New beanie and more
Having been quiet for a while, I wanted to say ‘hello’ introducing a new design, just launched today! It is a two-shade beanie, which has my name because it turned out exactly as I wanted it and it fits very comfy on my head! I have been playing with stitches for sculptural effects, and this is one of a few new designs of this kind.
The beanie is worked from bottom to top, alternating bands of each shade, creating horizontal pleats. The size fits adult head with 51-56cm / 20-21in circumference. However, it is very easy to adjust the size to your preference. The sample in photos has been knitted with two skeins of Rainbow Heirloom Heritage DK that I bought at Unravel 2020. The deep gorgeous colours were so attractive to me, and I couldn’t resist them! In details, I used Wicked Pacific and Submarine shades.
It can be knitted with any DK woollen yarn, with WPI = 11
The pattern instructions are available to purchase on klakladesigns’ shop and on Ravelry.
During this long period, I have also been working on another project that was my second submission for Kate Davies’ competition called ‘My place’. It is a double-sided cowl, called ‘La dea Fortuna’. After designing Broken Herringbone and Intertwined Squares, I wanted to create an open cowl. This cowl is based on two repetitive octogram (8 point star) motives, playing with two Milarrochy Tweed shades: Tarbet and Stockiemuir. The cowl is worked in one piece and can be worn on both sides. Each side shows the repeats of one of the two motives. The two motives are switched on the second half of the cowl, so each round presents one motif in the first half and the other motif in the second half. This layout allows having a double-sided cowl. It is an open cowl that has 2 loops and 6 buttons (3 buttons per side), which make possible to wear the cowl in two ways for each side; so in total, it can be worn in four different ways! The octogram motif is ancient, so old in fact that it is not even sure its origin, it could be Roman or from the Middle East. I’ve always been very fond of this geometrical shape. At the beginning of January, I was in my birthplace visiting my family, and one evening I went to the cinema to see the last film of Ferzan Özpetek, a Turkish-Italian film director and screenwriter, whose movies I usually like. The film was excellent, and in a few scenes, I spotted some stunning blue kitchen tiles with the 8-point star shape. The idea to use the octogram shape and its variations in one of my designs was born! As soon as I was back home that evening, I needed to draw the motif, and I played with it. From that drawing session, I came out with six solid different octogram motives; two of them are used in this cowl and to be more precise, they are basically exactly the same module, with different central elements. You may already guess that the film title was La dea fortuna. This design expresses the feelings I felt back to my birthplace during the last festive season.
If ‘La dea Fortuna’ won’t be chosen by KDD&co, it will be published indipendently in September 2020.
Finally, as I am still waiting to be back to my conservation work, I decided to travel for one week to Italy to visit my family, after the worst of this difficult period. So, with all the precautionary measures, here I am in my beloved Abruzzo. The following photos have been taken during a walk on a scorching summer day at the Gran Sasso foot.
Bye bye for now!
Claudia
