Laura: Simply Stripes grew out of a desire to use really luscious yarns in a project easy enough for a beginner. Hand dyed yarns often look better when the stripes are stretched out, so working the scarf long-ways allows those long color runs to really shine. Also, Angora is a dear yarn where a little goes a long way, and working stripes with plainer yarns allows it to be prominent without breaking the bank. Definitely a case where less is more…the Angora becomes more important when contrasted with a plainer yarn. The
Gossamer Capelet grew out of a class I teach called “Flounces, Frills & Fichus”. It explores making lacy fabric that has built in arcs (the Capelet is a circle when you lay it flat). Usually that kind of shaping is achieved with short rows, a technique I also work with, but that drives some people crazy. Again, this is a project that even an inexperienced knitter can make, and opening up the gauge on the lace weight kid mohair is really economical.
Kara: Can you share a little about the yarns you used for each of these projects? The color combinations are so vibrant and beautiful. How do you decide on what colors to use each time you create a new collection? What kind of inspiration do you draw from?
Laura: Of course, color is what I do all day long every day. 35 years of working as an artist, teaching color and designing color combinations for
Prism, my hand dyed yarn company, sort of makes it pervasive! I love wacky combinations: acid greens functioning as neutrals, as they do in
Simply Stripes, and soft glimmers of pastels accented by beige, like the Gelato colorway (mint, blueberry, raspberry & mocha—just imagine!) of the
Gossamer Capelet. As I said, a little bit of angora goes a long way, so pairing
Prism Angora with
Lotus, a lovely merino/silk/bamboo blend, allows the
Angora to create a soft fuzz while the
Lotus anchors it and stretches the value. Lace weight kid mohair,
Gossamer, is perfect for the Capelet and for the general technique of using long stitches to create shape as mohair’s long brushed nap causes the air spaces to be filled with fiber, keeping the stitches in their place. Really, just a kiss of warmth on your shoulders. I kind of look at the world with wide-eyed wonder, noticing color all the time and gaining inspiration from color combinations I see in the world. I have a large file of things I’ve torn from magazines: fashion, landscape, ads, science photos—you name it. If I don’t have a strong sense of a season’s color direction, I go to the file for inspiration.
Kara: You provide a great tip with your
Simply Stripes Scarf to “fringe as you work.” How might a knitter traveling with this project use something they have handy to make fringe on the go?
Laura: Interesting to me how many knitters are also avid readers! A paperback book is the perfect size to measure the tails as you cut them. I also find that the distance between the tip of my outstretched thumb and middle finger is just about 8”, a perfect length for fringe. Once you have measured one tail, you can continue to measure against it for new rows, remembering that no matter how good you are at measuring, you’ll still have to even the ends up when it’s done.
Kara: I love the use of the loose garter stitch on your Gossamer Capelet. The use of large needles with skinny-gauge yarn makes for a such a unique look. What inspired you to do this? Why did you choose a lace-weight yarn and a size 8 needle for this design?
Laura: Not quite as radical as it seems, as the
Gossamer is doubled. That particular construction requires a needle small enough to hold the tighter end tightly, and allow the double and triple wraps to blossom out. I love thinking outside of the tradition box, and this is just one example.
Kara: Can you share a little about the construction process of this Capelet?
Laura: The idea is that bigger and bigger stitches cause the fabric to flare out. If you look at how a flounce is created when sewing with fabric, a long circular piece is straightened out and the inside curve is sewn along a straight line. The capelet, and a long scarf that is available as a free pattern the
Prism Yarn website. Take advantage of the fact that you can create the same kind of arcs by knitting tightly at one end of a row and using double and triple wraps to make bigger stitches at the other end of the row. Then it’s reversed, first working triple, then double, then regular wraps. This isn’t the same as making a yarn over between stitches; it is actually wrapping the yarn two or three times around the needle as the stitch is made. A little awkward at first, but really fun and quick to knit (thus economical!) once you get into it.
Kara: Can you tell me what first attracted you to knitting? When did you start designing and producing yarn?
Prism Yarn is quite popular in the industry. How did you first get the company off the ground?
