloured stranded knitting be accurately described as Fair Isle or Fair Style? Obviously not, to do so is to devalue all the other traditions of coloured stranded knitting. As a result of the way the English language evolves, for some knitters and publishers in the English speaking world the meaning/usage of the title, Fair Isle, has shifted. Through common usage the title has become the generic name for coloured stranded knitting. It is a good indication of the slippage of the term in the language.

Why has this misnomer continued? Blame it on the evolution of the English Language. The question remains, do we attempt to re-educate knitters on the correct titles for coloured or just accept the easy way out and call all stranded coloured knitting Fair Isle.

Tech Talk With Jude Skeers #6 - His Medallion Journey

This Tech Talk is a fascinating view on the evolution of Jude Skeers' knitted circles.

“How to knit a flat circle?” was the assignment that I set myself in the late 1970’s. For the next thirty years this undertaking and its resolution that dominated my art knitting.  Medallion knitting was the title of Tech Talk in ‘Yarn #27’, it investigated the background and process of this knitting technique. This tech talk looks at my adventures and misadventures with Medallion knitting.

The first framed wall hangings that I knitted, when I set out to turn my skills in garment knitting into creating knitted art pieces, were squares, octagons and dodecagons. Framing these cornered pieces proved to be very unstable process as multi sided frames were only as strong as their weakest joint. It was the collapse of these frames that lead me to endeavour to knit a circle. Knitting, framed in a circle had to be more stable. I calculated that I needed to start at the circumference and decrease at the rate of four stitches a round, then decreasing  faster as the centre of the circle approached. After much trial and error, the formula was mastered. All my early medallions were knitted in this technique from the outside to the centre. My knitting of lace medallions pieces from the centre to the outside didn’t happen until the mid 1980’s. Many years after mastering flat circle knitting I read the chapter on Medallion Knitting in Mary Thomas’s Book of Knitting Patterns which sets out a similar mathematical formula to the one I use.

During the first six years of Medallion knitting I created a wide range of different sized circular art pieces from 60 to 180 centimetres in diameter. Each piece was stretched around a 2.5 centimetre thick circular hoop. I played with using jacquard and cable techniques, separately or together. The works included geometrical shapes, floral images and all white pieces with cabled tree motifs.

In 1982, I completed my most adventurous work circular medallion work - three pieces each 180 centimetres in diameter. Based on an image of the Western Australian Scarlet Banksia, they represented three stages in the life cycle of the flower. This work involved the intertwining of jacquard and coloured cabling techniques including reverse cabling. The work was commissioned for a church in Melbourne.

In the process of knitting a surface cabled piece I created The Echidna.

I made numerous attempts at getting the cables to flatten. My original formula for flat circles just didn’t work. Regardless of how many times I unpicked and reknitted the centre I could not get it to flatten. Finally, as you may recognise in the picture, I placed a broom handle needle in the centre of the framed piece and gave The Echidna a nose. From this failed exercise came my sculptural installation knitting. Ten free standing trees and mushrooms were created over the period from 1984 to 1986. The largest trees were 3 metres high with a span at the top of 180 centimetres.

Reverse cabling in my medallion knitting wasn’t perfected until the late 1980’s with the four pieces that formed the Sunset series. One of this series is pictured. With this technique it was necessary to carry three coloured yarn as the rounds were knitted. By cabling one of the yarns behind the others it was possible to create a different colour sky and horizon.

The most delicate creation of my medallion knitting came in 1986 when my first web was knitted. It is a sixteen or eight sided medallion, which although knitted with over 100 stitches are displayed with only 16 stitches. The other stitches are dropped to create the spaces. Web medallion knitting forms the structure of my environmental installation art works, ranging in size from 25cm to 5 metres in diameter and using materials as diverse as lurex sewing thread to 1 cm diameter rope.

