Possit

Good morning, and god Jul, to all who celebrate. Over the next few days, I thought I’d introduce you to our Colour Compass e-book, give you a bit of a behind-the-scenes look at what this project has involved, and tell you the stories behind the different designs in this collection.

I like each of our projects to do something new, and this one was certainly novel for us, combining as it did a yarn-y advent calendar with a pattern collection that has been designed specifically for knitters to make the most of 24 colourful balls.

While Tom and the warehouse team faced the question of how to create, put together, and ship the physical Colour Compass package, my challenge was developing the designs. I wanted every knitter participating in this project to be able to make something “big” with their yarn (a cardigan or a pullover) as well as being able to use the yarn and book together as a sort of festive toy box, with which they might explore different colour ideas, using a range of smaller projects as their canvas. What every knitter did with their box of yarn was going to be necessarily unique, and so each Colour Compass design had to encourage and speak to their individual creativity.

As I started to develop this project, at the back of my mind at all times was the figure of the knitter, opening her e-book on Christmas Eve, needing to feel confident that patterns included all the detailed information and instruction required to make several smaller projects plus a well-fitting cardigan or pullover in her size. I also realised that issues of yarn usage and quantity (which are also, of course, issues of gauge) were going to be much more pressing considerations than they might be ordinarily because there’s only so much you can do, design-wise, with 100 metres of each shade. The patterns had to be interesting for the knitter and, perhaps most importantly to me, they had to look great. That is, each of these creative colour experiments had to be something that knitters would actually want to put on and proudly wear.

Of course, the best way for me to answer some of these pressing design questions was to put them to some knitters, and I need to say up front just how utterly wonderful my test knitting team and test-knitting co-ordinator (Maylin) have been throughout this project. Their input has proved completely crucial to creating the joyous thing that Colour Compass now is, and if you have the e-book in front of you, you’ll immediately be able to see just how much these brilliant knitters have contributed to it, from their palette-choosing experiments to their preferred methods of weaving in ends.

My first Colour Compass design idea was a garter stitch cardigan, and like all designs, this one began in the swatch: Maylin, Claire and I all got busy swatching garter stitch stripes.

How much yarn did a 40 stitch / 1 row stripe use up? What depth of stripe did we like best? One ridge or two?

What kinds of palette might we create from 13 different shades? How about 14? Or 15?

Like all the designs in this collection, my garter stitch cardigan was going to have to balance predictability with chance: that is, when making the garment, each knitter needed to have enough yarn, and to follow a set of clear step-by-step instructions whilst also enjoying the individual creative fun of developing their own unique palette.

I’d knitted a swatch I really liked, which featured all 6 new shades of Milarrochy Tweed (hurrah!) in a 13 shade palette, so I began to work on the pattern while knitting it up.

By the time I got to sleeve 2, I had written the pattern for a top-down, garter stitch cardigan, with wide front bands, knitted in narrow 1 ridge stripes and designed for individual palettes of 13 to 19 shades. Whew!

We then sent the pattern to three different test knitters, who did different things with the pattern. We asked Aileen, for example, to work up her sample in a pre-set, 14 shade palette that was intentionally very different from the one I’d originally created (in order to give knitters an example of other colour ideas they might explore). So, while the palette of my original sample was based loosely on light / dark, warm / cool contrasts, the fabric of Aileen’s cardigan would really sing with a high-chroma rainbow gradient effect.

Aileen’s sample looks completely amazing on Fenella!

As well as Aileen, we worked with two other Colour Compass knitters on this cardigan, Eleanor and Dawn. Dawn’s feedback on this pattern was super useful, helping me to hone the instructions for the front band and edging, as well as to calculate yarn usage. Dawn was also brilliant in testing one of the key things we’d asked of our Colour Compass knitters: to step outside of their chromatic comfort zone, and experiment with a palette beyond their usual shade preferences.

Dawn really challenged herself with this knit, working with colours she’d never expected to use, combining them into a coherent and really interesting palette, and creating a truly beautiful cardigan. . .

. . . which looks wonderful on Iona.

Eleanor decided to knit her cardigan to a longer length than the high-waisted style I’d originally specified in the pattern, providing us with more useful information about yarn usage (please add a shade or two to your palette if you are adding a couple of inches or more of length! )

Eleanor also found the swatching process crucial, as she challenged herself with a bold, bright palette of shades she would have previously hesitated to put together

. . . creating a gorgeous garment in which Kendall enjoyed twirling in the studio!

Eleanor has already taken what she learned from knitting her first Possit forward into creating a second very beautiful cardigan! You can read much more about how Claire, Maylin and the rest of our knitters went about developing our palettes in the Colour Compass e-book, which explores a range of accessible approaches.

Now with samples knitted and a new pattern honed, I had the first Colour Compass design, and proceeded to spend the summer months knocking about the west of Scotland in my own lovely colourful cardigan, which I’d called Possit – a Scots word for a possibility, and which, given the many chromatic possibilities of this garment, felt like a very good name. Because of the inevitable effects of wear, I’m not really supposed to spend so much time in my design samples before they are properly photographed, but in this case found it hard to resist. Sorry.

As this was the first Colour Compass project, I didn’t start to think about how to photograph the whole collection until much later in the year. On one occasion, though, we did have vague thoughts about commandeering this very picturesque location for an ad-hoc photoshoot, as I happened to be wearing my Possit at the time. But, at the very moment I leant against the wall of this tiny beach-side cottage, waiting for Tom to set up some shots, we were interrupted by a polite elderly couple, who had arrived to take possession of the building which, we quickly discovered, is maintained as a delightful summer house for the Landmark Trust, being well stocked with deck-chairs, picnicking infrastructure, and the like.

“Is this your cottage? Ah, we see. Many apologies, friends, for disturbing your holiday peace with our photographic interloping . . . “

Thus it is that the garment Kate C is expertly modelling in our Colour Compass studio shots has been my go-to interloping cardigan for the past six months. In fact, I’m wearing it today . . .

. . . and it really suits KC, who looks wonderful in our cover shot in a dress of festive red, with no need for furtive reconnoitring, an accompanying cottage prop, or confounded holidaymakers!

Developing Possit with our knitters was a lot of fun, which only continued in the studio . . .

with the Colour Compass modelling gang!

Many hearty thanks to Maylin and Claire for joining me in tireless garter-stitch swatching; to Aileen, Dawn and Eleanor for their knitting and feedback; to Frauke and Claire for editing and pattern checking; to Iona, Kendall, Fenella and KC for modelling high-spirits; and to Tom, as always for great photography. I put together a selection of twenty one different colourful dresses for this photoshoot, out of which we chose this final four.

Now it is very much over to you – creative Colour Compass knitters around the world – to take the Possit pattern somewhere else. Choose your shades and take it away, girls!

If you didn’t take part in the advent calendar, but would still like to join the knitalong fun, the Colour Compass e-book is now available from the KDD shop or Ravelry.