Tuesday, January 04, 2011
KNIT ME A RIVER
The Rio Grande River Wrap Rear View
Wild child knitting
Do you recall Aretha Franklin's 'Cry Me a River?' I always loved that song but crying rivers always struck me as being so…dehydrating. Instead, I'd rather conserve water and knit one, instead, which is why I created the KNIT ME A RIVER evocative guide. Twenty pages and two river wraps to try, one an ode to my Partridge River here in Nova Scotia, Northern Woods, and the other a dry desert mesa, the Rio Grande river of New Mexico.
Northern Woods on the bank of the Partridge River
Yes, intarsia, but not the fiddly, count-every-stitch kind. Free-range intarsia flows since it doesn't matter whether your river goes out one stitch or ten or twelve nor does it count if you make for rows of garter instead of two. This is free-[range intarsia; it's all about expression.
Both are knit from a mix of super-simple stitches: garter, stockinet, seed and the easiest, no-mistake lace you've ever tried: random lace. Combined, these stitches evoke woody forests or rocky stretches with a ripply river curving through. Through a modified diagonal knit, the wraps flow around your shoulders in a big, earth mother hug. The Rio Grande is long and lean, the Northern Woods, shorter and shaped. Both make perfect wraps or scarves. Come on, forget the tears: go knit yourself a river.
Charts are included but these are free-range pieces where mistakes simply don't show or matter.
To Order, click here: http://www.janethornley.com/patterns_booklets.html