The Black and White patterned piece pictured is my most recent medallion. It perfectly exemplifies a circular medallion knitted by decreasing, even down to the segmentation and the octagon and square at its centre. In the early part of the 1990’s I put a square and a circle together in one medallion. I knitted 15 rounds of a normal medallion square using mitre corners, then changed the decreases process to knit a circle in the centre. In the last three years I have returned to this technique to knit a cabled tree in a circle within a square. I plan to expand on this to move into what I am calling my heirloom period, calculating that it will take 20 squares to create a single panel. At that rate I will need to knit 80 squares to knit counterpanes for my grand children. Thirty years and counting I am still loving knitting medallions.

Tech Talk With Jude Skeers #5 - Medallion Knitting

Here is the fifth "Tech Talk" from Jude Skeers, our esteemed guest in October 2015. As noted in the first Tech Talk article (posted January 15) he has sent these articles to Roisin to be shared with us. 

The article was first published in the Australian magazine Yarn which you can see at the store.
It seems fitting to post this on a day when Roisin posted a photo of an amazing 2 dimensional medallion on Facebook, part of the Men@Work exhibition in Australia.

Medallion Knitting - Jude Skeers

Medallion Knitting has been part of the knitting genre for many centuries. It includes flat knitting as diverse as doilies, table clothes and counterpanes. Mary Thomas’ Book of Knitting Patterns  (1943), divides medallion knitting into three sections and calls them Medallions in round knitting, Medallions in flat knitting and Circular medallion in sections. Mary Thomas wrote, “Medallion knitting enjoyed a tremendous vogue in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, when cotton-knitting was at its best, with bonnets the fashion for everyone, and knitted bedspreads the treasured heirlooms of every family”. Rae Compton in The Illustrated Dictionary of Knitting (1988) supports Thomas, “At its height medallion knitting was responsible for many hand-knitted heirlooms – the small, often lacy patterns joined into bedspreads. But medallions were used on their own for many other items, such as endless variations for bonnet back section, lace mats, doileys, table mats and traycloths.” It is interesting that medallion knitting could be  used to make a ‘fabric’ then to fabricate something else.

Medallions in round knitting form flat circles and symmetrical polygons. They are knitted by using the technique of increasing from the centre or decreasing from the outer edge.

'Just Red’ 110cm diameter

                                   Knitted from the outside to the centre.

The feature of this knitting is a mathematical calculation that is required to construct a fabric that by nature is three dimensional into a two dimensional surface. “There are two methods of knitting them in rounds. 

The more usual method is to knit from the centre, gradually increasing until you reach the right size. The second method is to begin with a fixed outer measurement, then decrease as you knit until you finish at the centre.” Pam Dawson, The Encyclopedia of Knitting (1984). If increases or decreases are not in a perfect ratio to the radius either puckering (caused by too many stitches), or cupping (too few stitches) will result. A formula for knitting lace, stocking or garter stitch with a single yarn may not work for multicoloured or cable knitting. Tension, yarn fibre and ply and needle gauge need to be taken into consideration, in addition to the characteristics of the stitch pattern being used.

Patterns knitted from the centre predominate. Research has revealed a single decrease pattern. “Acanthus Leaf”, from Weldon’s Practical Knitter, Nineteenth Series, reproduced in Mary Walker Phillips’ Knitting Counterpanes (1989). The Weldon’s publications and other 19^th century publications are a good source for medallion patterns, though they are not cross-referenced as medallions.

Medallions in flat knitting is the process by which separate geometrical shapes are knitted and then combined to create a larger piece.  Mary Walker Phillips’s in Knitting Counterpanes has wonderful examples of this type of medallion knitting, some dating back to the early 19^th Century. Her patterns combine a variety of geometric shapes to form bedspreads. Medallions in flat knitting are usually knitted on two needles. Mary Thomas writes “This work is small and easily carried about, so squares can be made in odd moments and big articles created.” She also subtitles her section on medallions in flat knitting with the text “also known as Gossip Knitting and Community Knitting”. This is no doubt a reference to the social activity when several knitters created the medallions to be joined into a single large item such as a counterpane.

