Planting a Garden of stitches

By now, many of you have seen the Nonna's Garden Shawl. But in case you were wondering, here's a little insight into how it came to be!

Last winter, we put the final touches on City Tweed and decided that we wanted to make a kit that would feature every color of the DK weight. 14 colors is an awful lot to manage, and it's unlikely that a garment with that many colors of such heavy yarn would really be wearable! So the decision was made for a shawl. But still - fourteen colors? How exactly do you make 14 colors 'work?'

It just so happened I was planning next year's garden at the time (which is now happily growing and green!), and I realized that the colors had a very floral overtone when grouped together. And then - it started snowing. So, stuck at home for almost two weeks in knee-deep snow, here I was looking at pictures of spring flowers and bright colors! It at least kept my mind off of having to shovel the driveway. I got out my pattern inspiration books and got to work.

The overall design of the shawl went through several iterations; some flowers were added or removed depending on how well they 'fit'. The overall size was determined, then the floral illustrations were laid out over a grid, and I went about the glorious task of coloring all 46,400 stitches in the chart one by one to match the illustration.

One of the biggest challenges was trying to determine in advance exactly how much of each color would be used - especially without having the yarn at hand. As much as you try, it's never an exact science. At the last minute, I had to move around and re-color about 700 stitches' worth of Romance, Habanero and Lemon Curd, just to be sure the shawl could be knit with one ball of each! I'll tell you, it ended up being very close. But, somehow it all worked out, and the shawl was done and on its way.

The hardest part about this, though, was not being able to talk about City Tweed for half a year! Hopefully this yarn inspires you as much as it did all of us.

Tags: newproduct, yarn

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Comment by Joslyn on October 5, 2009 at 9:47pm: I love this shawl

Comment by Karen L Smith on July 30, 2009 at 6:17pm: Is this shawl knit length wise or width wise?

Comment by Peggy Stuart on July 10, 2009 at 6:58am: Joyce: That was a good idea, to remind yourself when you start at the right and when you start at the left. I had to frog part of mine because I picked it up and started knitting, but was looking at the wrong chart. Oops! --P

Comment by Susan the Blue Lake Knitter on July 9, 2009 at 7:30pm: Joyce,
It sounds like you have the organization part pretty much in hand. Good job!

Comment by Joyce Schneider on July 9, 2009 at 6:28pm: Received my Nonna's Garden kit. I am now on row six. Wafer thin stitch markers, every ten stitches help, also an extra marker attached to the last marker for each page, lets you know you are ready for the next chart, since there are four pages. Need many yarn bobs. I have twenty bobs and now starting to use clothes pins, till I can get some more plastic bobs. The chart holder that KnitPicks sells, has been a great help.
I work one page at a time so I know I didn't make a mistake since there are so many stitches. This is my first project of intarsia. I just sat down and planned everything out. I even made a list of rows. First row to begin is a knit, so I marked my paper 4 3 2 1. Which mean I started at chart 4. Once that was finished I circled that number, and then started chart 3. Once I got to the end, I circled row 1 as completed. Row 2 is purl, so I marked next to it 1 2 3 4, beginning with chart 1 etc... With so many color changes, this has really helped me. I hope a beginner will not be afraid to get this kit. I was worried but I took it a step at a time and now I am on my way, with at least 140 more rows to do. Good Luck

Comment by Peggy Stuart on June 11, 2009 at 5:42pm: Good for you, Nathanne! I agree, it isn't that hard. We all need to encourage everyone, and I like your idea about practicing first. --Peggy

Comment by Nathanne Verner on June 11, 2009 at 1:37pm: Nonna's Garden is amazing. I am definitely ordering this kit. Intarsia was one of the first things I learned to do on my own, so I hope everyone posting won't get scared off by it. If I can do it, anyone can do it. I recommend practicing first with swatches and scrap yarn. That way you can learn to manage the tension so it doesn't pucker, and the stitches are even. It's so rewarding to see a gorgeous picture emerge as you knit. It keeps you motivated. This shawl is really worthy of the time and effort it will take to make it.

Comment by Sarah Helene Seufert on June 9, 2009 at 10:51pm: My DREAM is to knit this NONNA'S GARDEN shawl..... I can do it! I have never seen a photo of such a BEAUTIFUL shawl. I just read the process you experienced to create, from your imagination, a lovely floral design using 14 specific colors of yarn. All I can say is WOW! You are truly a TALENTED and CREATIVE artist, indeed!

Comment by fiberfanatic on May 4, 2009 at 8:53am: Absolutely beautiful! I don't even usually wear these colors but I love it. Since intarsia is new to me I'm now reading everything I can find on it, to get up to speed enough to try this. Wow. It would probably take me 10 years, but that's okay...

Comment by AudKnits on May 3, 2009 at 5:29pm: Congratulations on a stunning design! I love the way the City Tweed colors work together - the tweedishness (is that a word?) lends a certain softness. I cannot imagine the amount of work it took to create this design and then (gulp) write it. Whew!