| Design Talk & Spring Shows galore |
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Sydney In Style Turramurra Sun 6 August,
Knits in the Mist Moss Vale Thu 10 & Fri 11 August
Coal Loader Market Nth Sydney Sun 27 August
Handmade Market Canberra Sat 16 & Sun 17 Sept
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| Design Talk: Where Mitres present a challenge |
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| SALE TIME at every show |
| In addition to dozens of new styles, designs and colourways, every show in August and September will have a Sale Rail offering sample garments, discontinued designs and discontinued colours! Look for the RED dots! |
| In Style Market Turramurra |
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This market is ideal if you want to order a made to measure garment or a knitting kit: less crowded than the larger shows. Parking & entry is free, so drop in and say hi!
Located in Turramurra Masonic Hall, corner of Pacific Hwy and Turramurra Ave (car park on Turramurra Ave).
In Style is on Sunday Aug 6th from 10am to 3pm
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| Page Shoes and Belisa Cashmere at In Style Turramurra |
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| Coley A-Line and Coley Fitted in patterns & kits |
Coley A line and Coley Fitted are two designs that are no longer sold as ready made garments. Of course the Pattern and knitting kit still remains available.
I featured these designs in my May newsletter "design talk", going into detail about the stitch patterns using increases to create lace patterns.
Right: Lace cable discontinued as a ready made design, sample shown is small size and in discontinued colour. |
| KNITS IN THE MIST |
Moss Vale, Thurs 10th and Fri 11th August 10am to 4pm
Dormie House 50 Arthur St (take left fork) Moss Vale.
It's several years since I did a private show in the Southern Highlands, organized by Jillian ...... with her homewares and wearables, along with Carole Tilling from Pages Shoes and Silversmith Christina Mija. |
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| Coal Loader Artisans Market |
Sunday 27th Aug 10am to 3pm
Held at the North Sydney Council's Centre for Sustainability, this quarterly market and all its wares are Australian made. You'll find several of the March Designers on Show exhibitors at the market.
Graphic artist Nicole Miranda and Silversmith Christina Mija. |
| DESIGN TALK |
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| This is a new segment to my newsletters: a closer look at design from garment shaping and fit to stitch patterns. Each newsletter will include this segment and I am happy to take your requests! |
| MITRE KNITTING |
Even my own knitters looked at Mitres and were not sure where they started and finished and how many balls of wool one had on the go at one time!
On my home page I have a Youtube video on the knitting of Mitres, including designs to show how I used Mitres. Design Talk allows me to go into greater detail, with any luck I'll add a few diagrams too.
Left: one of the first pieces I designed using Mitres - it's called Mitre Vee Capelet and I took this piece into my book Swing, Swagger, Drape.
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| The Mitre Vee takes 25 small Mitres to create a large square. Design-wise I have made the colours flow across the piece, knittability wise, the colour (small square) that completes one Mitre is worked into the following Mitre and to reduce the number of ends (see my youtube video for knitting in ends!) |
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Left to right above: Wool & Mohair Coco Capelet in  combination of 8 colours is a gaint Vee shape.
The Coco Cardigan reds and blue is knitted in 5 colours and was the first design I knitted, creating A line shaping and the fitted shoulder. The Coco Slub Cardigan in greens and blues has 1 hand dyed yarn knitted into all the mitres, combined with 7 solid colours, again A line with a fitted shoulder.
The Coco Shawl Panel Cardi-coat - this time the Mitres create the back and two front panels, then stitches are picked up from the panels and knitted to the armhole cast off and then the side seam cast off. |
So then the design challenge started - how to create A line shaping into Mitres. I have to add that I would never have believed I could be entertained by knitting two row stripes in garter st, nor how much fun I have had designing with Mitres.
Left: front shot of the Mitre vee capelet worn with the panel of 25 Mitres onto the shoulder and belted - very glamorous on Lydia. It shows how I used the Mitres to trim the hemline at the front of the capelet as well as on the back. The piece has no seams. |
 I first saw Mitres in blankets, a knitted version of the crocheted grannie square. The few garment designs were unstructured styles, boxy Jackets and Kimonos. My first few pieces kept to the square format as capelets knitted in a large Vee shape, shown above.
Right: Coco Capelet, using just 2 yarns - the base yarn in a solid colour with the variegated yarn creating the illusion of many different colours of yarn. |
| Swing, Swagger Drape in print now a collector's piece |
Swing, Swagger, Drape - Knit the Colors of Australia is now available electronically only and is sadly out of print. I do hold a couple of copies which are available only as part of knitting kits for designs from the book.
http://www.knittinguniverse.com/store/items/?search=swing+swagger |
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 Left and above: Harlequin Swagger: The key to this piece is the fit over the shoulder and a firm tension/ knit fabric to support the swing in the skirt.
I used three different needle sizes, the waist line on 4mm needles, shoulder on 3.75mm, both in garter st, whilst for the skirt of the coat I used 4.5mm with st-st in the darker tone and garter stitch in lighter tone.
