KNITTED ART and 'Yarn' in Nottingham

Alison and Sarah, owners of Yarn

Alison and Sarah are the knitter owners behind the fabulous ‘Yarn’ in Nottingham – a local yarn store that stocks an exciting and eclectic range of contemporary yarns (including MillaMia of course!), all sorts of patterns and books as well as a wonderful range of crafty notions, needles and accessories. They offer a great choice of Sunday workshops too and a Knit and Natter morning every Wednesday 10am – 12 and Thursday 5pm – 7pm which is always very well attended. If you’re in the area, the girls would love to see you too!

Alison and Sarah count themselves incredibly fortunate to have some extraordinarily talented knitters among their loyal customers, and one of these - Mariana Bowley has created a blanket that is nothing short of a work of art. Her blanket is knitted entirely in MillaMia Naturally Soft Merino using a very interesting technique to create some colours that have never been seen in our palette before!

Mariana's incredible blanket

Mariana very kindly agreed to share her wonderful blanket with the MillaMia blog and answered a few questions too.

1) Firstly, a huge ‘well done’ to you on making such an amazing blanket – it truly is a work of art. What initially inspired your design?
I have always been fascinated by the interaction of yarns of different colours. In 1988 I saw a picture in a museum that inspired me to knit a jumper with yarns the colours of the rainbow. I wanted to reproduce this effect for a blanket to brighten our all white bedding. But the way I worked the original jumper, short lengths of wool, did not seem appropriate for the blanket – too many ends at the back.

The original piece that inspired her 'rainbow' sweater

And the finished piece, front . . .

. . . and back

2) I’m intrigued with the technique you used to create more shades. Can you tell us a bit more about how you blended the colours?
I worked it out that the Millamia yarn was made of 5 strands. I separated 1 strand of a length of Peacock and knitted into a circle with 4 strands of Daisy; in the next circle I used 1 strand of Daisy with 4 strands of Peacock and so on.

3) Why did you choose to use MillaMia yarn for this project? And dare I ask how many balls of yarn you used?
Millamia was ideal with its wonderful range of colours and knitting with its yarns was a pleasure. I first bought seven colours of the rainbow, knitted the corner piece and with that I was off and knitting! I used 13 different colours in all and it took me about 5 months to complete using more than one ball of each colour. I am using the leftovers to make two cushion covers.

I thank the encouragement and advice of Alison and Sarah at ‘Yarn’ and my weaving friends.

www.yarn-in-notts.co.uk

Tel: 0115 9253606 Opening hours: Tuesday-Saturday 9.30am - 5pm, (late night Thursdays till 7pm)

(posted by Max)