Seaweed Fair Isle Cowl

Last but certainly not least, (my personal favourite) is the Seaweed cowl.

This one simplified a loose ink drawing of seaweed into a knittable image, which becomes fairly abstract and organic when the cowl is being worn.

You can see the links between photo, image and knitting sample here - all with the same distinct seaweed shape but each material/technique obviously offering different qualities! When I made the knitting sample, I was exploring duplicate stitch, which is how I managed 3 colours. The pattern for the seaweed remained largely the same when I was translating it for the cowl knitting pattern, with the exception of dropping the duplicate stitch element.

You can see the resulting final pattern more clearly here. There are 3 repeats lengthways, and the seaweed motif is mirrored in the round, which I think adds to the organic effect. Colours were picked out from my matching silk scarf (to be revealed later!) and I think they compliment each other really nicely, especially thanks to the yarn I used (Rowans SilkTwist) which has an almost glowy effect. Again, this cowl is available to purchase from my Etsy shop right here or, if you want to knit it yourself in your own colours then you can buy the pattern from Ravelry!!

Heather Fair Isle Cowl

Now I've given you a brief introduction to how I designed my cowls, and showed you my Holyhead Mountain cowl - it's time to meet cowl number 2, Heather.

This cowl was born out of scanning and blowing up my paintings of heather by massive amounts. "That's a nice painting," my tutor would say. "Let's blow it up by 200% again!" The result was an abstract mishmash of colour and texture.

I, like before, took the information in the image and tried to replicate that in my knitting samples. I practised with different colour combinations, and found that using colours quite similar worked really nicely together, and created subtle, organic pattern. 

Intarsia interpretation, which I didn't like as much - blocks of colour are less visually appealing. 

The end pattern used 3 complementary colours in purple and pink tones, together with one turquoise contrast, mixed with pale green lace weight yarn to add extra depth and variation to the colour. I knitted this cowl with a provisional cast on, and joined it with kitchener stitch - rather than knitting it in the round as I did with the other ones. 

I really love how this pattern combines geometric and organic shapes to create a really unique and interesting design. 

Like the Holyhead Cowl, you can download the pattern from Ravelry, or buy the original cowl from my Etsy shop! Please take a look and have a go!

Choosing the colours that go!

A while ago, the yarn shop where I got all my yarn for projects from published a really lovely article about me on their blog - which I stupidly missed! Anyway I thought I'd share it because it describes perfectly an important part of the process for me and the rest of their blog is fantastic as well! Give it a read!

Choosing the colours that go!

The Holyhead Cowl

Now I've put my 3 cowls up for sale on my Etsy shop, I thought I'd do a series of 3 blog posts giving you a bit of insight into how they were made!

This cowl was inspired by Holyhead Mountain, and the combination of the gorse and heather against the rock.

After doing numerous drawings, paintings, colour studies etc from my photographs - I blew aspects of them up (see left) and used all my research to help me make knitting samples.

Here's a selection of them on Holyhead Mountain - my Mum and I took all the samples and photographed them in the landscape which they were inspired by. It was so strange going back because this was early spring, and all my photos were taken late summer - so the colours of the landscape were completely different. It was also quite amusing carrying a rucksack full of knitting around Anglesey :')

Some samples for the Holyhead Cowl were largely led by texture - such as this one, which was knitted with several strands of wool at once rather than using any specific colour work technique. Whichever colour came out more prominently was left entirely to luck, and the boucle wool I used really did make the sample feel like the hardy plants living on the mountain!

 The other sample I did was more geometric. I broke down and simplified my painting into a pattern that would work knitted in Fair isle. Fair isle knitting can only be worked with 2 colours per row, and so my brushstrokes became short stripes and large areas of colour became very uniform. I did really like this effect - all that needed altering was the colours, as at this point I was fishing colours out of a basket of scrap yarn that my mum gave to me!

My project eventually developed at looking at things in the round, and somehow I ended up looking at Buffs, specifically their packaging. I made my own "Buff packaging" out of iconic Anglesey objects - lighthouse, maps, birds - and voila! An idea was born.

I set about designing a knitting pattern, to be worn round the neck (like a buff, but more like a snuggly knitted cowl) and just did it! Knitted using fair isle in the round my first cowl to be finished was this one.

You can buy the knitting pattern to make your own, OR, if you don't want to knit your own, you can now buy the original from my Etsy shop - you decide!

 from Ravelry
Or go here to purchase from Etsy.

Painting

The majority of my research for any project is drawing and painting-based. My FMP was no exception, and I explored all ranges of media - stick and ink, watercolour, acrylic - before producing quite a few fully-realised paintings. The colours and shapes within these paintings then developed further into my digital prints, knitting patterns etc, so they really are the core of my project. Some, naturally, are more successful than others - and they vary from quite illustrative to bolder, almost simplified scenes. At all times I was thinking of the textures that expressive brushstrokes can create - something which I find more important than making it look photo-realistic, especially when working towards a textiles outcome. 

Cottage at South Stacks, Anglesey

Heather on Mynydd Twr/Holyhead Mountain

Cottage behind the rocks, South Stacks

View to Snowdonia from Beaumaris

Mynydd Twr/Holyhead Mountain

South Stacks Lighthouse

All these are now available to buy as a set of 6 cards, or if you REALLY like them - some are available to buy, smartly mounted and ready to stick into a frame! Check them out...

First up - the final outcome!

Thought I'd share some pictures of my FMP exhibition, as I really think it sums up my project, and therefore my products pretty well!

I was so glad I ended up with 2 boards rather than just the one, as I think leaving either the paintings, knitting or digital prints out wouldn't have been a fair representation of my project - everything connects and compliments each other. I'm ESPECIALLY glad that my birds had their space to shine - because who doesn't want to see little birdies wearing scarves?

The opening of an Etsy shop

Over the past few days and weeks I have been in the process of preparing some products and pieces from my Final Major project to sell in my very own Etsy shop!!

So in order to (perhaps) drum up some publicity and interest beyond the realm of my family and friends, I'm going to post up some images and information, letting you know what to expect to be able to buy!

My project was all based and inspired by the beautiful island of Anglesey - a place very close to my and my family's heart. I have very fond memories of staying in rented cottages as a young girl, being taken to places like Newborough Warren and Beaumaris. Nowadays, we go for epic walks around the coast - often missing lunch and making up for it with huge quantities of fish and chips.

 It was one particular walk around Holyhead that really inspired me to look at Anglesey in more detail - and thus, a project was born!

And an Etsy shop was opened right here.