Knitter’s Handbook (2001 – first published in 1986) by Montse Stanley writes, “Medallions, individual geometric shapes. Many small ones can be sewn together into large patchwork projects.” She details triangle, square, diamond, and other polygonal shapes.

Circular Medallions in sections is the third type of medallion detailed by Mary Thomas. “A circle, is made on two knitting-pins achieved by ‘Turning’.” Short row shaping is the least common technique to knit medallions. How to improve your Knitting technique (1984), edited by Pam Dawson has a pattern for circular medallions. “This technique, worked on 2 needles, form wedge-shaped sections by means of turning at a given point in a row and leaving some stitches unworked......When sections are worked in this way, a seam is required to join the last section to the first section.” 

These both describe what is now commonly known as short row shaping, it is the least common technique to knit medallions.

Multiple variations of medallion knitting patterns have been passed down, in most, if not all knitting cultures and traditions. Medallion patterns can be found in the earliest published patterns, with lace patterns dominating. These patterns were written to be knitted from the centre out, which makes sense when lace knitting, as ‘yarn over’ and ‘yarn forward’, naturally lend themselves to lace. 

Compton, The Illustrated Dictionary of Knitting (1988), has published twelve patterns for a variety of medallion shapes including, windmill, target, hexagonal and swirl centre. She recommends knitting from the centre out as she writes: “The benefit of working from the centre out, even for a square, is to be found, not only in the growth of the pattern which repeats in each quarter, but in the fact that the edge can be patterned and fluted or shaped and cast off with a loop or picot edge, so completing the lace effect.”

A quick search of Ravelry supports Rae Compton’s  further comment that “medallion knitting is no longer in fashion as it was in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.” Ravelry has only a small number of medallion patterns. Research for this article has only thrown up two coloured quite large medallion patterns, knitted from the centre to the outside, Chinese Fish and Kaleidoscope from Knitting for the Home (1991), by Liz Gemmell.

Norah Gaughan, Knitting Nature (2006), has hexagonal and pentagonal medallions within garments and wraps. Claire Crompton, The Knitter’s Bible, Knitted Afghans and Pillows (2008), has medallion patterns for rugs, cushions, and a knitted square.  Knit Noro (2012), has a pattern for a Modular Afghan, which is 61 small hexagonal medallions knitted from the outside to the centre. Who does medallion knitting? You do, but you were never told what it was. 

Tech Talk With Jude Skeers: #4 Feather & Fan Stitch Part 2

Here is the fourth "Tech Talk" from Jude Skeers, our esteemed guest in October 2015. As noted in the first Tech Talk article (posted January 15) he has sent these articles to Roisin to be shared with us. 

The article was first published in the Australian magazine Yarn which you can see at the store.

In this article he continues the fascinating (inconclusive) story of the stitch sometimes known as "Feather and Fan."

Feather and Fan - The Pattern
by Jude Skeers

In the last Tech Talk, Feather and Fan or Old Shale?, the focus was on the history and heritage of the names given to the pattern that has become known as Feather and Fan Pattern. This Tech Talk will look at the pattern and some of its variations and permutations.

It was Barbara Walker's A Treasury of Knitting Patterns (1968) that had the clearest description of Feather and Fan Pattern: “The number of stitches to a repeat can be greater or smaller; the bands of purl across the pattern can be spaced differently, or placed on another row, or broader, or not at all; the row count can vary and so on. But the basic principle of the pattern row is always the same: half decreases, grouped together, and half increases, likewise grouped together.”

The most common knitted Feather and Fan Pattern is worked in multiples of 18 stitches. The repetition in the pattern row has six separate decreases, followed by six increases. It also has an extra knit stitch after the increases. Following the pattern row is a row of garter stitch.

Figure 1. Multiple of 18 sts.  Row 1. (Right side) – knit  Row 2. Purl  Row 3. *(K2 tog) 3 times, (yo, k1) 6 times, (k2 tog) 3 times; repeat from *  Row 4. Knit.

