Painting on Knits in Tuscany

I taught at the Knitting in Tuscany workshops in Italy for two weeks on painting on knits this fall. I would highly recommend it! We had a wonderful time with lots of great company, food, and inspiration. I wanted to share with you some of the images from the project.

Susan had seen my painted knit design in Knitter’s magazine and asked me to come up with a project for the workshop. Because of the nature- and location- of the workshop, it needed to be simple enough that all levels could feel confident making it. It also needed to be small enough to be completed within the week with just a few knitting hours a day. Because let’s face it, knitters didn’t flock to this workshop solely to knit! We were in Tuscany after all!

So I chose this Textured Cowl pattern that had been a favorite as the first Knitting Monthly project.

The yarn used originally was a worsted weight wool. Because the paints, Tsukineko all-puropose fabric inks, worked best on cellulose fibers, we had to make some changes in the yarn choices. It also needed to be one that Susan carried in her shop so she could supply the knitters. After many emails back and forth, we settled on a Knit One Crochet Too yarn, Cozette.

The first step was to wind the yarn and double it. The cowl then needed to be knit first, before we could paint it.The stitch pattern in the cowl is a deeply textured slip stitch pattern that creates recessed “pockets” which laid the foundation for painting.

Progress!

Happy knitters, much laughter, new friends made each day.

The first piece is ready to paint. Bits of paper are laid down to provide a visual guideline of where to paint each color.

Of course, in the midst of the knitting, laughter, and painting were many excursions like walking through olive groves, one memorable dinner after another, and shopping! But that’s for another post!