Last year, Hunter Hammersen of Violently Domestic designed these stunningly intricate socks for her Silk Road Socks book using our Silk Crush yarn. They were so beautiful that when she called again in May looking for yarn for her second book, I was more than happy to send some her way. Mostly, I was just eager to see what might fall of her needles.
Hunter’s second book has just launched and it’s packed full of twenty beautiful patterns inspired by vintage botanical prints. The book is called The Knitter’s Curiosity Cabinet and is available for pre-order on Ravelry here. It’s currently available at a discount of $16.95 (after it’s released, the book will go up to $18.95). I don’t really know how designers price their patterns, but I’m pretty sure $0.85 per pattern is a steal.
We sent Hunter a skein of Merino Silk Aran in Cayenne and a skein of Silk Crush in Deep Olive which turned into this elegant pair of socks and hat. She took inspiration from a vintage print of a humble Scots pine and says this:
Pinus silvestris Flowers are showy, they get all the attention. But plants that don’t make what we think of as flowers can be just as lovely as their flashier counterparts. I wanted to be sure to include at least a few of them in this collection, and the Scots pine is a perfect example. The socks are simple stockinette with a decorated panel that runs down the front and back. The panel is mirrored and twists gently around your foot. The pattern on the panel is drawn from the scales on the mature pine cone. The hat is inspired by the amazing orange color and intricate texture of the young pine cone. The decorated band at the bottom produces a lovely wavy edge while the plain crown ensures a comfortable fit. Be sure to peek at the inside of the hat as some people like that even more.
I’m always curious and interested in where and how people find their inspiration. For Hunter, a simple set of botanical illustrations yielded ten sock patterns and an additional ten accessory patterns. I admire that process… pushing one idea forward, and then pushing yourself even further to design more out of the same idea.
For any designers out there, where do you find your inspiration? What kinds of things do you collect in your own personal curiosity cabinet?
Your yarn is beautiful! I bought it for a gift and enjoyed knitting it! The ladies in the stores were all so enthousiastic about it… and they were right! For some reason, I recall what it was like to knit it just looking at the beautiful pictures from that post!
I love those socks!!