For some time I have been intrigued by the extra knit stitch after the increase stitches. This means that the pattern is asymmetrical. The original Old Shale Pattern on which Feather and Fan Pattern is based is symmetrical. I kept coming back to the question, why was the extra stitch added to the pattern? It didn’t balance the finished design.  It is my conclusion that the extra knit stitch is thanks to the pattern writers. A friend, who is a pattern writer, told me that the reason she included the extra knit stitch is because when the pattern section finishes with a yarn over, knitters invariably leave it out, thus messing up the pattern.

There are many variations of this pattern. One of the other Feather and Fan Patterns is quite different from the one above. It is a multiple of 14 stitches and has 2 decreases where 4 stitches are decreased to make single stitch. The increases used to balance the decreases are knitted in the usual manner by yarn forward and there is no extra knit stitch after the increases. It has an extra knit stitch in the centre of the two decreases. This keeps an even number in the pattern and makes it symmetrical. The pattern also incorporates stocking stitch into the centre of the increases stitches.

Figure 2. Multiple of 14 sts. Plus 1.  Row 1. K.1, K.4 tog., (yo, K.1) 5 times, yo., K2 tog., p2.s.s.o., rep from + K.1.  Row 2. K.4., P.7, K.3, rep from + K.1.  Row 3. Knit.  Row 4. Purl

An unusual variation found in my research was in Mary Walker Phillips’ Knitting Counterpanes (1989). Her pattern titled Feather and Fan shows little resemblance to any of the traditional patterns. The pattern has a multiple of 25 stitches. The increases are in row 1 where as the decreases are in each of the other 3 rows. It has stocking stitch in the pattern area and garter stitch in between. In Figure 3, the pattern is written the way that Phillips wrote it.

Figure 3. Multiple of 25.  Row 1: P4, K3, LRD, (O, K1)7x, O, RLD, K3, P4.. Row 2: K4, P2. PRD, P15, P2tog, P2, K4.  Row 3: P4, K1, LRD, K15 RLD, K1, P4.    Row 4: K4, PRD, P15, P2tog, K4.  LRD – Left-right decrease.  RLD – Right-left decrease. PRD – Purl reverse decrease. (Mary Walker Phillips, Knitting Counterpanes (1989).

If you are puzzled by all the variation of Feather and Fan Pattern, you can be excused. Rae Compton, in the first book in which she published the pattern, The Hamlyn Knitting Guide (1980), has a pattern titled Feather and Fan Lace. It is identical to Figure (1). Her next book, The Complete Book of Traditional Knitting (1983), has two patterns one titled Feather and Fan that is the same as Figure (2). The other pattern, titled Old Shale, is very similar to her 1980 pattern. Five years later in her book, The Illustrated Dictionary of Knitting, (1988) Compton changes back to the 1980 pattern and uses the title Feather and Fan. I have been fascinated as to why these changes occurred. What were the influences that caused her to change her pattern and title?

The Feather and Fan Patterns illustrated above and variations of them are printed with a variety of names, including Old Shale, Fan Stitch, Feather Stitch, Ridged Feather Stitch, Shell and Feather and Peacock Stitch.

Others aspect of the Feather and Fan Pattern is the use of garter stitch as a feature in the pattern and the use of colour. It is common for a row of garter stitch to be included after the pattern row, although in some patterns garter it is included in part of the pattern row to highlight the decreases. Another variation that has become common is the use of colour to accentuate the scalloping that is occurring with the pattern. Traditionally Feather and Fan Patterns are knitted in a single colour. This is probably because the pattern was mostly commonly used in baby wear, shawls, counterpanes and other white work where the curves and raised purl stitches are seen to advantage. When the pattern was incorporated into garments it was more appropriate to use contrasting colours.

To end I have come to the conclusion that there is no definitive Feather and Fan Pattern. If the pattern used creates a fabric with, deep scallops, that looks like feathers and fans and you call it Feather and Fan Pattern, ‘ipso facto’ it is Feather and Fan Pattern.