If you take a closer look left you will see the Mitres create an upward Vee over the shoulders, over the hips and into the hemline a downward Vee.
Mitres are worked from the waist down to the hem, with the number of stitches per Mitre increasing.
Once the skirt is completed, stitches are picked up from the waist, Mitres are worked in garter st, decreasing stitches per Mitre and reducing needles size to shoulder.
I used garter st and smaller needles for firmer knitting, and st-st and garter st to get softer knitting & drape. |
Above,  pick the centre point of the back hemline, follow up and you see how the Mitres are gradually decreasing in size to create the A line and Swagger.
With the Harlequin Swagger this is a semi-circle. The body is one piece, with only shoulder seams. The armholes are simply slits between the Mitres.
The major design challenge with Mitres is working shoulder and armhole shaping. |
 The Mitres create the garment length and chest, more stitches equal a larger chest size and at the same time add length.
If you cast off a Mitre without completing the Mitre you'll have a chevron. Garment shaping is achieved with half vertical and half horizontal Mitres. |
Sleeves create another challenge - I created a centre panel increasing the Mitres to widen the sleeve/ panel from cuff to sleevehead. The sides are picked up from the edge of the Mitre panel and sleeve width is completed.
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In Jean's image of the Harlequin Swagger right you can see the Mitre sleeve panel and how the sleeve width has been completed in blue.
I chose to knit the sleeve with a centre panel in Mitres and pick up stitches to knit to the seam edge of the sleeve. The Mitres increase in size, cuff to sleeve head. To knit a sleeve completely from Mitres is possible, but it would present a challenge to each knitter to enable it to be adjusted for different body sizes and types. |
 Using the panels for the sleeves led to the idea of designs created from panels, picking up stitches and working to the side seams for the chest size.
The beauty of designs knitted in panels of Mitres is that first you achieve the length and then pick up and knit from the panel to the side seam and any chest size can be achieved. |
| With the Coco Shawl Panel cardigan below I chose a plain sleeve, using the Mitres as a cuff trim, and taking some texture and colour into the sleeve with garter stitch stripes. |
I feel some texture is needed when transitting from mitres, which are st-st and garter stripes to a single colour. I have added a 6 colour pattern break along both the body panels and along the top of the cuffs. Picking up and knitting from the Mitre panel in a contrast, working a garter st ridge, then 2 rows of st-st, then garter again before commencing the solid colour. |
| So far I have worked garments in all Mitres from Capelets to Jackets. For knitability I have commenced the following Mitre in the colour I completed the previous Mitre, repeating across the garment. With the Coco Shawl Panel I have worked colours randomly to avoid the pattern running across the garment. |
| Vertical Stripes in Mitres |
| So for my next play time with Mitres I wanted to create vertical Zig Zag stripes! |
 The Miami Drape combines drape styling and Mitres. Also, note Mitres are used to trim the hemline of the basket stitch.
I have achieved a vertical zig zag in black, with the Mitres going in opposite directions each side of the zig zag. So tilt your head to the left and you'll see the upward chevron above the black line, below the line the Chevron faces to the right, which is the direction the Mitres have been knitted.
Below: Mitre Tally Ho Vest again with vertical Zig Zag stripe pattern in Mitres. |
I talked previously abou t full and half Mitres.
Above: the Miami Drape shows the half horizontal Mitre along the sides of the Mitre Panel.
A full Mitre is an odd number of stitches, with a centre dec every RS row, until 1 st remains. With a half horizontal Mitre, decreases are worked at both ends of every RS row as well as the centre.
To get a straight edge on both sides of the panel the Mitres have to be worked in 2 directions, as the half horizontal can only be achieved with decreases, not mirrored with increases.
The side seam of the Mitre Tally Ho Jacket again shows the horizontal half Mitres. With the Jacket I have picked up the edge of the back Mitre panel and worked a garter stitch edge. The cable at the side seam edge of the front hides the seam very nicely too. The fronts are knitted hem up, the back must be knitted first so the front side seam can be matched in length to the back. The jacket also has a garter st trim over the shoulders which allows the design to have shoulder shaping. |
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Above: Colours in the Mitre Tally Ho (pattern $35 includes both Vest & Jacket pattern)
Below: left to right: Mitre Drape Vest the Mitres are knitted onto this piece after the body has been knitted. The Mitre Shona Jacket design carries through the vertical zig zag stripe. This is a blazer style, whilst the Mitre Tally Ho is tailored into the waist and is figure hugging. Aubergine and Khaki Mitre Shona Jacket shows the short length knitted in 4 colours. In four shades from cream to tempest, the long length in the Mitre Shona Jacket with the mitres at the back and the st-st front panels. Both the longer and shorter garments allow for a touch of A line into the hip which is not evident to the eye. |
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| If you'd like to discuss anything in this newsletter - or anything at all, please email Jane. Thanks for your support - Laura, Petra, Philippa, Cathryn and I look forward to seeing you in the knitting circle! |
