Patricia Waller's Beautiful, Sick Crafts

Anatomically correct aliens. A suicide bomber Sponge Bob Squarepants. Superman splattered against a wall. A teddy bear speared on the horn of a unicorn. A raped Minnie Mouse. Chilean-born, Germany-based artist Patricia Waller's crocheted art pieces are nothing if not a challenge to the viewer's mindset and expectation that at least some of the narratives in this complex and troubled world of ours can be relied on to be simply and comfortingly cute and cuddly.

Waller's work is immaculately crafted from a technical perspective, which almost makes it more chilling, as though it were a meticulously planned massacre.

You can view more of Patricia Waller's work on her website.

Do Ewe Knit While Watching TV?

An animated short by Juraj Kubinec. Apparently even sheep like to watch TV while they knit. It's a shame there wasn't better programming for this sheep's knitting time, but maybe that's why it finished its project so quickly.

The Wool Paintings of Cayce Zavaglia

You probably admire the meticulous detail and realism of the painting above. As you should, but it's not technically a painting. It is, strictly speaking, a piece of embroidery. Artist Cayce Zavaglia trained as and was a painter until she got pregnant with her daughter, and consequently decided she no longer wanted to use oil paints because of the turpentine and fumes that inevitably accompany working in oils. Instead, she began "painting" with wool.

Zavaglia initially found it frustrating to no longer be able to just create any shade or tint she wished as one can with paint, and resolved the problem by learning to layer different coloured stitches in order to create the illusion of the specific colours and tones she wanted. Her stitchwork mimics drawing techniques in their direction and layers to create a visual depth, volume and form. Her pieces are entirely hand-stitched, can be as large as 1' x 3', and take as long as six months to complete. She uses a single ply of wool or acrylic yarn, as well as cotton and silk threads, and works mainly on linen.

Zavaglia still considers herself a painter and finds it difficult not to refer to her works as "paintings", but also considers her work an "unabashed nod to the tradition of tapestry and her own love of craft". You can see and learn more of Zavaglia's work on her web site.

Phat Knits

Dutch designer Bauke Knottnerus has created a series of furniture pieces he calls Phat Knits, because what they really are is giant knitted pieces. Phat Knits can be used strictly as art pieces, or as functional rugs or furniture. They mold to the shape of the person lounging or sitting upon them and are reportedly quite comfy.

Phat knits - Bauke Knottnerus from MoMu Fashion Museum Antwerp on Vimeo.

You can see the production of one of Knottnerus' pieces in the video above. It takes two PVC pipes and two able-bodied young men to knit one of these pieces and the process seems more like gator wrestling than knitting. I don't know where Knottnerus gets his fibres, but they don't look like anything that would be available at your local yarn shop, and the whole process takes more open space than you probably have in your home. Check out Bauke Knottnerus's web site to see more of his Phat Knits and his work in other mediums.

Bridal Bo-Peep has Sheared Her Sheep

If anyone thinks you're slightly yarn-mad for say, knitting a wedding dress, you can always tell them about the bride who made her dress out of shearings from her own sheep. Louise Fairburn, a sheep breeder from Lincolnshire, England, used wool from her favourite Lincoln Longshire sheep, Olivia, to make the wedding gown for her 2009 wedding. The dress, which was almost entirely of her own design, took a spinner and a dressmaker a total of 67 hours to make.

The whole wedding was sheep themed. The groom's and groomsmen's waistcoats and the bodices of the bridesmaids' dresses were made of embroidered wool, the bride carried a Bo Peep-style crook, the ring bearer's cushion was made from a fleece, the felted cake topper (above) included a pair of sheep, there were sheep-shaped chocolate favours for the guests, and the wedding dinner featured lamb dishes. The Daily Mail has the story here, and Wovember.com has an interview with the bride, in which Louise Fairburn discusses the process of making the dress, and claims the dress didn't feel hot or heavy.

Something Borrowed, Something Blue, Something Knitted

Last week I published a post of selected bridal gown knitting patterns, and I've decided that post will be the first in a series on knitting patterns for weddings. I can't say how many posts there will be in this series, but I do have quite a few ideas in mind, so I'll just try to do one a week until I'm done. (You can see the other posts on knitting for weddings here.) This is the second post, and it features selected patterns for garters and hand-knitted bridal stockings. I'm trying to write this series of posts in such a way that they can also be of value to those who aren't planning a wedding. I've no intention of ever getting married myself, but I'd just love to knit myself a fancy pair of thigh-high stockings at some point.

Let's look at the garters first. They're a purely decorative item for most bridal outfits, and though garters are normally not an item for public display, bridal garters are commonly tossed to the male guests by the groom at the end of the wedding (as the bride's bouquet is tossed to the single female guests by the bride), with the catcher being supposed to be the next person to get married. Brides often consequently supply themselves with a second, simpler and/or less expensive bouquet and garter specifically for tossing so that they may keep the more elaborate bouquet and garter that saw actual use during the wedding. If you're knitting a garter for a wedding that will feature a garter toss, you may want to make one special garter to be worn and buy or make a simpler version for tossing.

Garters are probably one of the items a knitter might be most likely to make for a wedding, because it can be done so quickly and inexpensively. As I found when I looked for garter patterns, they are very likely to be the standard white lace with a blue ribbon threaded through it, and so be the "something blue" the bride wears for luck. I've tried to find some different styles, but even then they were pretty much all in blue and white or ivory. There's really no reason why a bride can't wear a garter made in her favourite colours or wedding colours.

The garter above is knitted of ribbon, and of course it's possible to use a variety of ribbon types or colours. The pattern is designed by Julianne Smith and is available for free.