Tech Talk With Jude Skeers: #3 Feather & Fan Stitch History

Here is the third "Tech Talk" from Jude Skeers, our esteemed guest in October 2015. As noted in the first Tech Talk article (posted January 15) he has sent these articles to Roisin to be shared with us. 

The article was first published in the Australian magazine Yarn which you can see at the store.
Some fascinating knitting history in this article.

Feather and Fan or Old Shale?

Ask an experienced hand knitter and they will tell you that they know the Feather and Fan pattern. It is one of the traditional patterns, well-known to Australian knitters, which have been passed down for generation via word of mouth, and reproduced in knitting pattern books and magazines. I had a recent conversation with knitter and crocheter Prudence Mapstone on the topic of Feather and Fan. She told me that Feather and Fan would have been a pattern published in a woman’s magazine in the 1950’s or earlier. A knitter in the Katoomba group of the Knitters Guild of NSW can remember being taught a pattern by her grandmother in the 1940’s that she called Feather and Fan.

In this Tech Talk, I set out to write an article that would investigate whether the popular pattern that I know as Feather and Fan was based on an even number or an odd number of stitches. I have instead decided to focus on the history of Feather and Fan and to leave the actual pattern for another Tech Talk.

My first task was to find out how far back I could trace the Feather and Fan pattern. The earliest reference was in a Weldon’s Practical Knitter, first published in the 19^th Century. It describes a dress knitted for a doll as being knitted in Shell and Feather stitch. The pattern is similar to the present day Feather and Fan pattern. A later book, Weldons Encyclopaedia of Needlework from 1945 has two lace patterns, each one quite different from the other - Feather Stitch and Ridged Feather Stitch.

I discovered three distinct lace patterns in James Norbury’s Traditional Knitting Patterns. He has a section on Shetland Lace, where it identifies: Old Shale pattern, Shell pattern, and Feather and Fan pattern. His Old Shale pattern is very similar to the Feather and Fan pattern that I have been knitting. His Feather and Fan pattern is very different.

The name Old Shale occurs in two books on the history of hand knitting written in the 1980’s. In one of them, Michael Harvey’s Patons, A Story of Handknitting, reference is made to five Shetland patterns including Old Shale. Neither this book nor Richard Rutt’s A History of hand Knitting make reference to the Feather and Fan Pattern.

It was at this point that I decided to research Shetland Lace and Old Shale. There is an Old Shale pattern in Mary Thomas’s Knitting Book, from the 1930’s. She has a description of a beautiful Shetland shawl from Unst with an Old Shale pattern. She points out that some people erroneously refer to it as Old Shell. She describes how the Old Shale got its name from the pattern made by the North Sea on the shale beach.

Sarah Don in her book from the 1980’s, The Art of Shetland Lace, writes about her research into lace knitting on the Shetland Islands. On her trip to the islands she could not find any evidence of lace knitting before 1830. But in something over 100 years, Shetland knitters developed their own suite of patterns as well as well as a multitude of variations. She discovered that different families worked each pattern in their own way and gave different names to the same pattern. Sarah Don lists thirty names and points out how they relate to the environment in which the knitted lived.  The list included Old Shale and Old Shell but no Feather and Fan.

It was Barbara Walker in her book, A Treasury of Knitting Patterns, who bought all the names together. She has a single lace pattern to which she gives the name, Feather and Fan Stitch, or Old Shale. She calls it an old Shetland pattern with deep scallops. She describes a number of ways of using decreases and increases to vary the stitch pattern but achieve a similar result. Virtually all recent hand knitting pattern books use the name Feather and Fan; there are minimal references to Old Shale.

At the end of this research I have come to the conclusion that name Old Shale (and Old Shell) failed to cross the ocean, whether to America or Australia. In the process of traversing the ocean the name of the pattern changed to Feather and Fan pattern or a variation on it. Perhaps the pattern publishers had no concept of Shale beaches and decided that the pattern looked like feathers and fans: thus the name change. In another place or culture, a different name might have been given. I discovered a Chinese knitting pattern book that gives the pattern the title Peacock and says that the Peacock pattern is a variation of Old Shale or Feather and Fan.

