Fashion: Yarn Style

Versailles Inspirations

Shaded Flower fair isle cardigan is progressing. Still there are two sleeves to go!

 

I have been slower to finish this project, as I am working on my own design, true to my New Year’s resolutions this year. The pullover I am working on will have bust darts incorporated into the design so that it will be easy to expand the bust area as much as anyone wants to accommodate their shape without changing the pattern—I am very excited about it! I got excited about knitting when I realized it was a great medium to tailor clothes to my figure in a flattering way and I am thinking about creating some patterns that are figure flattering that others might benefit from as well. 

Perhaps it was my visit to Paris, where I found  myself surrounded by so many beautiful creations by others hands, that made me feel that it is time to design something of my own.  There even chocolate making is elevated to a form of high art.

Above you see a sculpture of two hippos made entirely of chocolate carved by Patrick Roger. He displays his life size chocolate carvings in the windows of his tiny boutiques in the chic quartiers of Paris. There are inspirations to be found everywhere in modern day Paris, but I am most fascinated by the luxury craftsmanship that began under the reign of Louis XIV. The king shrewdly established France as the founder of the luxury goods industry in Europe through his patronage of ceramics (The Sèvres Porcelain factory), tapestries and furniture (The Gobelins workshops) and so much more. For anyone who is interested in this topic, I recommend the book, The Essence of Style: How the French Invented High Fashion, Fine Food, Chic Cafés, Style, Sophistication and Glamour by Joan DeJean. Highlights of the book describe the invention of celebrity hair stylists, spike-heeled shoes, boutiques and the elevation of diamonds to pre-eminent importance in France during the reign of Louis XIV.

 

For those of us living in San Francisco, the current exhibit showing at the Legion of Honor provides an exciting opportunity to see the King’s luxuries first hand. The personal furniture and luxury items belonging to King Louis XIV, XV and XVI, as well as Marie Antoinette are on display there.

http://legionofhonor.famsf.org/legion/exhibitions/royal-treasures-louvre-louis-xiv-marie-antoinette

 

I was astounded by the beauty of the cups, carved from gemstones, the Sèvres porcelain, and best of all, the collection of snuff boxes studded with diamonds or ornamented with portraits of royalty. The novel I am currently writing, which takes place in the first decade of 1800 features a rare snuff box from Versailles as a clue, and it was marvelous to get ideas of what that snuff box might have actually looked like from examining the treasures of the Louvre. The exhibit runs until mid March.

 

 

Creative Knitting Resolutions for 2013

 

As the Spanish proverb goes, “A life lived in fear is a life half-lived.”

The movie “Strictly Ballroom” memorably explored this idea by creating a mythical Australian dancing world in which the fear of “new steps” cowed a generation of young dancers until the audacious Scott Hastings defies convention with a stunning Flamenco routine. Everyone who is involved in creative pursuits knows the fear of “new steps.” Knitting is a laborious process, and if you venture down a wrong path, you may be losing months of precious time. New stitches, new techniques, new yarns….I regard them with fascination and fear.

 

Perhaps true mastery only comes from the steady pursuit of the same routines that have always been successful, using techniques yarns and designers that we trust. Or perhaps it comes from dangerous forays into the unknown—designing our own patterns with no idea of the final outcome, experimenting with new techniques and allowing ourselves to fail. I swing back and forth between the two extremes, wondering which way to go next. However, my recent experience designing my own pattern, Gabrielle has inspired me to be more bold. Since it is time for resolutions in the New Year I have decided 2013 is my opportunity to take risks.

 

I am challenging myself to design 5 custom sweater patterns in 2013 instead of knitting the work of trusty designers I know will not fail. Sounds risky? I am raising the stakes even more by challenging myself to put aside my fear of knitting with beads! Fair isle? Yes to that as well. Perhaps I will even venture into steeking, but I am not sure that is necessary as the flat construction is working so well.

 

I am resolved that 2013 will be a year of adventure! There are so many things I have always wanted to try to knit, but been too timid. Designing sweater cuffs and collars decorated with beads, creating a fair isle pattern inspired by the art deco flowers I have loved for years, experimenting with the shapes and textiles that are more figure flattering, there are so many avenues to explore! Of course, the world of Chanel-inspired knits always calls, but I wonder if I can really improve the fit of my knitted jackets without exploring some basics of jacket construction first.

In the meantime, as I plot more radical adventures, the cardigan by Kaffe Fasset, Shaded Flower, is taking shape. I have finished one front and am halfway through the second, which leaves the two sleeves and then the cunning 3-color trim which will bind the whole together. Being so new still to fair isle, it is progressing slowly, but perhaps that is because my thoughts are often drifting to less tangible realms, where half-formed ideas of my own designs beckon from the unknown.   

Art Nouveau inspirations for the New Year

 

I like to start off the New Year with an inspiration. And the Art Nouveau exhibit at the Musee d’Orsay, which I saw recently in Paris, was an incredible example of how beautiful our every day lives can be.

The exhibit of furniture in complete rooms of art deco furnishings demonstrated how the humble every day implements of our lives—chairs, tables, dishes could be elevated to the exceptional.

 

The French seem to instinctively understand the importance of integrating exceptional beauty into the ordinary. Look at how even Paris metro signs are ornately detailed in the art nouveau style. You can find a beautiful gallery of photos of art deco style signs here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaeger-meister/galleries/72157623240944247

 

This is inspiring to me as a knitter because the point of the “slow clothing movement”, i.e. spending months making something by hand that you could buy in five minutes, is the search for the sublime within the ordinary. If I were to spend $150 at Nordstrom on a cashmere cardigan, the instant gratification would give way to the ho hum reality that I had just added another sweater to my wardrobe. But if I were to spend a month knitting that cardigan, using colors, textures and design elements I handpicked, that simple cardigan becomes a unique art piece that I can wear in my every day life. It is not that I don’t appreciate art in the form of paintings or sculpture. But you can’t wear anything like that around on a plain ordinary day. A sweater, on the other hand, is a staple –we have to put on something when we go outside—so it touches us more. Every time we look down at our handmade garments we receive the message that creativity, passion, beauty are possible.

 

This is one of the pieces I found particularly beautiful at the Musee d’Orsay—against the dark background, the mysterious beauty of the flowers shines. This juxtaposition of saturated colors using shapes inspired by nature, so celebrated by the art nouveau movement, is interpreted by Kaffe Fasset in his cardigan design, “Shaded Flower.”

The repetitive floral motif is reminiscent of art nouveau lithographs and wall paper. The shape of flower he has chosen is also commonly found in work from that period, as you can see in this candy box from the Musee d’Orsay:

 When I first saw this design in Rowan Magazine 50, I realized the creative potential of fair isle knitting but was too intimidated to take it on. Now that I have finally challenged myself to learn stranded knitting I have discovered it is not as difficult as I feared. Although the Rowan fair isle patterns are all written flat, which means you have to strand on alternating knit and purl sides, if you have experience following any kind of lace chart, learning to follow a color chart on the back side is not any more difficult, and the flat knitting allows you to incorporate shaping into the garment so it will fit properly.  So far, I have completed and blocked the back piece:

I did change some of the original colors of the design to keep the color palette I felt was most true to the art nouveau style. This project is really my inspiration for 2013. There is nothing more enjoyable than looking at the beautiful chain of flowers taking shape under my fingers as I wonder what the New Year will bring.