It’s time for us to take a look at the final design from Echoes of Heather and Stone. Trittico is designed by the fabulous Woolly Wormhead and is worked sideways in a series of 6 panels. Joining us on the blog today is Woolly to tells us more about the design, her inspiration and where the name comes from.
Welcome Woolly:
Trittico is my contribution to the book curated by Carol Feller featuring her gorgeous Nua yarn, Echoes of Heather and Stone.
I have a bit of a thing for sideways knit Hats and upon seeing the brief, it was clear which direction the design should take.
The design is reminiscent of the patterns often found on church carvings and stones. The circular motif around a cross really appealed to me and I wanted to replicate it with slipped stitches. Furthermore, I found the occurrence of the number 3 in such patterns, and Celtic patterns in general, very interesting and based the construction of the Hat around this number.
When designing a sideways knit beanie in garter stitch, the number 6 would be our focus – 6 panels create a close and smooth fitting crown. This Hat features 6 panels to achieve that smooth crown, but the pattern is spread across two panels, which are worked 3 times.
Knowing that slipped stitches can only really travel horizontally when working sideways, I needed to get clever about how I was going to recreate the clean vertical line of the cross – without this the pattern wouldn’t work. What I found most effective was a simple cast-off and pick up! I’ve used this method in vertically knit patterns to create a strong line that slices across a Hat, and turned sideways this was the perfect way to complete the motif.
Working with the line, using slipped stitches across a garter stitch base, is a method of design that has been appealing to me more and more and I’m excited to have pushed this further with Trittico. Whilst it may seem a simple motif, the striking detail of the stitches are prominent because of its simplicity.
And the name? It’s Italian in origin and translates to triptych. To quote Wikipedia:
A triptych (/ˈtrɪptɪk/ TRIP-tik; from the Greekadjective τρίπτυχον “ triptukhon” (“three-fold”), from tri, i.e., “three” and ptysso, i.e., “to fold” or ptyx, i.e., “fold”)[1][2] is a work of art (usually a panel painting) that is divided into three sections, or three carved panels that are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open.
I do hope you enjoy the design and construction, as well as the other strong and thought-provoking designs in the book! I’m in great company and having seen all of the designs in the flesh at Woollinn, I know you’re in for a treat.
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Thank you so much, Woolly, for taking the time to answer some questions on your Trittico design for Echoes of Heather & Stone. If you would like to hear more from Woolly you can find her website here and her social side over on Instagram and you can find more of her beautiful designs on Ravelry here.
I want to thank you all for following along on my book journey. This is the final pattern from the book! Later this week I hope to write a bit about the book journey from start to finish and the challenges and joys of my first collaborative book.
If you are in Ireland and want to join us for the book launch party this Saturday, 1st of September from 3-5 pm then come get your ticket from This Is Knit here.