Inspiraatio,

Neons & Neutrals: Rich use of color and texture

Julkaistu: 08.03.2023



Tiina & Aimée


Our friendship started years ago. I met Aimée for the first time at a yarn festival in England even before La Bien Aimée was born. Back then Aimée ran L´oisiveThé yarn and tea room in Paris. It has been great to watch La Bien Aimée's  journey to become an international yarn brand. Along the way, thoughts and dreams have been shared. It is so great how the crafty so-called yarn world connects like-minded people around the world.

I have always admired Aimée's open-minded approach to creating and combining colors. It's downright genius. In her company, I notice colors in a completely new way and I also get encouraged to use more colors myself.


In autumn 2022, the photoshoot for the new Neons and neutrals book curated by Aimée Gille was organized in Helsinki. This book is a sequel to Worsted, which was published a year earlier. I accompanied Aimée and Laine Publishing at the shoot.  Before the shoot I had a little doubt about how this theme might work, neon colors and neutral tones... but wow, the collection is simply amazing! I got quite infected with colors that I usually don't wear, and after a week together, I had to get pink on my needles.


Xiao Mai

From the neons and neutrals book, my favorite sweater by far is Layla Yang's Xiao Mai. Big loops in several colors encourage you to play with colors and yarns. The book's theme is boldly combining yarns, both bases and colors. I am using Tukuwool DK and Kremke Soul Wool's Baby Silk Lace as the base yarns, and Filcolana's Alva for the contrasting colors. Compared to the original version, this is a more affordable option. 

Tiina’s Xiao Mai yarns and colors:

Main colors

Tukuwool DK sake

Kremke Soul Wool Baby Silk Lace 2978 light beige

Contrasts

Filcolana Alva

371, 334, 254, 369, 376, 368, 285



Wervel

Wervel (designer Maaike van Geijn) is a wonderful top-down sweater knit in the round. The absolutely genius part is the combination of two different gauges. The stranded colorwork part is knitted with a thin yarn, and with half the gauge as the bouclée parts of the body and sleeves. I made a sample from Arwetta and Kremke Alpaca Bouclée, both of which have very similar colors as the original sweater.

D?rta 

My third favorite is Darta (designed by Inese Sang). This delicate sweater is knitted in reverse stockinett from the bottom up and in the round up to the sleeves. Then you knit the upper parts of the front and back back and forth, and then knit the sleeves. Once the sweater is done, sleeves and all, you add ruffles to the front. You can choose any light-fingering weight yarn and suri alpaca, or silk mohair. The sweaters in the book are knitted from a combination of Helix, Felix, Isager Silk Mohair and Tvinni (You can replace Tvinni with Spinni, for example.)


There are a total of 16 patterns  in the book, from which you will surely find inspiration. Feel free to combine yarns, and you can always ask us for advice!



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