"Every true artist has been inspired more by the beauty of lines and color and the relationship between them than by the concrete subject of the picture." -Piet Mondrian
Volt: the line between energy and charge.
The dissipation of current across a conductor is measured as a volt. I’ve interpreted this as the dissipation of the chevron from the center of this wrap to its ends, highlighting it with the contrast color marching through the middle of dissipating shades of gray. Though the central theme of this piece is its diminishing — something I would usually classify as subtle — I was surprised to find how striking this effect is.
Shale: the line between rock and sea.
Shale is commonly found in slow moving bodies of water. It is characterized by the thin parallel layers of fine grain mineral fragments and is formed by compression. The classic lace pattern manipulated here into twelve different iterations is called old shale. Spread out along the length of the stole from smallest to largest, each version is given a chance to fully display its ability to manipulate the stripe. I left the stole unblocked to highlight the shaping and the corresponding expansion of the wave it creates.
Dusk: the line between day and night.
Nightfall is forever encapsulated in my mind as a gentle rolling of darkness over the day, a giant shade slowly enveloping the sky. Dusk is the representation of the lingering blue that clings to the early evening just after twilight. In this shawl I blended the classic construction of the square Shetland Hap shawl with contemporary ideas about corner shaping. All the increases happen in the eyelet rounds by eliminating the corresponding decreases. Though knit seamlessly in rounds, I have placed slip stitches at the corners to both hide the color joins and to give a nod to traditional seaming.
Dawn: the line between night and day.
Daybreak is thousands of tiny beams of pinks, reds and golds bursting forth as balance to the encroachment of night. For dawn I placed the entire stole on the bias, or rather on two biases. the center section is worked in one piece as a triangular shawl then each half is worked separately on the bias then decreased to form a corner. This is made by a dislocation in the shaping — increases in the first section, paired increases and decreases in each of the sides, then corners created by only decreasing.
Horizon: the line between earth and sky.
Not only is horizon the line hidden behind a scenic range, it is also a limit, usually of one’s knowledge or interest — the perfect encapsulation of my introduction to the mountain west. Having spent my entire life on the east coast, I thought “purple mountain majesty” was just poetic license. I also thought I knew all the ways to knit a rectangle. It was not until I was forced to eclipse my personal horizon that I began to see the angles within the rectangle. Created from four differently sized triangles joined to create the correct length, then worked as chevrons of various sizes until the correct width, then decreased into separate triangle sections, this unique construction may change the way any knitter looks at the rectangle.
Smolder: The line between heat and flame.
Slow, low-temperature, flameless combustion formed on the surface of a solid is the phenomena of smoldering. With that as inspiration, this stole is brought to the brink of combustion by the interplay of three contrast colors within the ever-compressing stripe sequence. the first two are worked only one row at a time to give the illusion of flicker and the third is held until the finishing when the four separate triangles ultimately form the rectangle.
The Fine Line: bold stripes in lace weight yarn
by Grace Anna Farrow
$14.95 USD
plus shipping
