
Do you remember this post? It’s an interview with Beverley Dott AKA Fair City Knits. Bev and I have stayed in touch since those early days of bonding over finding inspiration for stranded colourwork in everyday life, and I’m thrilled that the last design in KNITSONIK & Friends: Colour to Knit is one of hers.
Meet the Japonica Wrap by Beverley Dott – an iconic, maximalist statement piece that doubles up as an elegant wrap and a warm and woolly wearable blanket.
You can wear Japonica Wrap asymmetrically, joined at the shoulders with closures or shawl-pins…
…or with the short edges fastened together behind your back, like so…
…you can secure the wrap in ways that make its nifty, reversible edges behave like a collar…
…or just find different ways to snuggle into its luxurious folds comprised of 100% Real Shetland Wool Jamieson & Smith 2ply Jumper Weight yarn.
However you wear it, the back of the Japonica Wrap by Beverley Dott is as lovely as the front.
Bev’s Japonica Wrap was inspired by the plant of the same name and, of its translation into stranded colourwork, Bev says this:
I felt the motif should be large enough to be clearly visible from a distance and to draw onlookers in to take a closer look – just like I did when I first saw this beautiful plant with its glorious colours on that frosty morning walk during early lockdown.
I think there is something genius about not only translating an inspiration source, but also recreating the way that we experience and see that inspiration source – something I feel the Japonica Wrap does spectacularly well in that you look at it, notice it at once, and then immediately want to get in for a closer look.
Bev’s Japonica Wrap is worked completely in the round, aided by multiple steeks which means there is no purling in the main part of the wrap, and which minimises the number of ends to weave in at the end because they are all concealed in neat Steek Sandwiches.
Like all the designs in the KNITSONIK & Friends: Colour to Knit eBook, Bev’s chapter comes with a big chunk of supportive creative content designed to empower you in adapting and understanding the pattern. Bev shares her creative process and the tools she uses to help her as a designer; there are breakdowns in the chapter of the two different sequences that produce the wrap’s stunning glowy effect – the Background and the Pattern; and there are printable pages that you can use to recolour the wrap and plan your own shading sequences, in case you want to use colours other than those Bev has used.
The release of this design coincides with completion of the KNITSONIK & Friends: Colour to Knit eBook in which you’ll find Japonica Wrap by Bev alongside Brightlingsea by Patricia Kimmitt; Cheers! by Nolwenn and Flombre by yours truly.
KNITSONIK & Friends: Colour to Knit grew out of my interest in using colouring-in as an aid to stranded colourwork design. Back at the start of 2020 I put out an open call in my Ravelry group for designs using colouring-in as part of their development. I pledged to work with designers who submitted ideas to turn them into a book. The idea was to create a cohesive book that dives deeply into creative process and which comes not only with beautiful patterns you can knit, but also with printable worksheets, insightful essays, and useful prompts to inspire and support you to recolour each design.
Bringing that ambitious vision to life has taken many months but I’m so happy to be sharing the fruits of our labours at last, and to be ending the preview of the patterns inside on such a glorious note.
YOURS IN HURRAH IT’S BOOK LAUNCH DAY! and MEET JAPONICA WRAP BY BEVERLEY DOTT!
XF