Marianne Isager
Inspired Sweater Designs
$24.95 US./S33.9S Canada
Inspired by beautiful African textiles
Beautiful and historic African carpets, baskets, and other fiber and textile arts inspired Danish designer Marianne Isager to create these 16 sumptuous and sophisticated handknitted sweaters. The knitting techniques, including entrelac, double knitting, in tarsia, domino, and Fair Isle, are used in traditional and contemporary ways. You'll love the intriguing designs that echo regional African textiles, such as the mud-dyed fabrics from Bamana in Mali, the block design from the Asante people in Ghana, and the palm-fiber fabrics from the former Zaire.
Isager provides complete instructions and charted patterns for each exquisite design in at least two adult sizes. These sweaters—all presented with step-by-step instructions and beautiful photographs— are worked in fingering-weight yarns. Experienced knitters will enjoy trying some of the more involved shapes and designs, and may be inspired to take up the challenge of designing their own African-inspired garment!
Marianne Isager
Inspired Sweater Designs
Editing: Ann Budd
Technical Editing: Lori Gayle
Translation: Carol Huebscher Rhoades
Design: Paulette Livers
Production: Dean Howes
Photo styling: Paulette Livers
Illustrations: Gayle Ford, Kirsten Toftegaard, and
Ase Lund Jensen Photography: Joe Coca, unless otherwise noted Proofreading and indexing: Nancy Arndt
Text © 2005 Marianne Isager Photography © 2005 Joe Coca and Interweave Press LLC, unless otherwise noted
- Interweave Press LLC
- HitS) 201 East Fourth Street
Loveland, CO 80537-5655 USA
Till
Printed and bound in China by Pimlico Book International
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Isager, Marianne, 1954-
Knitting out of Africa : inspired sweater designs / Marianne Isager, author, p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 1-931499-98-5
1. Knitting—Patterns. 2. Sweaters. I. Title. TT825.I83 2006 746.43'2041 — dc22
2005020185
10 98765432 I
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A sincere thank you to my dedicated and expert knitters who helped with the knitting and pattern instructions for this book:
Ulla Bohlin—Zaire and Kuba
Bin he Carl sen—A same
Birthe Elkrog—Congo
Erna Engcdal—GiralTe and Zebra
Kirsten Gronning Jensen—Sierra Leone
Mona Johansen—Mali, Arrowheads,
Zimbabwe, Nigeria, and Zigzag
Kirsten Nielsen—Shoowa Vest
Ethel Sorenscn—Shoow a
Inger Birthe Sorensen—African Domino
Also, thanks to the people who helped with source materials:
Hansjorg Mayer—photographs from the book Shoowa Design Georges Meurant—Shoowa Natural Hisiory Museum in Arhus—loan of a skin for photography Christopher Spring—African textiles
CONTENTS
CONTENTS
6 INTRODUCTION
8 KUBA
24 ENTRELAC KNITTING
2 6 ZAIRE
3 4 CONGO
44 AFRICAN DOMINO CARDIGAN
52 AFRICAN DOMINO PULLOVER
5 6 ASANTE
64 SIERRA LEONE
71 INTARSIA KNITTING
72 MALI
8 O ARROWHEADS 88 ZIMBABWE
96 STRANDED TWO-COLOR KNITTING
122 SHOOWA VEST
128 DOUBLE KNITTING
1 3 O GIRAFFE AND ZEBRA
139 ABBREVIATIONS
139 YARNS SOURCES
1 4 O GLOSSARY OF TERMS
143 INDEX
INTRODUCTION
I have always been crazy for patterns. As soon as I learned to draw, 1 happily repeated a motif over and over. Although 1 didn't discover the joy of knitting until 1 was seventeen, from the very beginning 1 drew my own designs for garments and threw myself headlong into the most ambitious projects. My fascination for knitting grew as 1 discovered new techniques and the many different ways they could be applied.
Much of my inspiration comes from trips to museums and libraries. It was at the British Museum in London that I first became entranced by the rich tradition of African textile designs, ones that called out to be translated into knitted garments. For me, however, the excitement of designing doesn't come from simply copying patterns—il comes from developing a design that captures the feeling of a motif or pattern and adapting it to grace the body in a garment. I have traveled to Africa to experience firsthand the way the country's textiles reflect the landscape, wildlife, and cultural traditions Unfortunately, I must disappoint those who would like to know the specific techniques or historical significance of the handcrafts that inspired the garments in this book. When possible, I've provided information about where a cloth or basket comes from, but 1 have little knowledge about the origins of these masterworks.
To make my knitted garments interesting and unusual. I've employed a variety of techniques—entrelac, slip-stitch knitting, stranded two-color knitting, intarsia, and double knitting. I've organized the sweaters in ihis book according to the technique I have used to represent the original textile.
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