sea castle no sand

le manoir

des fois dans la vie d'une styliste... /sometimes in a designer's life...

... on a envie d'essayer voir ce que les modèles des autres donnent, s'ils sont bien écrits, bien coupés.
alors on essaye avec un fil qu'on n'aurait pas spécialement choisi et une couleur dont on a entendu le nom dans "Vogue": Céladon, ça sonne tellement Beau.

... we like to knit some other designer's pattern, see how they fit, if they're well written.
so we try along a yarn we'd not usually have gone for and also a new color that we heard of from "Vogue": Celadon, for example, it has a Beautiful ring to it.

toutes les merveilles du blanc des moutons sur coton teint "nature" / shades of pale

alignés comme cela en une seule bande vous intrigue.
c'est comme la scène du film la fille à la perle où Renoir demandeà la cuisinière de regarder le ciel et lui citer les couleurs et elle commence par dire: "gris".
il dit alors: "regarde bien". alors elle voit du rose, du jaune, du bleu, du mauve...

c'est pareil ici, je vois de gauche à droite du mauve clair, de l'écru, du blanc nacré, du jaune citron et du jaune.

bande tricotée à partir de toison de différents moutons en double, en Z pour les simples puis retordus en double en S, sur tissu jersey de coton teint à l'ocanette deuxième bain pour le haut et à l'indigo premier bain pour le bas, par méthode de trempage.

yarn spun from different bits of sheep in Z then plied in S.
the shell is from Bretagne and the cotton jersey was “nature” hand-dyed with indigo and orcanette.

it is unimaginable that white sheep could have so different shades: pale lavender, off-white, oyster white, lemon and yellow. 

trumpet oya

i wanted to knit a flower that would look good either hanging down from a knit or facing one, so i chose trumpet, a long flower which i think looks like a morning glory, so dear to the scotts.

it is very elegant, knit with lace mohair, all of it. a small culture sweet water pearl forms the pistil end.
i will be making more of this, perhaps as hatpins, perhaps as oya in a row but then i'd have to make the flowers much smaller...
this is a rather big flower, almost 8 cms (around 4 inches minus...)

Marie-Antoinette bigoudis béret

i have used the instructions for this from "knitting nature", by norah gaughan.
her look for it is very rustic, like a "sunflower tam" as she named it and you'd imagine a girl running in wheat fields.
my take on it is very sophisticated looking yet without frills.
the first thing i noticed is the tam looked interesting only to the guy behind you, and nothing happened near the face for you to see.
and that is what i changed. i charted a mosaic pattern of a flower, as good as can be done using "mosaics knitting", thus "squares" instead of circles.
i used two colors, one for the top and it's yellow to keep the sunflower reminder cabling, and blue near the face to highlight it. the mosaic flowers are in yellow on that blue background.
i also introduced a baby blue color satin ribbon and made a little bow on the ribbing because it would be a shame to have this sliding off one's head.

the look is very "versailles" and "monarchy" then.
it's just that a Marie-Antoinette is so coquette that she'd probably have worn it to keep her rollers (bigoudis) in place till her hair took on curls. she would not be caught dead "decoiffée", without a hair adornment.

i'd wear the bow at the back, but then it's a personal preference.

Bodhi Tree hat

my idea was to embroider the OM sign somewhere. i knit a double leaf at the top, it is stuffed.

3 spiral conch cowl

here's the recipe for those who have the book "the Opinionated Knitter" of Elizabeth Zimmermann and want to make a cowl to go with it.
it is based on the same stitch.

this cowl is designed to sit on the base of the shoulders and taper naturaly due to change of needle sizes.
it is tapered up at the neck so that it doesn't "fall" and hide the spiralling.

option 2) you may of course chose to have it wide on the top too by using the bigger size needle for the top garter stitch too and then you'd sew your conch shell to cinch or not.

you need:
10 mm circular needles
7 mm circular needles
a 5 mm hook

using circular needles size 10mm you will be starting by casting the same number of stitches as per the book for 5 rows in garter stitch, back and forth.
you will then proceed to get the stitches to be 60 as per the book.

using the 7 mm needles, proceed to knit 15 rows as per pattern.
turn work to start working in garter stitch back and forth and work this way:
WS: *K1 K2Tog* repeat till end of row = 40 stitches (using size 7 mm needles)
RS: knit
WS: knit
RS: BO all stitches using size 10 mm needles leaving a 15 cm yarn length.

stitch the casting on rows of garter stitch ridges.

with size 5 mm hook and the remaining 15 cms chain enough to fit your conch shell in for closure, i chained for 3 cms.

sew a pierced conch shell (naturaly pierced or drilled) on the facing side with a rugged yarn (i felted mine a bit) of the same color as the shell ( i used white) and knot in front.
i chose for my knot to be seen.

enjoy your cowl
if you make one of those, i'd be happy if you left me a comment with a link to your photo.

"Knitting Nature" interpretations

i loved some of the patterns there so i knit them for fun.


the yarn for the cardigan is knit in double strand in 50% mohair 50% wool in "mohair de france" from a lady that herds sheep in bretagne.
i like the green at the bottom that makes it have more "weight".



the target mits were supposed to be for me. i knit the biggest size as they are meant for kids, but i just had to hand them over to chris who's very happy with them.
the wool is a french variagated yarn from my LYS for the brown and the yellow is 100% mohair in "mohair de france" from the same lady in bretagne. i had it waiting there for a fitting project.
they do look like a bee in texture and color.