It is called 'Bonnie' and is the basis for her sweater featured on the cover of the premiere issue of the new online knitting magazine, "The Twist Collective".
We also got to see the pictured sweater 'in the flesh'.
Although I've knit oodles of cables, particularly recently with the Must Have Cardigan and the Great American Aran Afghan, I always enjoy hearing Fiona talk about the processes she goes through when designing her creations. She often uses asymmetry and thus is challenged to balance the design. On close inspection of the Bonnie sweater, you will note that each sleeve is different - carrying on the pattern of the design closest to it.
Fiona also showed us a couple of books on Celtic knots that she used for inspiration. One was the 'Celtic Knotwork Handbook' by Sheila Sturrock. The other was 'Celtic Inspirations' by Lyn Webster Wilde.
This afternoon we did a Fair Isle class with Fiona. She talked about Colour Theory and the definitions of hue, value, saturation, tint, tone and shade of colours. She also informed us about various colour schemes, for example, monochromatic, analogous, complimentary, etc.
We then knit a swatch selecting from charts she provided using colours of our choosing.
I practiced carrying the yarn l o o s e l y behind my work. I also realized that if I use needles a size larger than what I'd use when doing straight stockinette, the result has a pretty good amount of lateral stretch. In the past, many fair isle items I've knit have been too tight.
Tonight I got somewhat inspired to get all my knitting books in one place. I really want to remove a lot of the clutter in the downstairs of the house so the house will be somewhat presentable for Thanksgiving.
We traditionally have had a capon for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners as Skip doesn't particularly like turkey, especially re-heated turkey in the days following the festive meal. However, this evening he said he wouldn't mind getting turkey this year. Yippee!! I'm going to try and find a little one for our group of diners. And the house will reek of roasted turkey like Mom's house used to smell - mmmmmm!
I also got some 'Spirit of Christmas' books out of the library and am inspired to do some serious Christmas baking this year for the first time EVER. It sort of got by me last year, my first Christmas as a retiree. I can also make up some gift bags of cookies and treats.
In three months Christmas will be over and we'll be looking forward to our two month sojourn in South Padre Island, Texas in the new year.
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