French shepherd knitting on stilts

French shepherd knitting on stilts
2011 - as a proud novice knitting mother of 3 pairs of gloves, I wonder again about this drawing I'd glimpsed in a knitting book a few years ago. Why knit on stilts? Why a man knitting? The answers to these questions and others are my quest and form the focus of my blog.....

Monday, October 10, 2011

Kaffe Fasset - designer and knitter of luscious stuff

My gloves knitted recently
Kaffe Fassett the right way up IMG_1749

Fassett, K. 1988, Glorious Colour, Century Hutchinson Ltd., London
(cover photo)

Knitting renaissance of 1970s and 1980s - design and colour. Kaffe Fassett's first design appeared in Vogue Knitting in 1969. He won a scholarship to study painting at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and painted portraits of especially children. He visited a friend in England and discovered the coloured wools produced for Shetland knitting and bought 20 colours. He learned to knit on the train from Inverness to London using all 20 colours. The colour of his knitted designs is what makes his work outstanding - he uses lots of hues and shades in one garment sometimes several score of colours. His first book "Glorious Knitting" in 1985 is one of the most artistic knitting books produced and was a runaway success.

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