This Angora Mohair Garter pattern appears in Luxury Yarn One-Skein Wonders: 101 Small Indulgences, edited by Judith Durant. I'd say this one is for a winter wedding, because if I had to wear anything angora all one hot summer day, I'd be taking it off and chucking it at someone long before the end of the wedding.

Pretty garter with a ruffle and a bow. I'd be inclined to make this one in a higher-end or more delicate fibre than is used here to give it a lacier, more lingerie-like look. This garter is designed by Deby Lake and is a free pattern.

A classic lace garter with two shades of green ribbon run through it to give it a bit of a different look. This garter was designed by Diane Willett and is a free pattern.

This garter pattern is actually a slightly altered version of the one above, and uses a single ribbon and a different fibre for a softer, more ruffled look. This garter was made by Christy Wall and is a free pattern.

Gina's Wedding Garter plays with the usual proportions and the result looks like something different. I also like the idea of adding a little charm to the garter, though you'll need to make sure whatever you add doesn't catch on the bride's dress. This pattern was designed by Lara Neel and is a free pattern.





Now let's have a look at some knitted stockings. Some of these stocking patterns won't be compatible with wearing any of the garters above, so you may have to choose which item you'd like most to wear. Fortunately you won't need to wear garters with these stockings because they're designed to stay up on their own. Some have garters built right into the pattern. This pair of lace stockings have a different view front and back. They were designed by Mari Muinonen and are available as a $5 download.

Susie's Long Stockings are one of the stocking patterns with built-in garters. This pattern was designed by Elizabeth Wolden and is available as a $6 download.

The Agnes's Silk Stocking pattern is probably the most traditional of the stocking patterns I've picked out, and I should think it would be impossible not to feel like a princess while wearing them. As long as you can keep from yelling at the caterer. These stockings were designed by Karen E. Hooten for the September/October 2011 issue of Piece Work.

These ribbed stockings would be for the more informal winter wedding and perhaps one for which one was wearing traditional Scottish dress. This pattern was designed for A Handknit Romance: 22 Vintage Designs with Lovely Details by Jennie Atkinson.

The Haapsalu Lace Socks pattern looks quite racy in black, but of course they could be made in any colour and would have a completely different effect in the traditional white or ivory. This pattern was designed by Tiina Kaarela and is available for €5.00(EUR).

The Delphyne is another lacy stocking pattern, this time less openwork than the previous. This pattern was designed by Stephanie Mason and is a $7(USD) download.

Mini-Skirts and Mod Style: a Selection of Knitting Patterns from 1960-1969

This post is the seventh on my series of posts on 20th century knitting patterns (you can find the other posts in the series here) and contains a selection of ten patterns dating from 1960 to 1969. It was surprisingly difficult to find patterns for this post. The first post in this series, for 1900-1909, took more time than any post I've written for this blog because there were so few Edwardian patterns available of any description, and so few were wearable by modern standards, but the posts have gotten easier and easier to find by the decade. I assumed the post for the sixties would be a snap, especially since Mad Men, a show about a New York advertising business in the 1960s, has renewed interest in sixties style. I had no problem at all finding material for my post on Mad Men knitting projects. But as it turned out, there just weren't that many sixties-era patterns available online. The web sites I've been depending on to find patterns for previous posts in this series all have collections that end with the fifties. I don't know why. Could it be that there were just fewer patterns available from then, as crafting went into a downturn during the sixties and the seventies? Or perhaps the patterns are just generally less appealing to knitters. I know I don't generally care for sixties fashions myself; I find the styles from the first half of the decade too staid and the fashions from the second half just plain ugly. However, I kept searching until I found ten patterns that I consider presentable and here they are.

The checked man's pullover above is the first pattern, which was published in Eva Breit magazine in January 1961. And the pattern is free. The one drawback is that the pattern is in Dutch and the odds are you don't read Dutch. However, I dared to include it because Google translate does what seemed to me on a quick read through to be an amazingly good job of translating the instructions, and I think a good knitter can manage to figure out what is not a terribly complicated pattern. Again, I had quite a hard time finding patterns for this post.

This simple sleeveless top is another Eva Breit magazine pattern from its January 1961, that again is in Dutch and must be translated.

I can't get over how not-knitted this Houndstooth Jacket looks. The aim of much early sixties knitting seems to have been to make knitted garments that didn't look knitted. There was a lot of fine gauge stockinette involved. This is another Eva Breit magazine Dutch-language pattern from January 1961.

This Nordic-Style Ski Sweater originally appeared in the Fall/Winter 1963 issue of Vogue Knitting, and can now be found in Vogue Knitting Vintage Collection: Classic Knits from the 1930s-1960s.

This Natural Beauty pattern may be my favourite in the entire post. It was originally published in The Australian Women's Weekly in October 1964, and is available for free.

I love the shape of this Mohair Bag, and the fact that it's mohair, but it might be a little too large in scale for a modern woman's taste. However, it should be easy to scale it down to whatever size you wish. This pattern originally appeared in The Australian Women's Weekly in June 1965 and is available for free.

This Long Leggy Gear pattern for lace stockings appears to have been knitted in white, but I'd suggest that you knit them in another colour, such as anything but white. Grown women just can't get away with white stockings. This pattern originally appeared in The Australian Women's Weekly in March 1966 and is available for free.

This Zipper Jacket and Cap is a Patons Australia pattern from 1968, and is a free pattern. I'd advise against making that hat, but the jacket is quite sharp and mod.

The At The Park design is quite cute, though it should probably lengthened for wear today and I see it in a variegated yarn and coordinating solid colour yoke rather than in black and white. This pattern originally appeared in The Australian Women's Weekly in September 1968 and is available for free.

This knitted dress with lacy panels is a nice little number that would look quite timely today, though again you may want to lengthen it somewhat. This pattern originally appeared in The Australian Women's Weekly in May 1969 and is available for free.