Masterful Marbles

I recently picked up the latest issue of World Art Glass Quarterly magazine. It’s their anniversary issue and is full of some of the most incredible glass art I’ve seen in a long time. You’ve got the regular cast of masters… Dale Chihuly and Paul Stankard as well as The Lundberg Studios. Many artists are shown. The marbles of Mark Matthews really had me mesmerized. The detail and craftsmanship of these marbles is incredible. Sure he does twists with complex canes of filigrana, but his geometrics and his animal prints are breathtaking.

Check out his web site to see more of his work and get some of his history. The page of animal spines known as the Life and Death series, where he collaborates with blacksmith Joel Sanderson are incredible. The combination of the marbles and the metal work so well together.

I find his work compelling and inspiring. It makes me want to get on the torch and play. Maybe I’ll get a little marble out of it.

Generally I like knitting patterns where I feel like you can use whatever yarn you have (because my stash is big enough and I want to use it, thanks) and make a successful project. This is one of those times when a special yarn makes the process that much easier.

The Floral Bouquet Shawl from Xandy Peters uses a specific extended color pooling yarn from Feisty Fibers, which allows you to place the bobble flowers with increasing frequency as you knit the project.

It starts with a solid color yarn, then the two color yarn is added in, and you make a bobble whenever you encounter the color pops. This would be hard to replicate with other yarn that doesn’t have the extended color pooling built in.

The background of the shawl is ribbed, making the project reversible.

The shawl uses fingering/sock yarn and comes out to be an asymmetrical triangle that’s 54 inches/137 cm long and 36 inches/ 90 cm deep and 60 inches/150 cm across the top edge.

Xandy says the pattern is for intermediate to advanced knitters. Knowing how to work traditional bobbles would probably help, but there’s a great video tutorial for how to work the floral bobbles so you can practice on other yarn or even incorporate the bobbles into other projects.

The bobbles are five-petaled flowers but they also kind of look like starfish to me, which could be fun on a child’s cardigan or other pattern. They’d also be fun on the leg of a sock or around the brim of a hat for extra whimsy.

The pattern includes photo and video tutorials, and written and charted instructions. It also includes tips on what to look for if you choose to use different yarn for the project, and instructions on how to dye your own yarn to use in the project.

If you want to give it a try, you can find the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Xandy Peters]

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