My interest in knitting
has been kept alive over the years by the
almost infinite variety of color, pattern,
and texture that is found in collections
of knitters and museums around the world.
Although I love the smooth, quiet repetition
of knitting a rectangular scarf in garter
stitch using a luxurious yarn, it is the
endless diversity of technique and style
that keeps me interested in knitting as
more than a way to keep my hands busy while
watching TV.
"It's a
dangerous business, Frodo, going out your
door. You step onto the road, and if you
don't keep your feet, there's
no knowing where you might be swept off
to."
--from The Lord of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
EuroDonna in Paris, 2007
The je ne sais quoi of Knitting
I have an alter ego. Her name is EuroDonna. She looks a lot like me, but she wears classier clothes and owns more dresses than I do. She would die before buying a pair of white sneakers or wearing her husband's oversized, faded t-shirt to run to the grocery store. She never, ever leaves home without a scarf.
EuroDonna dreams of living in Paris, in a flat that is upstairs from a cafe and bakery where she has her coffee and croissant every morning before she takes a walk down the bank of the Seine. She wanders around the city most days, carrying her notebook and a fountain pen filled with pink ink. She stops every few blocks to sit down and write. If it's raining, she goes into another cafe to fill her pages with ideas and her stomach with pastries, but if it's sunny she sits on a bench and writes as the tourist boats float by. Once in a while she slips into a bookstore to find something to read that is as decadent as the European chocolate she has just licked off her fingers. (Yes, of course she washes her hands before handling the books!)
There's something eternally fresh about Paris and this je ne sais quoi
bleeds into styles seen around the globe. Although I usually envision couture clothing draped over slender models sauntering down the runway or department store knock-offs looking more graceful on French women than they ever will on me, the styles that begin in this center of the fashion world radiate out like the rays of the sun and show up everywhere.
When stripes came into vogue in the court of Louis XIV -- the Sun King -- in the 17th century, the patterning spread at least as far as Estonia where it was first emulated by the nobles who could afford to import clothes or have them custom made to their specifications. Later stripes filtered down to the national costume when the rich women tired of yesterday's fashions and gave their used garments to peasant women who eventually incorporated the design elements into their own hand-woven fabrics and home-made skirts.
I think of the traditional hand-made clothing worn with few changes from generation to generation as 'garb' and modern styles that change from season to season as 'fashion'. Both ways of dressing make us slaves in one way or another. With garb, we simply wear what everyone else wears because there are no other options. With few changes over the generations, perhaps the introduction of stripes into a skirt or a new floral motif into the red embroidery on a white blouse, grandmother, mother, and daughter wear the same styles. With fashion, every generation has a unique look, and although we may feel like we have innumerable choices on the racks of discount and department stores, all of these choices conform to current market trends.
When I was in school learning about the writings of Henry David Thoreau, I fell in love with the idea of non-conformity. I thought I was entirely unique, unlike any other person in the world, and I wanted that individuality to show through in everything I did and everything I wore. At the time, my mother sewed all of my clothes, so in a way I was a bit removed from the center of the fashion stage of the times, but even my hand-made one-of-a-kind slacks, skirts, blouses, and t-shirts were made with fashionable material and up-to-date patterns bought at the local fabric store. Although my mother was a top-notch seamstress, she wasn't a designer and neither was I.
With knitting I find that I have the best of both worlds. I can take what I like from the newest styles and incorporate these elements -- just like Estonian peasant women did -- into the styles of clothing that best suit me as a quirky individual. I can use this year's Pantone color of the year, Radiant Orchid, and knit it into a 1950s-style Lopi yoke sweater or a Victorian lace shawl. I can copy a knitting stitch I see on a snug-fitting sweater at the department store and incorporated into an oversized tunic. I can copy the colorwork motif I see on a mitten and use it on a sock.
I have a love/hate relationship with fashion. EuroDonna loves novelty and new ideas, the feel of different fabrics, the excitement of new colors and patterns every season. Plain-old American me hates feeling like a slave to the whim of designers -- whether from Paris, New York, London, or Shanghai -- who don't know me and often design clothing that would not look good on anyone besides a runway model. This poem reflects my feelings about fashion. EuroDonna hasn't read it yet.
Paris is where it all began,
this change from garb to fashion,
this following the crowd,
this desire to be
rich,
powerful,
beautiful,
aristocratic.
In the royal court,
honest decadence,
slaps us
in the face with the realization we will never be more than a commoner.
On the runway,
brutal deception,
tempts us
with the idea that a change of clothes will transform us into someone we are not.
Did the Sun King and Marie Antoinette had more integrity than
Coco Channel and Pierre Cardin?
Let them eat cake.
Let us wear silk.
Even if you drape yourself with silks,
you will get old.
You will get fat.
You will get wrinkles.
Eventually, you will die.
But through all of these changes, knitting will live on.
by Donna Druchunas
This pattern is entirely inspired by the names of the yarn colors from Periwinkle Sheep. The series is called Strong Women and the colors are She Sings, She Dances, She Speaks, and She Plays.
To me, this bright and simple, yet elegant, stole tells the story of brave women everywhere working to overcome stereotypes, limitations, and discrimination against those of us who were often referred to as “the weaker sex.”
