Letters
Albers Shawl: Airy, Simple, Lovely
Dear Kay,
Well that was fast.
We’re glad/sad that our Earth Stripe Wrap kit has sold out—it is an imperfect science, inventory, and it keeps us forever humble. Turns out, lighting a mango-scented aromatherapy candle, staring into it, and picking a random number is maybe not the best way to stock an online holiday shop. LIVE AND LEARN.
The good news is that we have another kit for you, starring Rowan Kidsilk Haze.
The Albers Shawl Kit. The Albers Shawl is a star of Amy Christoffers’s exquisite Field Guide No. 6: Transparency.
Amy is so clever here (as usual), creating an intarsia effect that isn’t actually intarsia.
The trick here is that the background color is worked throughout the project; the rectangles are what happens when a second strand is held with the background color. It all happens very easily and delightfully, and you’ll spend a lot of time holding this thing against a light so you can admire the translucent beauty of it all.
We have two colorways all bundled up for you, including a download of the ebook for Field Guide No. 6: Transparency where you’ll find the Albers Shawl pattern.
This is Ink.
This is Watercolor.
A Third Colorway? Yours Alone
If you’re the sporty type, you may look at this photograph of our Shop’s 29 colors of Rowan Kidsilk Haze and think, Hey, I’d like to cook up my own set of colors for that Albers Shawl.
We obviously think that’s a swell idea. The possibilities are wide open. The kits we cooked up have three balls of one main color, plus three balls for the rectangles. That’s a great scheme.
But you can add more colors for more variety in the rectangles. You can make the background three different colors. You can go supertonal. You can go wild. It can be a dozen completely different colors, and it will be fantastic.
Here’s a chart for you to play around with color placement.
Even more fun: In the Field Guide, Amy shows how quickly this design can turn into all sorts of patterns.
Maybe you’ve been watching all this Kidsilk Haze talk recently, and you’re curious. This is the project that will let you discover what all the fuss is about.
The result is a glorious cloud of color and warmth. It’s fun all day long, to make and to wear.
Yummy!
I made the scarf and love it! Perhaps now the shawl. Holding the second color was so easy for such a great marled effect.
Looking forward to knitting the shawl, but if you restocked the Rowen Earth Wrap, I would buy and knit it pro to!
Looks like fun
Kay, Jennifer Crandall here. I love this pattern. Is it in a Field Guide? If so, how do I purchase it. Thx for letting me know.
JC
The kit includes the pdf of Field Guide No. 6: Transparency linked above where you’ll find the Albers Shawl pattern.
Anni Albers is my inspiration, as well at Guntl Stolz, both were part of the Bauhaus School….. Not able to be part of the architecture program, but headed the weaving…… New museum in Dessen, Germany has a great deal of their work…..
Books abound….. I really love this motif,,,, hope there are more to come!!! Suzanne
I got so excited about this thinking I could use three gorgeous skeins of greys and blue from my stash and get the background color from mdk…and my stash is silk cloud, not kidsilk haze. Different compositions so don’t think it will work, and wouldn’t think of trying and then frogging either yarn. Still recovering from the last time I tried that! Gorgeous shawl, still scheming!
I keep thinking about this pattern, especially because it looks like many of the variations can be knit without breaking the contrast yarn. I wonder about the kits though. It seems you would need 3 to 4x more background color than contrast balls since the background is used across every row.
The one pictured here looks wider than the original to me. Is this the pattern or a new version?