Laura: Mom taught my Brownie troop how to knit and it just stuck. I was always a busy kid, much happier when I was engaged in creating something. Prism Arts began in 1984 as a side interest to my art weaving career, when I discovered that selling artwork was an unpredictable business and I needed a more reliable way to earn a living. While clerking in a local yarn shop, I realized there were such positions as manufacturer’s representatives: sales reps that traveled from store to store showing the season’s yarn lines. I talked my way into a rep position for several better yarn lines, including
Tahki Stacy Charles, and began traveling through upstate New York. While visiting stores and attending national trade shows, I had a “V-8” moment when I realized that there existed a market for hand dyed yarns. Having trained extensively in color and dyeing while in art school, I thought “I can do that!”, and approached Diane Friedman at
Tahki Stacy Charles about hand dyeing their Designer Tweed line of wool. Thus
Prism was born. It started in my basement in Buffalo, migrated to a garage at my husband Matt’s machine shop, and then really got going in 1992 when we moved from Buffalo to Florida.
Kara: You also design patterns under your
Prism label. Can you tell me a little about your current collection. What kind of projects can we expect to see?
Laura: I am doing a lot of work with interesting silhouettes and colors—I just finished a booklet for
Prism called
Hoodinis! They are a take-off on Elizabeth Zimmerman’s moebius hoods, but I updated them with fashion yarns and made them bigger and longer so they can be worn a multitude of ways: as a scarf, wrap, hood, collar and even a shrug. For spring we have a great new chunky cotton/rayon yarn with thick slubs that we are using for shrugs and hoodies, like a beach cover-up. I am more and more interested in using sand washed solid colors together in things like subtle stripes and simple fair isle patterns.
Kara: Martingale recently re-issued a book that you co-authored with Barry Klein of
Trendsetter Yarns called:
A New Knitter’s Template. I would love to hear more about this book. What kind of designs are featured? Are the projects approachable for knitters of every level?
Laura: Actually, we just finished the re-writes and the book will be released next June. Tentatively titled A New Knitter’s Template, the book no longer features patterns for specific sweaters. Rather, it is a work-horse handbook of nine different gauges across thirty different sizes, with many style options for necklines, armholes and length. Chapters move step by step through taking proper measurements, matching yarn to project, deciding on style details and ease, and then actually pulling numbers from our templates and plugging them into the pattern blank so that you have exactly what you want every time. Any knitter with this book will no longer be searching for a shawl collared sweater in XXL at a 5 ½ per inch gauge. You simply plug the numbers in and voila! A custom pattern. We have written it in a very approachable, conversational style that is accessible to even advanced beginner knitters.
Kara: Please share a little about your one-of-a-kind pursuits. You also are a weaver. Can you share a little about that?
Laura: I started life after college (art school to be exact) wanting nothing more than to be an artist. The realities of selling art reliably enough to live hurt my artwork, and my search to make only “saleable” work took its toll. As a result, I decided to keep my artwork part of my soul, and make a living with more commercial work.
Prism has been so busy over the last few years that I haven’t had much time for artwork, but I am very fortunate to sell most everything I manage to make. I had a show 18 months ago here in St. Petersburg, and you can view that work
here. It is interesting how much my knitting and weaving/painting influence each other. They are very different processes: my weavings are made with very fine, plain yarns and the images have a lot of geometric structure, while knitting often entails lots of texture. Nonetheless, they both involve color, color, color, which really is at the center of my life.
A colorful life indeed! I can clearly see how your love for weaving and color have such a strong influence over how you design your unique yarn collection.
Thanks again for sharing such an inspiring interview Laura, and for taking some time out of your busy schedule to chat with me today!
Tomorrow's stop-- Day 5: Susan Lawrence's blog- Knitting As Fast As I Can Susan will be interviewing Colleen Smitherman about her Knit, Then Weave Placemats, and hosting a weaving tutorial. Also- don't miss out on another contest to win a free copy of It's In The Bag. Don't miss this post!
I can't believe we're nearing the end of the It's In The Bag blog tour already. Where has the time gone? I've thouroghly enjoyed reading all of the posts, and the in-depth interviews with a few of the designers. I feel very fortunate to have found some great bloggers willing to take part in this tour and to review the book for everyone to enjoy!
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