In Sharon Miller’s recent publication on Shetland Lace knitting I found a reference that puts sums up the idea of giving titles to patterns very succinctly, “It is generally held by those who collect knitting patterns that the linking of names to patterns is a nightmare. Commonly, there are local names for patterns made around the world, and so the same pattern can easily turn up with at least two different names”

Books I referred to in for this Tech talk were: Barbara Walker, A Treasury of Knitting Patterns (1968), James Norbury, Traditional Knitting Patterns (1962), Judith Gross, Patterns from China (1982), Knitting 19^th Century Sources Jules & Kaethe Kliot (editors), Reproduction of Weldon’s Practical Knitter (Twenty Sixth Series). Mary Thomas, Mary Thomas’s Knitting Book (1938), Michael Harvey, Patons A Story of Handknitting (1980), Richard Rutt, A History of hand Knitting (1987), Sarah Don, The Art of Shetland Lace (1980), Sharon Miller, Heirloom Knitting, A Shetland Lace Knitting’s Pattern and Handbook (2002). I opened many more books and the internet in this research. I thank the Knitters’ Guild NSW for access to their library and Veronica Moschione for her assistance. Readers may also like to view the Richard Rutt Collection at the University of Southampton Library: http://www.soton.ac.uk/intheloop/richardruttcollection.html. It is wonderful legacy from the man fondly known as the Knitting Bishop (1925-2011).

Tech Talk With Jude Skeers - #2 Double Knitting

Here is the second "Tech Talk" from Jude Skeers, our guest in October 2015. As noted in the first Tech Talk article (posted January 15) he has sent these articles to Roisin to be shared with us. 

The article was first published in the Australian magazine yarn which you can see at the store.

If you haven't tried Double Knitting, Jude includes a pattern for a headband at the end. Only 19 rounds...

Double Knitting

By Jude Skeers

Double Knitting is the knitting of two layers of fabric at the same time on one set of needles. Double Knitting can be tubular (and as such can be used to knit the arm of a jumper); it can be sealed at one end (to knit pockets on a cardigan or coat) or sealed at both ends. Double knitting can be knitted flat, knitting back and forth on straights needles, or it can be knitted circular.

The most concise definition of Double Knitting comes from Rae Compton in The Illustrated Dictionary of Knitting (1988), “Double knitting, or the knitting of separate layers of fabric, both sides of which show stocking stitch, can be worked with a special combination of slipped stitches and yarn held to the front.” Compton recommends doing Double Knitting on either double pointed or circular needles. The use of one, or more than one, coloured yarn would have an influence on the choice of needles to be used.

Mary Thomas in Mary Thomas’s Knitting Book (1938) refers to Double Knitting as “A Tubular Fabric constructed on two knitting pins.” Belle Meyers in Knitting Know-How: An Illustrated Encyclopaedia (1981) refers to the weight of Double Knitting, “You can knit stitches that are of double thickness. Such stitches can be used to make heavy jackets or coats without using bulky yarn.”

In a row of Double Knitting only half the stitches are knitted. Every second stitch is slipped with the yarn passing down the centre of the fabric. The fabric created by Double Knitting is usually stocking stitch. This doesn’t always have to be the case. It is possible to use any combination of knit and purl in a double knitted fabric. In the case of knitting the sleeve of a jumper, it is possible to knit a rib pattern for the cuff.

A variation on plain Double Knitting is sometimes referred to as Two Coloured Reversible Knitting. The first book on Double Knitting that I added to my library was Jane F. Neighbors’ Reversible Two-Color Knitting (1974). It details all aspects of two coloured reversible knitting including two coloured Double Knitting. Not all the patterns in Neighbors’ book created a double thickness fabric, but the chapter that does is titled Reversible Geometrics.  All of her double knitted patterns use two colours. She uses the technique to bring the colour at the back of the fabric to the front and vice versa. You can use this method to knit a red tree on a white background and on the reverse side have a white tree on a red background. She doesn’t have separate colours on each side but brings the colour from one side through to the other. This negates the pocket that usually occurs with Double Knitting.

