Bargello Knits by Patty Nance, pub. Cooperative Press, 2013. Remember those Bargello needlepoint kits from the 60s and 70s? They were ubiquitous in my hometown craft stores, but I never quite knew what they were. A little research uncovers that Bargello is a type of needlepoint embroidery that uses simple stitches in mathematical patterns to create motifs. I love that word, "mathematical." But no calculations are necessary when working the patterns from this book. Patty lays out the method and the terminology with patience and wit so you can design your own Bargello knits (and I fully intend to do so!), but she also includes 28 fully worked-out patterns. Anyway, with her method, most of the mathematical precision is in the hands of the yarn dyer, so we can admire it without having to work for it. After detailing the development of Bargello knitting, Patty dives into an explanation of different ways yarn is dyed then launches into the technique itself, stopping along the way to describe helpful tools and useful skills. She includes a section on making changes to Bargello knitting without completely unraveling it (and your sanity). Last in this chapter are 5 pages of photo tutorial. And then come the designs! I'm not in love with Patty's Bargello scarves and headbands and mitts, but they serve as a fine introduction to the technique before taking the next step: joining to work in the round. I absolutely adore these socks. My perfect idea of easy knitting---the dyer chose the colors and their lengths, the only thing for me to do is keep track of four balls of yarn. Intarsia captivates me, so that's a welcome task.
I should mention that the accessory sizing seems to follow industry norms. It's just disappointing because I don't have an industry-sized body.
The yarn called for seems to be widely available for the most part, which is great because yarn substitutions may result in garments with a very different appearance. Patty is careful to specify whether the color sequence should be short- or long-repeat, and whether it should be dyed around or across the hank (and she explains what these terms mean and how to determine them) but differences in the size of the hank itself when dyed and the exact length of each color may show up as sequences of rectangles instead of squares, for instance. This book is very good about presenting every chart, table, and schematic, any reader could want. The photos by John Doukas and Patty Nance clearly demonstrate every feature of the project or swatch. I don't know whether it's intentional, but the whole book has a slight 60s vibe to it. Appropriate, given that that's when Bargello needlepoint was hugely popular. Sprinkled throughout the book are valuable tips Patty picked up as a knitter and seamstress, making it a worthwhile investment even for those who only admire one or two of the designs. Click on over to Donna Druchunas's article on How to Read a Knitting Book for more details. Disclosure: Cooperative Press sent Kangath a free copy of Bargello Knits for review. Kangath was not compensated for the preceding review. All opinions expressed in the review are the blog author's and are not necessarily the opinions of Cooperative Press or Patty Nance.
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My newest tapestry knitting design just came out in Knit Edge magazine. It's a scarf featuring repeated offset motifs of a moon reflected in water. You can see that the colors are reversed on the flip side, but the piece is not double-knit. There's only a single layer of each color---the reversibility of tapestry knitting is due to there being a little "wrong side" on every "right side." Moon Mirrors is done using the same technique as Hestia (also a reversible garment!) of stranding colors on both sides of the knitting to make a compelling tapestry-like fabric. Watch out, though---it's addictive! Since my new Amplitude Stockings didn't work out yesterday, I wore this version of my Van Halen knee-highs. I have another pair in spirograph colors, but this combination better matched my mood (and anyway, the spirograph colors haven't been washed since I wore them last). I love knee-highs, and these beauties stay up well (thanks to elastic thread knit into the cuff). The more I wash them the better they fit. And with stranded colorwork almost all the way down one leg, they're the perfect stroke socks. The colorwork keeps my affected leg warm while the other leg sports one band of the same pattern and a tattoo detail around the ankle. There's even colorwork around the fitted arch---a real challenge to work out, but oh so worth it. Strangely enough, I was inspired to knit these when I saw the mildewed stucco outside my local yarn store. I spent months looking for the right yarn until I finally found it at Woolarina. And it's perfect. These socks make me happy, especially on a dreary day like yesterday. I've been asked to contribute a design to The Unique Sheep's Zodiac Shawl Club. I can't give you any more details right now, but I'm thrilled to be working with Laura and Kelly. They were some of the first indie dyers to catch my eye, and I appreciate the evocative names they give their gorgeous colorways almost as much as the fabulous dye jobs themselves. I'll tell you more as soon as I can. Cooperative Press celebrated their birthday this month. I'm a little late to the party, but I'm a big fan of their books and their mission. Founded by Shannon Okey in 2009, this company does small print runs of innovative books and pays better royalties than any other publisher. They produce superior craft-related books which are printed in the United States of America. To the right you can see Dave the Bear sporting Troche from Fresh Designs: Hats, Fields of Malachite from Ancient Egypt in Lace and Color, and Quadrille from Needles and Artifice. His legs simply weren't long enough for the Amplitude Vertical Stockings (also from Needles and Artifice). Thanks, CP---and happy birthday! Hot Tip: After working a bobble or nupp, on the following row, slip the stitch you made the ornament on with the yarn held to the wrong side of the work. Bobbles will stay on the right side and not slip through the work to the wrong side. I recently discovered this trick and am using it now in one of my designs.
Hot Tip: While most instructions say to pick up and knit stitches with a single needle, I find that in some cases using one needle (in the left hand) to pick the stitch up and another (in the other hand) to knit it is much easier. This works well for picking up stitches in every row, where every other row has a little knotty thing at the end of it instead of a nice looking stitch, especially when knit firmly. It also works well for picking up stitches around a motif, or for dark or fuzzy or slightly felted edges.
Here's a tutorial for grafting live stitches to each other using a yarn needle. I hope you find it useful! Note: I say in the video to use a yarn tail twice as long as the seam, but you really need a little more than that. Try three times as long, just to be safe. This is my first video with the Nikon D5100. I had to put it on manual focus so it didn't keep zooming in and out---as a result, the picture blurs when I move my hands closer to the camera. Still, it's better than my previous video! More soon.
This door has a secret panel in it . . . but where? I am quite pleased with the way my Quadrille turned out. I was 10 stitches short when I finished (wonder where that happened . . . ), but that doesn't seem to have caused a problem. The fit at the top is exactly what I envisioned. I changed the bind-off slightly so that the eyelets would be centered under the picots. The eyelet is formed with a five stitch repeat and the bind-off works two stitches of the previous row for each picot. I saw that this wasn't going to produce the effect I desired, so I bound off alternating numbers of stitches and the picots came out in little pairs. I could have made the picots themselves pointier by not knitting the first stitch of each before binding it off. But I think the little humps are charming and go with the circular cables perfectly. I had a good time deciding what I wanted to do with the ribbon. I tied the front one into little ribbon roses, but nylon ribbon doesn't stay well in roses and I ended up stuffing most of them down the front of the bodice. I liked the back lacing shown in the book, but it took awhile to figure out how that was done. I tried my Quadrille on the night before I took pictures so I could cut the ribbon to appropriate lengths. I had my daughter with me to help smooth, tug, and tie, and I missed her terribly when setting up for the photo shoot. This is not a piece to get dressed in by yourself if you can help it. Just saying. My body is not a very good shape for a corset. I have a naturally small waist and ample hips, but my ribs are prominent and my bust is . . . not. I can't decide whether or not the circular cables help. But the piece is lovely and I will wear it proudly as a vest-like contraption as long as I have a willing assistant to smooth, tug, and tie! |
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