Tuesday 24 January 2012

More dirt, more Kaffe!

 My current knitting-in-progress, in answer to the knitting-in-progress from this previous post.
My great knitting guru: Kaffe Fassett, photo by Steve Lovi taken in his studio in 1985.  (A handsome devil too.)
Incredibly, Fassett's first ever knitting project contained an impressively combined 20 colours, above.
Above and below, some of my favourite patterns from his Glorious Knitting book first published in 1985.  Ignorance is bliss: Fassett initially worked as a watercolour painter with an interest in colour and pattern. When he began to translate this interest to knitting he was blissfully unaware of its traditional rules, and broke most of them.  We are all the richer for it.
It's an interesting story to keep in mind when trying a new craft or medium.  I tend to prefer to know the rules before I break them but maybe there's just as much to be said for doing it the other way around.

9 comments:

jen storer said...

Woah. That is amazing. My mother could knit intricate patterns and do shaping while watching tv. I love knitting but could never do it at my mum's or your level sandra. I needs bits of paper and tracking devices and complete silence etc etc... jxx

Unknown said...

Very true regarding technique vs invention. A friend of mine recently took up shoemaking and he has the best approach, not governed by technique and tradition.

Pilgrim said...

you and kaffe are blowing my mind! :D

jenni said...

I bought me Ma two Kaffe books in the 80's in hope of lots of beautiful winter woolies, never got the cardi (his ply of wool was quite hard to get in them days) but gave her buckets of inspiration & lots of fair isling type knitting since. I just love his inspiration pages & book!
And as for your knitting Ms Eterovic...well, it's divine!
Yay to the Ignorant crafters :)

Sandra Eterovic said...

WOW! Thank you so much Jen, Emma, Pilgrim and Jenni for your comments -- I had no idea that Kaffe would inspire you all so much but I am very glad that he has.
His other books e.g. Glorious Colour and Glorious Inspiration (from the 80s to the mid 90s) take every idea to the nth degree and are a little crazy and quite wonderful. Highly recommended! The later work is a bit more commercial and 'achievable', I think. To me, those factors make it lose its magic. Another interesting thing to keep in mind, perhaps....

Fanny said...

Lovely! I'm visiting your blog for the first time and I feel truly inspired. Feels like I'm dealing with lots of similar things that you've brought up here. A real pep up! Have a nice day.

Sandra Eterovic said...

Great to meet you Fanny, I have very much enjoyed looking through your beautiful blog. :)

Erin said...

Oh I love this way of working with one's new medium - seeing possibilities in it and go for it so freely and bravely! Very inspiring! Thank you for sharing as I had never heard of him before. :)

Sandra Eterovic said...

You are most welcome Erin. I am so happy with the response to this Kaffe post that I am tempted to show you all some of his crazy interiors!! :)