I love how you can draw with yarn!

 

I am totally still obsessed with my latest release, the Deco Decadence Shawl!

What I loved about the process of creating this shawl was the absolute engagement in the images and the yarn and the shapes. They started as simply, images, symbols, motifs, and the lines and holes that allow them to take form.

And you can take some needles and some yarn and you can work your fingers/needles/yarn and really develop those lines and holes from something rather flat and limited in your mind to some alive and vital.



It's a real and tangible way of drawing that brings such a sense of self achievement- that you can feel time and time again, everytime you see the image move as you do, the sway of the folds making 'waves' of fluidity and flow out of those lines, and the light bringing shards of life through the holes to illuminate their picture...

I went with shades that had depth, richness and an element almost of a metallic flowing river to them but still a subtlety to them, shades that, for me, screamed of the times I was trying to emote with this shawl but were also very timeless and elegant. 



But as a knitter, you can choose to create the palette of shades that speak to the feeling, the mood, the attitude that you want to paint this shawl with and therefore imbue it with the mood, feeling and attitude that you want to wear it with!
And that lends a whole further level to the image, endless colourway and colour placement possibilities; moody, uplifting, vibrant, dramatic, many shades or how about just one?

I loved seeing the Finished Objects my testers came up with, the shades they chose and how much effort they all applied in that choice, which is a very important step in the process of ending up with the FO you want in your life. They all engaged in and thought hard about how they wanted the colours to come across, the order in which they wanted each shade to lay next to each other, the overall visual journey from top to bottom of the colour sequence they were laying out in preparation of owning that journey.

What I took away from their photo's was how they were all different, all unique interpretations, vibrant and uplifting, rich and sophisticated, serene and enchanting, bringing to life  those first lines and holes I brought together to form images into rich, elegant shawls.
Those images were still there, common amongst all of the versions, but enriched with the knitters interpretation and they all brought their own elements which made me smile so much!

The creativity and freedom with which you can needle a yarny picture still fills me with excitement and joy and wonder, every time, year after year, that hasn't got old for me yet and I doubt it ever will 😁