Knitting Through Winter | Part 1
This winter we are collaborating with French artist and Brooklyn resident, Amelie Mancini on a little project. Well, it’s actually not quite so little. Using our FW21 and SS22 yarns, she is creating her own take on our Patchwork Blanket.
Amelie is a painter and textile designer as well as creative director of Biquette - a collective of artists turning their beautiful work into cozy and spectacular blankets.
Amelie works with block prints and line drawings but explores painting, sewing and ceramic - a multi-faceted creative after our own hearts.
The Misha & Puff Patchwork Blanket pattern she has been working with is a beautiful canvas for color and pattern, a unique style that allows for using up remainders of skeins, and an opportunity to mix and match for a one-of-a-kind piece. It can also be a wonderfully slow project that reveals itself over time.
We chatted with Amelie about her process.
Do you have an overall plan in mind for this or are you taking a more organic approach?
I love the look of the original blanket and I love the process so far, I’m building up my little stack of squares trying to use colors fairly evenly, I’m almost halfway now so I’m going to lay down what I have so far and see what works, what colors and patterns look good together, what the blanket needs more of. I love how this pattern has a fairly simple structure with plenty of room for improvisation and creativity. And I really like grids and building blocks so it’s really speaking to me! Easy and not boring at all.
How do you find knitting different from the other creative mediums that you work with?
There’s a big difference between knitting by hand or by machine. Hand knitting is very relaxing to me, I don’t feel any pressure or anxiety, which can happen when I paint or work on textile designs. I guess because I just knit for myself or for babies, and I’m following someone else’s pattern. So it’s a great way to decompress and get into a flow. I knit most nights, I like keeping my hands busy, especially when watching tv. I find doing row after row of garter to be so relaxing. I like the repetition and the slowly but surely sense of progress. Very reassuring, haha.
Amelie’s watercolor at left and knit squares at right.
On the other hand, designing for machine knitting (like what I do professionally for Biquette) is very different, because all the work happens before the knitting. I design a file (usually from a painting or drawing) that I will send to the machine and the machine will knit the blanket almost like a printer prints out an image, using yarn instead of ink. So there is a lot of abstract thinking involved, trying to picture what the image on the computer will look like once knit. Each pixel will become a stitch, but pixels are square and stitches are shaped like V, so there’s a bit of mental gymnastics that has to be done.
One of Amelie’s designs for Biquette.
The other difference is that knits are stretchy, soft and textured, and especially blankets will get folded or put down in a heap on a chair, or wrapped around shoulders, unlike a painting or a print which will only be seen from one very specific point of view. So I always make sure to have little details or patterns that will look interesting even when you don’t see the whole picture. Some of our machines can do reversible designs, which is another really cool thing to take into account! The scale also matters tremendously since tiny details will look very pixelated once knit, so I usually end up having to go over the whole image pixel by pixel to make sure I’m getting exactly what I want.
How do personal creative projects like this fit into your life?
My kids are 5 and 3.5, so they’re still pretty little but they are becoming more and more independent, which means I can work on my own things while they play nearby or work on their own art projects. I found that knitting is ideal because it tolerates frequent interruptions, I can just put it down and pick it back up, it’s very portable so I can do it while I sit next to the bathtub or the dinner table, and most importantly I can still carry on a conversation with them about all of the nonsensical things that 3 and 5 year olds like to talk about.
Amelie’s little one at home with one of her blanket designs.
Tell us about your color choices within Misha & Puff’s fall and early spring yarn skein color palettes.
I’m very sensitive to color, especially the way colors interact with each other. I like bold color choices, as well as more subtle ones. Color can be very emotional. I chose Chestnut because I have a Chestnut shawl and it’s such a beautiful, deep color, and I love how it looks with Antique Rose, such a delicate contrast. I added Bronze Space Dye because I’m obsessed with how Space Dye yarns knit up, it’s so cool to see the patterns form. Celadon to make all the other colors sing. Bronze to cool it down. Planning on adding Confetti 16 to the mix because I think it needs a lighter shade to tie it all together… we’ll see. The yarn itself is so squishy that it’s a real pleasure to knit with it. And the variation in each color is truly gorgeous. Reminds me of painting with my favorite handmade watercolors!
