Who is in the mood for drawing and painting?
Who wants to play with yarn and colour?
Imagine a fun and yarny colouring book experience: But with absolute freedom of abstraction.

If, like me, you are a bit bored of the usual motifs used in Fair Isle knitting, Norwegian colour-work or traditional embroidery throughout the world and want something you created by yourself, you can get inspiration from any shape or form around you - try to see the lines and surfaces in an abstract design.
There are so many different ways that colours can interact with each other that go beyond what we already see in knitting..
​..but I digress...
​let me start at the beginning:

​Now, by looking at the early 20th century perfume bottle, I had my answer:
​I allowed myself to get influenced by the delicate scrollwork pattern from the label design and played with it to create an interesting motif that also provided a gradient of colour, deliberately set up to go from light to dark. I'd like to think that you can still see a bit the influences of Art Deco and Japonesque elements that were the rage when the perfume was launched!

This pattern tries to explore stranded knitting by tackling the subject with a different approach:
Mitsouko wants to explore something a bit more experimental, large-scale and conceptual.
The idea is mostly influenced from abstract large scale paintings in general, while only the specific interpretation is drawn from the famous scrollwork pattern. 

You can knit this Mitsouko pattern as is and I have prepared charts that match three standard sizes to create these colour interactions with your yarn and colours of choice.
But if you’d like to go a bit further and be a bit experimental and unleash the abstract designer or graphic artist inside, I have also provided empty charts in three sizes for you to play with, without having to bother to do all the math or think about construction.

​This could be a design or drawing of your very own. You can customise this hat while getting an excuse to doodle… and get to unleash your (inner?) kid!

So how would this work? Well you can choose something you want to make as a pattern. Like me, you can allow yourself to be inspired by any form you find intriguing. You could blow up and digitise a photograph that has interesting colour interactions. You could take up crayons and have some fun. You can blow up a segment of a design you like or even a lace design and transform it into colour-work. You can also give the provided charts to your friend, child or loved one and have them come up with a colour design for a unique custom knit they have put their own creativity into.
And then you can knit their custom-motif up for the perfect gift... a project that came out of your very own creative collaboration.
You can use this as a fun experimental place to try out something new. Take a walk on the design side, or the fashion side and come up with a fresh take on your knit-work for a truly one-off hat nobody else has – this way, you are the master of your project.

...If on the other hand you prefer taking the safe route and also don't like the spirals of the original Mitsouko? Then, well... then Mitsouko's Lover is for you...  

Mitsouko's Lover is the cheeky name of the "minimal and simple" striped version which is probably more unisex and easy to wear than Mitsouko, although this all depends on personal style anyway. For this version I tried the Ovelha Negra Victoria yarn for the first time and it really is an absolute joy to work with!

The longer ribbing and slightly larger body of the actual shape of all versions can be worn slouchy or tucked in for a more elegant beanie effect. You get a dense and warm hat, that is still light and easy to wear and to take with you, since it is knitted in fingering weight yarn.

Find the pattern on this site or go to ravelry.
(Until midnight of 23 of January 2018 (CEST), you automatically get a 20% discount)​
Also stay tuned to find out about some news out of Italy.... a surprise collaboration with Unfilodi knit house that will interest all Italian speaking friends and many more...

Since the whole hat pattern is so adjustable and open to personalisation, it is the perfect project to have a fun and interactive KAL together with other colour-drawing-exploring knitters - or to get some help in deciding on how to combine one's own ideas of design, motif and colour - or to just show off different versions from clean-cut minimalism to totally out there, baroque styling!
Check out the ColourOutsideTheLines knit-along (or KAL in knitter's terminology) to find out more...

Click on the Banner above to open up the KAL page and participate in this fun game!

I know I know...
It seems as if I have been in a sock knitting frenzy lately - but my sock ramblings shall be kept in check for the next year (here you have quite the original New-Year resolution)!

But I really had to post this follow-up article on my latest one,  the free SpiralSock Pattern!

My good friend and tech-editor Kate, actually made a great suggestion after she checked the first version of the pattern ( the one published this Christmas). There was not time to rewrite the pattern back then, but I really wanted you guys to know about Kate's great idea!

(Quick disclaimer:... It seems that her idea is a known adaption to heel-less sock patterns, but we both didn't know about it and re-discovered what others will most probably already know for decades!)
Anyway, since I know that there must be other sock-ignorant people out there like me, who are very entertained by this kind of knitting-technology, I still thought that this follow up post and addition to the pattern itself, might interest some of you.

So, well... Kate's new and improved method was to work a Star-Toe (or also a round toe) with the SpiralSock, so that it can be worn without having to adjust the toe in any way, since there is no need for any adjustment in any direction because there simply isn't any - the star toe is the same on all sides, as is the tube for the heel-less sock!
With this toe, one would be able to keep the heel part of the sock even longer in shape, since it never will be put on in the exact same way and therefore the whole area will be worn out over a longer period of time.
Cool, isn't it?

So I played around with a star-toe with a progressive ratio of increase and even rounds and of course I have updated the sock pdf and now there are both toe variations in there for you to choose!

To work this star toe though, we need to cast on our stitches in a circle and there are many ways to work the same circular cast on techniques: One is the crochet technique, which uses (as you have already guessed) the extra tool of a crochet... not a problem in itself, if you can be bothered with looking for it in your messy studio (not that I speak out of experience here....)
Or then there is the excellent "disappearing loop method" by the famous techknitter, whom I consider my biggest teacher and mentor, that also uses knitting needles only and is using a similar technique as for the tubular or invisible cast-on.
 
But I do prefer the one I am showcasing below, since it not only has the advantages that no extra tools are needed (and the messy studio can be sufficiently ignored) - but it also does immediately provide the knitter with two casted on rows. Therefore there is an actual "lower row" stitch to work into right away - a feature, which is especially handy for hidden increases in the very first round after casting on.
(Here I like the hidden increases because they provide a discreet way to work immediate repeat augmentations - on every stitch and/or directly on top of each other on subsequent rounds, as we are doing here to provide a less pointy toe)

On another note: I wonder, do you guys prefer my printable photo-tutorials (which I find are easy to reference later on or to file) or do you like videos better?
Is there one medium you strongly prefer over the other, or does it all depend on the technique itself (like in this case, where the tutorial is easier to understand when actually seeing the movement)?
Please do tell me and I will try my best to adapt to what you guys like most!
oh...
​...and have a wonderful and strong New Year! ✨⭐️