Originally published March 10, 2006
n my last post I asked whether you could tell from her designs that Jennifer Appleby was from Northern BC. I said that because I knew I was going to post designs from an other designer who lives in Montana and draws a lot of her inspiration from the Montana landscape. I think that knitting one of Sarah James’ designs might be a bit like capturing a piece of Montana on your needles – to die for! Here is what Anne says about her design inspiration:
“Before I put yarn to needle I think about what age group the item is going to be for. After all a person in their twenties or thirties is not going to wear an item that is styled for a different age group.
When I am creating a new design, I think about stitches, yarn type and color. I swatch and swatch and swatch, till I can see the finished design in my mind’s eye.
As I am knitting, the garment will practically speak to me when it is not falling into place, so quite often a design that was supposed to be a sweater will become a ja
cket instead.
I am always inspired by nature which has a wonderful color palette with each season. Often I will go for a walk and take in the colors of nature. Living in Montana, there is always blue sky, and the sunsets are spectacular, every shade of yellow, lavender, hot pinks, blues and mauve.
“
Thank you so much, Anne for taking the time to share with us your sources of inspiration. I have just added “See a Montana sunset” to my 1,000 things to see before I die list. Your patterns are beautiful! Top is the much requested “Diagonal Vest”. At left is a child’s sweater, Anne has identified it as CH 526. I would like to call it River and at right is WS118 a lovely mosaic pattern in DK weight yarn – very pretty for summer. You may see the entire collection of Sarah James” designs at http://www.sarahjamespatterns.net/
Enjoy!
PS We have a winner in the post asking for the name of the witch’s cat in Macbeth. More on that later.