Compton writes, regarding two-coloured double fabric, “a pair of double-pointed needles or circular needle make it possible to work a double fabric with one colour used for the one side and another used for the other side or lining. Although both sides are quite separate, the ends are joined.”  

A recent publication is M’Lou Baber’s Double Knitting: Reversible Two-Colour Designs (Schoolhouse Press, 2008). She writes, “Double knitting creates a reversible two layer fabric; both sides show only knit stitch. The purl side of the two layers face the inside, and there are air pockets between them...When you work a two colour design in double knitting, the two layers are interchanged at each colour change. Because you use both colors to work each pair of stitches, there are no strands across the back of the fabric.”

Double Knitting is alive and well on Ravelry. A simple search of the words Double Knitting results in 72 pages, which includes the full gambit of patterns. I have found Double Knitting to be excellent for the bands on hats. I first started using this technique in the early nineties and I have been using it since that time. I have been able to use the technique to knit a hat band that will not stretch out of shape and become too loose. I have found very few other uses for double knitting, as I have found it to be too heavy and inflexible. I have included with this Tech Talk my design for a double knitted headband.

Yarn 2 balls of different coloured 12 ply yarn

Needles and notions 6mm (US 10) OR 6.5mm (US 10.5) 40cm circular needle

Abbreviations MC=main colour; CC=contrast colour; wyif=with yarn in front; wyib=with yarn in back; sl=slip

Head Band

Using MC and circular needles cast on 88 stitches. Join to work in the round being careful not to twist sts.

Round 1:  (CC) *wyif, P1, wyib, sl 1, repeat from * to end.

Round 2:  (MC) * sl 1, wyib, K1, wyif, repeat from * to end.

Rounds 3-7:  as rounds 1-2 (finishing round 1)

Rounds 8-9:   (MC) as round 2.

Rounds 10-16:  as rounds 1-2 (finishing round 1)

Rounds 17-18:  (MC) as round 2.         

Round 19:  (MC) *wyif, P1, wyib, sl 1, repeat from * to end.

Cast off loosely

Tech Talk With Jude Skeers - #1 Provisional Cast-On

Words, lots of words coming up in the next few months. Jude Skeers, our guest at GBOW for a series of classes and workshops in late October 2015, has sent Roisin articles he wrote to share with you (so the "I" in the articles is Jude himself). 

This article was first published in the Australian magazine Yarn which GBOW gets. Roisin says it's interesting so ask to have a look. 

There are lots of videos of provisional cast ons....however, I think you'll see that Jude is doing this useful technique a bit differently.

Invisible (Provisional) Cast-On

Casting On – which Richard Rutt, in A History of Hand Knitting (1987 p.13), refers to thus: ‘The creation of the first course of loops, the foundation of a piece of knitted fabric, is the initial problem in knitting.’

Mary Thomas, in her book, Mary Thomas’s Knitting Book, first published in 1938, made reference to six methods of casting-on. Method 5 is Casting-On (Invisible), p.66.

According to Mary Thomas: ‘The object of this method is rather different from that of any other, since it is to avoid and not create a definite selvedge edge. This is accomplished by “laying” the yarn round the needles and a foundation yarn, which can be part of the ball end, or of an independent nature.’

She goes on the write: ‘This is a valuable method of laying foundation stitches, as it leaves the selvedge free for any purpose. If the foundation yarn or cord is removed, a row of loops is exposed, which can be picked up and knitted in the opposite direction.’

