Ethnic Knitting

Today, I have a special guest post -- I'm part of the blog book tour for Donna Druchunas, Ethnic Knitting Discovery. Donna's new book is a lovely jumping off point for any of you interested in designing your own two colored and textured sweaters. The instructions and worksheets make it easy to take care of any "knitting arithmetic" so you can focus on the fun parts. As part of the guest posting, I asked Donna a few broad questions about her book that I thought other folks might be interested in hearing the answers to. Enjoy!

Theresa, thanks for inviting me to bring the blog tour for Ethnic Knitting Discovery to your blog.

What got you interested in writing this book?

I was talking to my publisher one day a year or so ago, and she mentioned that there were no books on ethnic knitting geared toward a younger audience or newer knitters and I thought, "You know, that's right." It seems like most of the books have have been published about knitting traditions from around the world focus on very traditional, even old-fashioned, garments. These books also tend to assume that the knitters have a lot of background experience, that they understand the shaping and construction of sweaters, and that they know how to do a lot of calculations without much help.

That's not to put these books down, I love them and I have shelves full of advanced books like this. But while most of the traditional knitting books give you charts and high-level overviews of garment instructions, there are very few that provide the basic tools to enable new knitters to get over the hurdles that they might feel stand between them and the ability to design a garment from scratch. In Ethnic Knitting Discovery, I am trying to provide more details of the process so there's not so much mystery involved.

I also wanted to show that you can update the traditional styles without losing the traditional feeling of the garments. For example, you can make what was traditionally a tight sweater, that fit snugly to be worn as a workman's outfit, into a loose fitting garment for casual wear today. You can take a black-and-white Norwegian design and do it in purple and green!

What fascinated you about the cultures you included?

I'm fascinated by many different cultures. I first got interested in Andean knitting when I was editing Andean Folk Knits by Marcia Lewandowski. Marcia had spent several years living in South America, and she wrote about her experiences and put together patterns for many of the knitted accessories she'd seen during her travels. I just loved reading her stories and seeing the color combinations she used on all of her projects. Some time after that, one of our local yarn shops held a class on Andean knitting and I took it because I love unusual knitting techniques. The instructor had a lot of sample pieces of knitting that she purchased when she was traveling in South America and I just fell in love with the knitting style after seeing the pieces up close. Some day I hope to make it to Peru to do some in-person research. But for this book, I had to be an armchair traveler.

The other sections of Ethnic Knitting Discovery were chosen more for the types of sweaters that were made in the region than for anything specific about the cultures. I wanted this book to feature drop shoulder sweaters, because they don't have much shaping and they're the most basic type of sweater for those who are new to designing. Learning about the cultures was a bonus for me.

What sorts of things did you think about when you worked on designing your own projects?

I wing it when I'm designing something for myself. I start with the basic number of stitches to cast on for the back (if it's going to be knit flat) or for the body (if it's going to be circular), and I just make up each part as I get to it. For example, on one Aran sweater I made, I got tired of knitting the cables after I'd finished the body, so I used the trim stitch from the bottom band for the full sleeves. It looks great, like it was planned that way, but it was a last minute decision. When I'm knitting a colorwork pattern, I pick a main color and contrasting colors, but I make up the color sequence as I go, just changing colors whenever I get bored. I might even add a new chart when I get part way done, just because I want to add another element or because I'm tired of knitting the other pattern.

If I'm designing for publication and I need a test knitter to make the garment because I don't have time, then I have to do a lot more planning up front. In that case, I make sketches and fill them in with colored pencils to get an idea what the entire garment will look like. I also put the specific colors into the chart for the test knitter. I still pretty much make it up as I go, but in this case I'm using colored pencils and charting software instead of yarn and needles.

Do you have any tips to encourage people to experiment? I just love the idea of experimenting with old traditional ideas.

Me too! That's the fun part, isn't it? Tradition is wonderful. But it's not like a law. Take the parts you like, and modify them to suit your own tastes. If you think a sweater with patterns all over it is too busy, make a plain sweater with patterning just at the hem or on the sleeves. If you don't like the colors used in traditional designs, go for bright, snazzy colors instead. In the Andes, knitters in the past used natural alpaca colors and yarns dyed with natural yarns, to the colors were limited to the materials on hand. But today the knitters in Peru and Bolivia love acrylic yarn that is dyed in bright, neon colors. They've modernized their own tradition to include modern materials and to cut down on the work of handspinning and dyeing their own yarns. But there's no mistaking a hand-knit Andean chullo for a commercial product, even when it's made with man-made fibers and dyes.

Donna and the Biggest Knitting Needles I Have Ever Seen

In the interest of full disclosure, I did get a copy of the book to look at as part of the book tour. But I didn't receive any other compensation. I just enjoy Donna's books, her knitting spirit, and keeping up with what another Lithuanian knitter is doing!