Where I have been

Things have been quiet here on the blog because all my energy is going into my Knit Stars 6 Masterclass: Think Like An Artist.

'Think Like An Artist: A KNITSONIK Creative Adventure Designed by Felicity (Felix) Ford', text overlaid on an image of Felix holding three intricately patterned stranded colourwork cowls, each of which is worked in a different colourway to its neighbours, while clearly being the same general design

This class builds on long-standing ideas from my practice around celebrating daily life in stranded colourwork, but it’s also a love-letter to the many artists and makers on whose shoulders my work stands. To make my concepts both accessible and fun, I’ve condensed them into a very knittable cowl. It’s worked in the round and contains twelve sections, each of which speaks to the practice of a particular artist in my favourite medium: stranded colourwork. The idea is that you can either knit the design exactly as charted using the recommended palettes; or you can change the charts (or the shading sequences) using helpful prompts. However you decide to approach my class, Think Like An Artist is a journey through creative ideas and at the end of the process, you will have a wearable record of your adventures.

Felix stands with three cowls draped over her hands; she is peeping over them with a little smile. The cowls each feature the same designs, but are worked in different palettes; one containing jewel tones, one containing bright primaries, one containing muted, earthy tones

The palettes which inspired the three samples are inspired by artists: Alma Thomas inspired the brightly-coloured palette; Bobby Baker inspired the autumnal, more muted palette; and Georgia O’Keeffe inspired the jewel-tones palette. My friends at John Arbon Textiles supplied the yarn for the samples and for the kits – which are exclusively available to attendees of Knit Stars for one year – and which each come with a special enamel pin that I designed.

a worn and weathered wooden step-ladder bears three sets of glorious, glowing yarn skeins; they are purposefully arranged into sets of 12 skeins. The bottom is very bright and a bit rainbow-y; the middle one is jewel-tones with just a splash of hot, light greens; and the top one is a sort of neutral, murky palette of delight

canvas pencil case featuring Dutch buildings and a lovely bright red zipper; pinned onto the pencil case is a vibrant circular enamel pin featuring a colourwheel design inspired by the lovely bright shades so often used by the American Artist, Alma Thomas whose name appears at the centre of the pin.

With this class I really wanted to find a way of showing that you can keep the essence of a design while changing the colours to your preferred palette, as this comes up time and time again in my classes – “I love that, but I don’t like those colours!” I love how the end results are clearly the same design, but each evoke a very different mood and flavour because of the yarn shades used. Big thanks to @wendykippax and @tattieknits for knitting the Bobby Baker and Georgia O’Keeffe versions of the design.

Felix peeps from behind the Alma Thomas cowl, with Yayoi Kusama dots at front and centre

Bobby Baker inspired cowl in earthy tones with Felix peeping out of it with a cheeky grin

Felix wears the Georgia O'Keeffe inspired cowl - again with Yayoi Kusama dots in front and centre - showing the design in greens and purples

Before I get back to InDesign and pages of charts, charts, charts, I wanted to let you know that sign-ups for Knit Stars 6 – for which I have designed this special project – are now open until October 28th. The launch of the autumn sign-ups includes Free Preview Week. I love Free Preview Week because you get to see slightly shortened versions of all the beautiful videos made by the Knit Stars production team, with each of the 11 tutors, filmed in our own homes. I’m really grateful to Robin Fox and his production team and to the Knit Stars editing team, for doing such a careful job of showcasing my practice for this short. Thank you so much.



There are 11 tutors in total teaching at Knit Stars 6, so along with Think Like An Artist, you’ll get access to 10 other amazing online masterclasses. It’s a really fantastic line up of tutors, and I’m honoured to be teaching in this company.

If you’re interested in joining us for Knit Stars, you’ll find all the details on our enrolment page by clicking here. This is an affiliate link, which means that if you decide to sign up I’ll get a commission – which is a great way to support me and my work. Thank You!

AND NOW – back to charts, charts, charts.
Yours in… CHARTS!
Fx

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