When I first started my yarn business back in 2001, my knitting background was all about the pattern.I had been taught to follow patterns to the letter and to always follow conventions established over the millenia by all those knitters who went before. Now this is a wonderful heritage for us all and I am the first to admit that I love beautiful lace, be it from the Shetlands or Orenburg or just simple one row lace knitting.
However as I rubbed shoulders with other modern knitters, browsed web sites and watched the chatter of on line knitters, I discovered a wonderful new world of knitting without any rules.
Kno Rules Knitting  with silent K's - of course ! © -
my adventures in the wonderful world of knitting without rules
Of course there are many wonderful exponents of this modern knitting (and crochet) known to us all and they have naturally developed their own style and created their own nomenclature (or catchy names). Prudence Mapstone's and Jenny Dowde's free form knitting & crochet designs are truly inspiring. I also greatly admire the work of Jane Thornley and her fabulous free range knitting inspired by nature.
Before I'd even become aware of these developments however, I had commissioned all this wonderful fibre from my goats and sheep to be spun into yarn and once I started dyeing it, surrounded myself with it and found it saying- like a siren: make me into something - but what I replied ? NOw my business plan said that my main aim was to sell yarn to others, not finished products and that I would leave the creative side of things to the knitters out there. But I couldn't resist and as I also couldn't afford to hire professional pattern designers or writers at that time, I knew it was up to me to come up with a few ideas to help inspire others to use my yarn.
My first foray into "Kno Rules Knitting" or KRK for short, produced my Neck Hugger Range, which began as a play with stitches which caused the end pieces to curl into a spiral as I knitted.
I also loved combining colours, so put not just two, but three colourways into each Hugger.
These proved to be hugely popular in their first outing at the Bendigo Sheep Show way back in 2003?? can't remember exactly !
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Lara Downs Neck Hugger "Showoff" in 2 ply Angoraglow mohair. |
Boyed by that unexpected success, I plunged in a bit deeper and started to think in terms of larger projects, but not necessarily planning the whole thing from the outset.
I would put various yarns together as well as dye a set of colours in different yarns and then set about knitting - something ! I was keen to avoid being too symmetrical in my colours and patterns and finally came up with my Mohair and Silk combo "Quartet" wrap using four different yarns in mixed colourways knitted variously with a single stand as well as double strands.
My "patterns" for these kits, were more like general suggestions rather than row by row instructions. Probably some of my customers didn't quite know what to make of this. However these also sold well. Inspiration comes from many quarters, but this colourway in browns,blacks and rusty tones came from my dye house companion Sophie - also known as a cat by outsiders! |
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Lara Downs Yarn Harmony Quartet Wrap in 'Sophisticat' colourway. |
Cobwebs were the next thing to catch my attention and I set about creating something to resemble nature's artworks.
I was pleased with the end result of my Cobweb shawl, but I'll never forget a shop owner with a fashionable boutique in Melbourne telling me that my design was completely impractical ! Well it looked beautiful anyway, so who cares about practicality !
Knitted in silk and mohair, it draped beautifully but I have to admit, it did catch on the hands just a little. Since then, when selecting silk yarns to buy or use, I've been careful to only select ones that don't bite ! The chunky twist silk yarn used in this model has since been consigned to history.
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The following Winter, I played with my chunky wool yarns and lengths of wool top employing a thick and thin technique.
My bobbly wooley scarf was the end result of this playtime - again destined for the Winter Sheep Show in Bendigo.
This style obviously could be explored in many forms and a more elaborate and over the top version became my "Jewel" scarf kit, started while filling in idle time at a Fibre Forum traders market one September ! 
The contents of this Kit included a selection of hand dyed yarns, some mohair curls and some lengths of silk tissue. You can knit with anything really ! They were all tied together with a super fine mohair yarn I later christened Kool Kid.
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My Cashmere Silk "Drape" was my next adventure in Kno Rules Knitting, where I knitted pieces of fabric with no real idea of what I would do with them and only subsequently thinking that I might attach them together at a raunchy angle to form my "Drape"; a term which unfortunately seems to have been picked up by another designer recently. I must remember to copyright some of my ideas !
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June 2010. Recently, I was suddenly seized with a desire to knit something with one of my chunky hand dyed woollen yarns. It had been sitting on the shelves of my store all Winter and it hadn't found a home but I just loved the colours so had to pick it up and do something with it.
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Here are bits of it to tantalise you. It was made in two pieces but is now one and will be given a name in due course.
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I also intend to make up some kits for this creation but it will be a little while before the final product sees the light of day, maybe next Winter.
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Well here it is for better or worse. I call it a Head & Shoulder wrap, but of course it can also be worn as a standard Wrap around the shoulders too. It combines the chunky merino with some hand dyed Camel, as well as some commercial (Eki Riva) alpaca. Different stitches as well as the mixed yarns adds a lot of interest to this item. Better pics (not using the phone camera as in the photo on the right) would enhance the result as well.
I had a lot of fun with this one and it's actually very warm. On to the next mad idea .......
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See our Handcrafts page for further detail about these accessories and my new hobby - knitted jewellery.
It's now June 2011 - it must be something about Winter with it's early evenings and long dark nights that give me so much time indoors. I start thinking about doing some creative knitting as opposed to frantic dyeing which I do most of the time in day light hours to keep customers happy (thank you lovely customers).
This creative Winter season I've taken a shine to my gorgeous chunky boucle silk yarn which hasn't received much attention to date. I thought I'd knit up a swatch with my new brushed super fine mohair and I got excited - it felt just wonderful and looked exciting as well. I was off and running. Armed with both yarns in happily co-ordinating colourways, I started knitting - again not knowing where I was heading, but I had to start. I think boredom is a problem for me in knitting because I can't enjoy knitting in the one pattern or yarn for any great length of time before I want to make a change. No discipline I know. By the time I'd knitted half a scarf, I'd incorporated some silk hankies, some velvet and silk paj and tissue strips into the fabric. It looked wonderful. |
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At about half way too I also thought that I'd like something larger than a scarf so I started increasing at both ends of the needle to form a bulbous shape, but sadly knew I didn't have enough yarn in the right shades to go for a wrap style ending so it had to shrink again to scarf size before the end.
In between the expansion and contraction stages, I knitted in all manner of lovely bits & pieces including some gorgeous beaded yarn from my friend Adele who has a wonderful team of women in South Africa who create these lovely yarns for our pleasure.
The end result is a longish scarf with a wider section at one end reducing to a slightly shorter scarf/wrap shape at the end. On this (slim) mannequin, the long tail is long enough to wrap around her waist before being flung over the shoulder to show off all the embellishing threads. On my slightly thicker frame, I can't manage this but throw it around as a normal scarf with the wider section over the shoulder.
Definitely a showy piece and very snug. You'll notice that as yet I haven't sown off the loose ends - not sure if I will but maybe it would look a little more finished if I did.
Of course it can be worn in many different ways. Still searching for the perfect angle! |
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Thanks for reading.
Pam
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