I see myself singing, dancing, speaking, and playing in the streets of Paris wearing this shawl as a celebration of being alive in a time and place where women have more freedom and choices than they have perhaps in any other time and place in history.
model: Kezziah Walker and Tirzah Walker photos: Heatherly Walker
FINISHED MEASUREMENTS Width: 23 inches Length: 60 inches Measurements are taken after blocking, without fringe.
MATERIALS
Yarn
Periwinkle Sheep Merino DK, Strong Women Series [100% merino; 225 yds per 100gm skein] [A] She Sings (yellow); 1 skein [B] She Dances (red); 1 skein [C] She Speaks (dark blue); 1 skein [D] She Plays (teal); 1 skein
Recommended needle size [always use a needle
size that gives you the gauge
listed below -- every knitter's
gauge is unique] US #8/5mm 24-inch (60cm) circular needle US #10/6mm needle for bind off F-5/3.75mm crochet hook (optional for adding fringe)
tapestry needle
Notions yarn needle
GAUGE
18 sts/22 rows = 4 inches over St st 16 sts/20 rows = 4 inches over patt st, after blocking
PATTERN NOTES
[Knitty's list of standard abbreviations and techniques can be found here.]
Open Mesh
Multiple of 4 sts, worked in rows. Every Row: K4, [yo, k2tog-tbl, k2] to end.
Instructions for the Long-Tail Cast On can be found here.
Bind off: To keep the bound off edge loose, and to make it easier to pick up the stitches, BO using the larger needle in your right hand as you work the stitches.
DIRECTIONS
She Sings
With She Sings and smaller needle, using the long-tail cast- on, loosely CO 60 sts.
Work 3 rows in St st, starting and ending with a WS row.
Work 6 rows in Open Mesh.
Work 6 rows in St st, starting on a RS row.
Work 8 rows in Open Mesh.
Work 8 rows in St st, starting on a RS row.
Work 10 rows in Open Mesh.
Work 10 rows in St st, starting on a RS row.
Work 12 rows in Open Mesh.
Work 12 rows in St st, starting on a RS row.
Continue in this fashion, working 2 more rows in each section St st and Open Mesh, until you have worked 18 rows in Open Mesh (or until you have 10 yards of She Sings remaining, whichever comes first).
Work 4 rows in St st, starting on a RS row.
Next row [RS]: Work 3 rows in St st.
She Dances Top Edge:
Change to She Dances.
Work 3 rows in St st, starting and ending on a RS row.
[Work 2 rows in Open Mesh, work 6 rows in St st] 4 times.
Using larger needle in right hand, BO. Return last st to working needle; do not cut yarn.
Left Edge:
With RS facing, pick up and knit 103 sts down the edge of the scarf -- 104 sts total.
Work 3 rows in St st, starting and ending on a WS row.
Work 6 rows in Open Mesh.
Work 4 rows in St st, starting on a RS row.
Using larger needle in right hand, BO. Return last st to working needle; do not cut yarn.
She Speaks Bottom Edge:
Change to She Speaks.
With RS facing, pick up and knit 67 sts across short end of scarf -- 68 sts total.
Work 3 rows in St st, starting and ending with a WS row.
[Work 2 rows in Open Mesh. Work 6 rows in St st] 6 times.
Using larger needle in right hand, BO. Return last st to working needle; do not cut yarn.
Right Edge:
With RS facing, pick up and knit 123 sts along the edge of the scarf -- 124 sts.
Work 3 rows in St st, starting and ending with a WS row.
Work 6 rows in Open Mesh.
Work 4 rows in St st, starting on a RS row.
Using larger needle in right hand, BO. Return last st to working needle; do not cut yarn.
She Plays Top Edge:
Change to She Plays. With RS facing, pick up and knit 75 sts across short end of scarf -- 76 sts total.
Work 3 rows in St st, starting and ending with a WS row.
[Work 2 rows in Open Mesh. Work 6 rows in St st] 8 times.
Using larger needle in right hand, BO. Return last st to working needle; do not cut yarn.
Left Edge:
With RS facing, pick up and knit 163 sts down the edge of the scarf -- 164 sts total.
Work 3 rows in St st.
Work 6 rows in Open Mesh.
Work 4 rows in St st, starting on a RS row.
Using larger needle in right hand, BO.
FINISHING
Weave in ends. Wash and block.
With She Dances, add fringes to both short edge, if desired, as follows:
Cut yarn of color of choice for fringe into 14-inch lengths. Hold 3 strands together, and fold them in half.
Attach a strand of fringe every 1 inch across both short edges of the shawl as follows:
Hold the end of the shawl with RS facing you and use the crochet hook to pull the folded end through from right to wrong side. Pull the loose ends through the folded section and tug to secure the fringe in place.
Knot the fringes as follows:
Using half the strands from one fringe and half the strands from the next, tie a row of knots about 1.5 inches below the first row. Then add one more row of knots below, dividing the strands back into the original groups.
Trim the ends even, if desired.
ABOUT THE DESIGNER
Donna Druchunas escaped a corporate
cubicle to honor her passions for knitting,
world travel, research, and writing.
She teaches in the United States and Europe, offers online sock-knitting classes at Craftsy.com, and holds retreats at her studio in Vermont. Her newest project, Stories In Stitches is a pattern line featuring stories about knitters and their lives, traditions, history, and travel, all tied together with gorgeous knitting patterns and projects.
by Donna Druchunas
