Kristin Knits

I had a great experience last weekend and am a bit slow to post about it. I've been thinking about it all week though, so maybe it isn't so out of date to write about it.

On Saturday Becky and I went to a knitting event hosted by a yarn store she used to frequent. The Black Sheep along with Wellesley Booksmith hosted a knit-in at the bookstore. The knitters took over the basement and knit together while listening to and watching presentations from various knitters/designers. We attended the second session about color in knitting. Kristin Nicholas was there with a mounding table of knitting samples of her designs and a slide show of photographs. She has recently published book that she used as the anchor of her presentation:

She talked to us about her love for colorwork and the various techniques that she uses in her color designs. She uses a lot of embellishments to add extra color to her designs. For example, rather than knitting with 3 or 4 colors, she knits with 2 colors and adds 2 accent colors by embroidering or crocheting them on to the finished pieces. I found her colors and designs to be so much fun. Even Becky, the lover of solid, neutral color knitted items was taken by her work, so much so that she bought the book and got it autographed.

She also showed us photographs of her home, which I totally want to move into, and photographs of things in nature that have inspired some of her color combinations. She also had photographs of the same items against various color backgrounds to illustrate the color relationships. I was pretty amazed at the effect the colors had on each other.

The scarf in the picture below is one of the patterns in her book. I am interested in making this because of the clever design. It is knit in the round and then steeked to turn it into a scarf. The steeked ends become the fringe. Genius! This design would give me a chance to try out steeking without the stress of messing up a whole sweater.

All of Kristin's designs are knit using Julia, the yarn she created and is distributing through Nashua Handknits. The yarn comes in an array of colors that were all chosen to be used in combinations together. You can basically chose any combination of Julia colors and Kristin says it should look good together.