Nancy Rawlinson
Toronto, Canada

"I have been knitting since I was six years old. My first memory of knitting was my mother jamming the ends of a broken red knitting needle into a pencil sharpener to make the points and winding masking tape around and around one of the resultant needles so the stitches would not fall off the end. I still have this precious first pair of knitting needles. Through the various stages of my life, knitting has been a wonderful friend to me. My maternal grandmother, who was an inveterate sock knitter, used to call knitting her 'cigarette' - referring of course to its wonderful capacity as a stress reducer. I believe that the dual nature of knitting to alleviate stress and produce a hand-made item is unparalleled.

This mosaic stitch sweater was a tremendous amount of fun to do. I wanted to try out Barbara Walker's technique and so set to work on this cardigan. The method involves knitting only one colour per row and the contrasting colour stitches are slipped and knit on subsequent rows. I've learned from teaching workshops on Mosaic knitting that the explanation in words is far more complicated than the working of it. Perhaps this is why there are not more patterns written using this technique. There were many late nights working up this pattern, as I sat and knit saying to myself 'just one more row' watching the pattern come to life.

In 1986, I attended Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting Camp - a wonderful week of knitting bliss in Wisconsin. I came home loaded down with the most exciting knitting books from her business Schoolhouse Press, which imported books that were not available anywhere else. One of these books was 'The Mitten Book', a small but mighty book of heritage knitting colourwork patterns from Sweden. Last year I blew the dust off this little volume and used the lingonberry pattern as inspiration for these mittens. I originally knit a pair for Christmas for my oldest and dearest friend Anne (who was also my labour coach), but when I gave them away I felt a VOID and promptly set to knit this green and loden pair for myself.

This Fair Isle cardigan was designed with a Christmas theme in mind. I wanted a sweater that would convey a winter holiday feel, but do it subtlety. The main background is a 'snowflake inspired' geometric and the focus is a horizontal bar of colourwork suggesting holly leaves. The cardigan is edged in garter stitch and has a pair of silver Nordic style clasps.

Although my formal training is comprised of seven years of university studying zoology, I am addicted to taking workshops. Besides knitting, over the years I have accumulated a working knowledge of crocheting, machine knitting, spinning, dyeing, embroidery, needlelace, watercolour and acrylic painting, quilting, bookbinding, papermaking and textile design."

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