Knitted illustration
Hand-knitting textile elements for my Illustrations
Dear Readers,
one thing I love about winter is all of the woollen clothing we get to wear. Hats, scarves, mittens and jumpers wrap us up warm, and drape about the house in baskets and across comfy chairs. Also, the cosy coldness and sit-by-the-fire evenings allow me to work on larger knitting projects that heat up my lap too much for the summer. This week, even the commissioned illustrations that I’m making for an educational publisher needed knitwear!
A teeny glove for a tiny illustration about a boy… putting his gloves on. Not all illustrations have to be deep and meaningful, some can just be clear and understandable and they are just as important. I had so much fun knitting this tiny glove; 4 ply Scottish wool yarn on 2.5mm double-pointed needles, no pattern to follow just muddling through as I went along. That’s my favourite creative time, when I’m trusting my skills and experience and following the guidance of the materials without any much planning.
If I was making this mitten for a doll (or even a person!) I would cast this first draft aside and start again. The thumb join has too big a hole and there should be more shaping between the cuff and the palm. But here’s a joy of knitting for illustration; what is not good enough for a 3D moving body can be perfectly fine for a 2D paper character. So here the little boy is, happily wearing his new glove and not noticing the imperfections!
Last week I promised that you would hear more about the little girl in the red jumper from my exhibition illustrations. I had planned to make some more illustrations featuring her and begin exploring who she is and what her story might be. But I have a tendency to try and fit more than I can manage in a week, and I have rather a lot of images to create for my publisher (as in the tiny glove above), so time has been short. When I did carve out a moment to work with her, I met a new problem; she does not want to come out and play! She was put in a lovely new frame for the exhibition and is enjoying hanging in our living room som much that she refuses to come down off the wall.
This demonstration of personality was a clear sign that she needed a name, so I’ve called her Martha. Martha Malkin. It’s a family name. As one of two married daughters in my family (we have both taken out husband’s surnames) nobody is carrying my family surname on, so I thought my character creations could share my maiden name instead of my human creations. So there we are. Martha Malkin.
Since the original red jumper used to build the first picture of Martha has remained with its commissioner, I knitted a second one in order to put her in my exhibition (I wrote about it in an Instagram post here). I rebuilt Martha using the original collage pieces, and added e tiny hint of pink to her face for this ‘second edition’. You can see them below, the original on the left and the new illustration on the right.
I was in a rush with this second jumper; I think the sleeves are too wide, the body too long and the steam too billowing on the hot chocolate. But I know I can be a little too self-critical, so I let it stand. I also ran out of time to change it! Perhaps it’s a good thing that Martha wants to stay in her frame overseeing our living-room life because now I have to knit a third jumper before I can make any more illustrations of her (yes I know I could just draw her with a pencil, but I don’t want to).
The first thing to do is really a fun part for me; I go to my yarn stash and browse the options. Here’s my red row. It seems like at lot of yarn but it’s barely enough choice. I need something the right shade of bright red, the right thickness and also the right consistency.
The wool for jumper number 2 was too soft and fluffy and wouldn’t have held up to the rigours of illustration; much positioning, pinning, stitching and white-tacking into place. Too much fluff just gets everywhere, I need something more rough and ready. All of the yarn is either the wrong weight or the wrong shade, so I’ll try blending two finer yarns together; one darker and one more orangey, both quite wiry with a strong ply. It might work.
So now I’m ready with my pattern notes from version one, my blended yarn and my double-pointed 4mm needles. Perhaps next week I’ll have jumper number three to show you and some new pieces of Martha to add to it.
Have a good week and enjoy January while it lasts,
Hannah xx
P.S.
My exhibition is finally down and finished, that has been most of my work for the past two months! If you missed it, I now have a video tour of my exhibition free to view up on Youtube, you can view it here.
Many thanks to Michael Munnik for allowing me to use his beautiful music in the background of my tour video, go and listen to his songs on Bandcamp here.
