Knitsonik Stranded Colourwork Sourcebook

by Felicity Ford

Now in its second printing The KNITSONIK Stranded Colourwork Sourcebook shows you how to design your own stranded colourwork.

Artist and designer Felicity Ford shows you how to translate ordinary subjects into extraordinary stranded colourwork with her playful and inventive KNITSONIK system.

Discover how to find inspiration in daily life, pick yarn shades and recreate the richness of the world around you through clever shading.

Containing twelve case studies and two accessory patterns, the KNITSONIK Stranded Colourwork Sourcebook offers a wealth of tips, tricks and inspiration for you to take your stranded colourwork knitting to the next level. With sumptuous imagery throughout, this book reveals how everything from factories to fruitcake can be used to inspire knitting projects based on the things you love.

Genres: Knitting, Nonfiction, Crafts

104 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is sheer genius! For anyone who works with wool, and knitting who wants to understand more about color. Ford is amazing! I took a workshop with her last week in Edinburgh and would do it again. Her ability to analyze colors in the environment, and how to duplicate their effects makes this an important book for anyone who does stranded knitting.

[Cayenne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so glad I bought this book! I have read many books on knitting stranded colorwork, but this is the first one I have found that really offers detailed, helpful instructions on how to pick out colors for successful colorwork combinations. The writing makes me feel like I am taking an in-person class from Felix.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful and inspiring book about knitting. It is also a great book for local studies. Felicity Ford takes inspiration from daily object including brickwork, beer, fruit cake and walnut trees and turns them into stranded colourwork. Ford takes the reader through her process, and shows the various stages, including the colour combinations which she regards as not as successful. All the examples are kept as a record, and they are interesting in their own right. I look forward to exploring this work in more detail as I would like to see what I could come up with. I also want to try the fruit cake recipe which is included in this book.

How I think this book could work for local studies, is that local knitters could have workshops exploring the built and natural environment and knit their responses to this. Ford uses examples from Reading (where she lives), and from her drive to work, so some of the examples in this book are also recording material of interest for local studies collections.

[Mckinley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting projects of colorwork.

[Tam G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting way to look at the artistic design process. It specifically follows the process of how to design Fair Isle-style stranded knitting but the process is interesting in terms of other art and design. Do you choose color first? Form? Inspiration? How do you play? How do you edit your design? How do you improve it? It can be hard to teach others a process which helps them break the chains of 'but it just won't be right!'

If there was one down-side I would say it was that this design process is one of 'have lots of colors, lots of material to practice your art.' To a minimalist, someone in a small space, or someone strapped for cash the process of inspiration-color and then question-color may be frustrating. It's a lot of material you need laying around to achieve your inspirations.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not often that a knitting book comes along that is so unique that it blows my socks off. I'm much more of an individual pattern purchaser now instead of knitting books. This book though... it's not a pattern book, it's a concept book, a book about how to turn what you see in the world into knit form. Clearly not for everyone, but personally, I found it fabulous and inspirational.

Note: I was not a supporter of the kickstarter for this book. I was actually really skeptical that the author could deliver on the idea. Very happy to be proven wrong.

[Janet Daniels · Rating 5 out of 5]

Someone once said "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Felicity Ford's "Knitsonik Stranded Colourwork" proves the point in grand and glorious detail. If you have ever marvelled at the beautiful color-stranded garments of the Fair Isle tradition, you will enjoy and benefit from Ford's exposition of the process that produces such ingenious knits.

[Kew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very much enjoyed this book. Author shows how she goes from inspiration to stranded colorwork. The inspiration drives both her color choices and the stranded designs. This is a great book to motivate your own designs.

[Penny Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my, what a beautiful book! This has inspired me to learn how to knit Fair Isle pieces. Hopefully I will be able to design my own based on the advice in this stunning new book.

[Susanne E · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing! It has me wanting to order the complete range of J&S Shetland yarn and start making charts and swatches to represent vermouth bottles, my cat, etc.

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

inspiring

[Honestmitten · Rating 5 out of 5]

At 40 I took up the study of 3D design with silversmithing taught by an amazing Felicity (Denby) who took our class from the seed of an idea through a design process that took us out of the box processing and tearing up and evolving from one idea to another until a piece of jewellery was produced that you may never guess germinated from that original seed unless you were privileged to see our design/sketchbooks........ I evolved my craft into knitting silver wire with yarn.......

I have looked long and hard for a book that captures the delight of the process originally taught to me and now ten years on I find it....

.... there exists, in another amazing Felicity (Ford) a sound artist and accomplished knitter who has generously shared the secrets and wisdom of her stranded knitting inspiration and the processes through to her final pattern pieces in this book Knitsonik Stranded Colourwork Sourcebook ....I cannot begin to tell you what an absolute delight this book is .... my Albrecht watercolour pencils are wearing down rather quickly and I've already filled half a graph paper sketchbook with images and doodles at the same time as singing along and making up a few new lyrics to the yarn inspired / Knitsonik - Jamieson & Smith Yarn Shades Song - by Felicity Ford - https://youtu.be/Hsvm10m6Lks