Episode 140 has a very international theme including Latin America, Canada, and Israel! Our feature interview is with the Canadian designer Claudia from EweKnit, who originally grew up in El Salvador. Inspired by Haute Couture fashion labels like Dior, she designs beautiful and elegant knitting patterns for both adults and children. Then in Knitters of The World we travel to Israel to meet a very creative, new designer called Inbal Gross. We filmed a little fashion show for you in the Botanical Gardens. We update you on our knitting projects in Under Construction and I show off my finished Blue Lagoon Vest in Bring and Brag!
EweKnit
Claudia Quintanilla grew up El Salvador, but came to Toronto, Canada as a young woman. Some years later, she decided to open her own yarn store and called it EweKnit. Claudia would often make up new designs for herself and her customers started asking for the pattern. So, she became a knitwear designer on top of owning a yarn store!
Claudia brought many of her gorgeous designs and also her creative mood boards to show us, so the interview is truly a feast for the eyes. Lately, Claudia has been inspired by the clothing in 17th century French paintings, showing different colored, semi-transparent materials layered on top of each other.
Claudia recently brought out a knitting book called “Making Memories – Timeless Knits for Children” with 25 knitting patterns. The patterns are accompanied by colorful pictures of children modeling the designs. The aesthetic is very playful and whimsical. Around the pictures, you’ll often find cute anecdotes and comments.
Finding EweKnit
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- Website: eweknit.co
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- Ravelry: EweKnitToronto
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- Instagram: @eweknitto
Patron Discount – EweKnit
Claudia is kindly offering Fruity Knitting Patrons a 30 percent discount off all patterns in her Ravelry store and 20 percent off anything in her online store! Claudia’s online store supports her shop “EweKnit” in Toronto, which sells knitting, sewing, needle punching, and other crafting supplies, materials, and books. And in her Ravelry store, you’ll find a ton of beautiful knitting patterns for adults and children! This is a fantastic discount. Thank you to Claudia for this generous offer! Fruity Knitting Patrons can find all discount details here.
Knitters of the World – Inbal Gross – Knit of the Dragon
Inbal is a knitwear designer and knitting instructor. While watching Fruity Knitting, Inbal discovered Shirley Paden’s “Knitwear Design workshop” and promptly joined one of Shirley’s Design-alongs. Inbal took it upon herself to create a variation of Shirley’s Pea Coat using two colours instead of one, making the motives softer, rounder, and more nature-themed.
Sometime later, Inbal joined another of Shirley’s Design-alongs, resulting in her Floral Wave Jacket, which was then published in Vogue Knitting Magazine Fall 2022! For her inspiration, Inbal turned to fashion shows where she noticed that cut-outs were trending. Cut-outs on the sleeves meant that the inside of the garment would also be visible. So, Inbal used double-knitting to make the fabric look beautiful on the inside and outside of the garment.
Finding Inbal Gross
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- Website: www.knitofthedragon.com
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- Ravelry: Inbal Gross
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- Instagram: knit_of_the_dragon
Under Construction
Barbroe Blouse – Knitting For Olive
I have been working on my Barbroe Blouse, which is a design by the Danish company Knitting for Olive, who we interviewed back in Ep. 138. I’ve made a lot of progress; in fact, I’ve finished all the knitting, and I only have to sew it up and block it!
Last episode I showed you how my first attempt at the Barbroe Blouse turned out too large, because it didn’t have negative ease around the lower body and waist. So then I made the decision to start again and knit one size smaller (XS), which fits me very snuggly and looks great. So, I’m happy I made that decision. Actually, reading through people’s notes on Ravelry, I think the design comes out on the larger side. So, you may want to bear that in mind if you plan to knit it.
Madeleine also made the decision to rip back her Barbroe Blouse and start again in the smallest size.
Florence Bag – Petite Knit
Madeleine also wanted to start a second project that was smaller and faster to knit up. She thought a little bag would be nice, with a long strap to hang across her shoulder. She decided to go for the Florence bag by PetiteKnit.
Madeleine liked this design, because its simple but stylish. When you buy the pattern, you have three variations to choose from: You can make a small purse or a bag with a strap to hang from your shoulder. And the bag comes in two sizes. I’m making the larger size. The bag also has a zipper and is lined.
For the yarn, Madeleine is using Tynn Line by Sandness Garn in a pale green. It’s a fingering weight and you hold three strands together. Madeleine was a little worried about the three strands getting tangled up a lot. But, although they’re not the easiest to handle, it has been way less problematic than she expected. You knit the bag in the round, starting with a few rows of plain stocking stitch for the edging, and the rest is an easy, repetitive lace pattern. After that, you sew the zipper and the lining into the bag.
Romeo & Juliet
I’ve been making Romeo & Juliet – another charming toy design by Alan Dart – since Valentine’s Day is coming up on February 14th. Romeo and Juliet are also designed by Alan Dart.
I have finished Juliet who I think is the more complicated design. Juliet has this sweet fair isle pattern with love hearts at the base of her dress. The dress has blood red and mustard, the hair color is very russet, and the rose and her cap are in deep burgundy.
Having all the reds with a slightly different tone gives a lot more depth to the design. And I particularly like the shape of her head and how it’s tilted slightly to the side, giving her a dreamy, swooning expression. In a short tutorial I show you how I sewed all the pieces together.
Bring & Brag
Blue Lagoon Vest by Dario Tubiana
I’ve finished my Blue Lagoon Flowers Vest by the Italian designer Dario Tubiana! We interviewed him recently in Episode 137. The vest is knitted using intarsia and duplicate stitch. The main shape of the flower petals and leaves are done in blocks of intarsia, the black outline around the center of each flower, and the shading in the petals are done in duplicate stitches.
I added some extra glitter in the centre of both flowers and some highlights on the edges of the shading in copper. All my glitter is done in duplicate stitch.
I made life easier for myself by combining stranded knitting and intarsia wherever possible. For example, I used stranded knitting here on the bottom of the leaves. This means that instead of having three blue balls for each section, I could keep using the same blue ball and stranded the yarn across the leaves to use on the other side.
The yarn I used is the mYak Tibetan cloud, and I am genuinely thrilled with this yarn. It is unbelievably soft, just like a cloud. I definitely want to knit more with this yarn.
What we are wearing
Andrea is wearing the Ariel Pullover gifted to her by Claudia from EweKnit during the interview and on the couch. Madeleine is wearing her Good Grandpa Cardigan by Caidree.
Credits
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- J. S. Bach, The Well Tempered Klavier, Prelude No. 3 in C-sharp major, BWV 848, performed by Kimiko
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- Perry Como, Papa Loves Mambo, from the album Pure Gold, ℗ Originally released 1954. All rights reserved by RCA Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment, Provided to YouTube by Legacy Recordings
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- Circularity performed and composed by Brianna Tam, ℗ 2021 Brianna Tam, Provided to YouTube by TuneCore