It was in the mid-eighties that I first used this method of cast-on. I designed a framed knitted wall piece that was made of 3 squares with circles inside them. They were knitted from the outside to the centre. I invisibly cast on 400 stitches for each square using a circular needle and waste yarn. I found this method of cast-on incredibly difficult. But the completed squares were grafted together to form a rectangle and I then picked up the 800 invisible stitches to knit the edging.

Returning to using this method of cast-on, I worked at solving my problem of casting on using waste yarn. I found that the waste yarn was not substantial enough to hold the stitches straight. To solve my problem, I now cast on using monofilament to replace the waste yarn. I have tried 1.5mm, 2mm and 2.5mm monofilament and find the 2mm cord to be most successful. It is large enough to hold the shape of the stitches and yet not so thick as to make the loop of the stitches oversized.

Where to find monofilament? It is the cord in circular needles. Knitters who have interchangeable needle kits with extra cords can try them. But the simple place to find 1.5mm,  2mm and 2.5mm monofilament cord is at the hardware shop or in the garden shed. The monofilament that I use is ‘line trimmer’ cord – the cord that is used in lawn edge cutters.

Invisible cast-on is easy to learn. Elizabeth Zimmermann writes in Knitting Around (1989, p.183): ‘Once mastered, you will find countless uses for this technique. In reality you are simply winding the working wool around the needle, separating the loops with a strand of spare wool.’ And thanks to the internet, there are many videos demonstrating how it is done.

Below is the basic method that is to be found in knitting books that include how-to details. It may be named Invisible, or Provisional, cast-on. You are making a provision to knit the stitches in the other direction.

1)    Place stoppers on both ends of length of monofilament to prevent the stitches from slipping off the end. A piece of cork or elastic band will suffice.

2)    Tie the knitting yarn onto one end the monofilament.

3)    Hold the monofilament and knitting needle in your right hand.

4)    Wind the yarn around the needle and the monofilament and back over the needle.

5)    Continue until you have the required number of stitches.

2015 Trends

In the grand tradition of New Year fearless prognostications, I am sharing some yarn-y trends with you. Amazingly, they can all be summed up with one sentence: Making and wearing things from lovely yarns will be popular. There! You can stop reading if you have a serious knitting project to get back to.

However, here's some trends identified by various sources. Make of them what you will...and be thankful we have a source of excellent and beautiful yarns in Powell River. 

1. Vogue Paris says "all over knits" is one of this season's Top 20 Trends, citing designers such as Stella McCartney, Sonia Rykiel, Celine, Marc Jacobs... I am not sure about matching knitted pants, myself. 

2. A second Top 20 Trend from Vogue Paris is ponchos....and we all know that ponchos are great crochet and knit projects! GBOW even has a class on poncho knitting...ahead of the trend, that's us.

3. Related to Trend 1....oversized everything. Big coats, capes, sweaters, and definitely yarns. Which is a good trend for slow knitters such as myself, as big yarn on big needles knits up quickly. Come check out our selection of Big Yarn. 

4. Marsala...not the wine, the colour... late each year, Pantone, the world-renowned authority on colour, announces a Color of the Year. 2015's colour is Marsala, a rich, dark red. Can't you picture a poncho, or a hat knit using Marsala? And to help you imagine "go with" colours, Pantone helpfully published seven colour pairings (I particularly like #6). Take notes and come to the store to pick your colours!

5. Do-It-Yourself (DIY) continues to be very popular which means knitting, crochet and weaving are hot as (serious) hobbies but also as ways of making useful new items, and repurposing old ones. Reusing yarn and fabric is eco-friendly...and older fibers can be mixed with new ones for a fresh take on a rug or sweater. 

6. Related to Trend 5 is ongoing and increasing local support here in Powell River for all things fiber and yarn. There's the success of our very own LYS, Great Balls of Wool. There's the upcoming Fiber and Fabric weekend put on by the Urban Homesteading School of Powell River. And there's the Vancouver Island Spinners and Weavers Retreat coming up in March, to be held at Beach Gardens. I predict this is a trend that has not peaked yet! 

Happy Yarn and Fiber projects in 2015!