Inspiration: Karen Ruane

karen I got a sweet note from Meri of Agulhas da Meri blog suggesting that I feature Karen Ruane’s lovely work on Contemporary Embroidery blog. Meri says,

Exquisite embroidery! It is worth a detailed observation, I think.

I couldn’t agree more. I check her blog every day! Her work is so delicate, so unique; and her photographs are as breathtaking as her needlework. She’s a stitching goddess. Add her to your blog reader, too, so you don’t miss delicious tidbits such as the gorgeous puffs shown above. Look again. Each puff is about 1 cm in diameter (just under a half-inch). How tiny must those French knots be!

If Karen’s work is new to you, be sure to browse back through her blog to see the variety of works she undertakes and her utterly original approach. Time well spent, I promise.

And thank you, Meri, for the kind reminder.

Read These Next

Stitch dictionaries are a fun way to learn new-to-you knitting stitch patterns or to take a deep dive into a particular technique. Debbie Tomkies offers 100 cable stitch designs and thoughts on how to incorporate them into projects in her Cable Knitting Stitch Dictionary.

Each stitch pattern is shown in a large swatch photo and with written and charted instructions. Any special stitches are included on the page. The stitches are rated on a difficulty scale of 1 to 3, and the pattern notes also indicate how many extra stitches you should add to a project if you’re going to work this cable (since cables pull the fabric closer together you need to compensate for that) as well as how many stitches and rows are in the repeat if you want to design a project yourself.

The cables are arranged into sections: classic cables, combinations, all-over panels, creative cables, motifs and panels and cabled edges and borders.

It’s fun to flip through the designs to think about projects you can add a single cable or two to or make with an allover cabled design. Or you could make swatches of different cables and sew them together into a pillow cover or a throw.

At the back of the book there’s a section on general cable knitting techniques, reading charts, working swatches and avoiding errors (though it mentions working the wrong number of rows between cable turns, it doesn’t share how to count rows between cables to avoid this mistake).

It also talks about how to design your own cables, combine cables in a project, choose the right yarn and needles and determine how many more stitches you need to cast on when working cables instead of stockinette stitch. There’s also a glossary of symbols and abbreviations you may find in cable knitting and other patterns.

The book provides a good overview of things you can do with cables, as well as some fun things you might not have tried like infinity cables and horizontal cables. It’s a great book for a designer who likes to work with cables or a knitter who wants to play with different stitches in their projects.

About the book: 176 pages, paperback, 100 stitch patterns. Published 2024 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $26.99.

Read These Next

Have you read?