Celia Birtwell's Botticelli-inspired knitwear and dresses for Valentino

I love Celia Birtwell's work - fabulous prints that she designed for Ossie Clark clothes in the 1960's, which were re-invented a few years ago for ranges of blouses, tops, dresses and t-shirts for Topshop, then John Lewis and, lastly, Uniqlo.  These were very affordable - especially the Uniqlo items - unlike Ossie's original prices in the 60's.

Her last print range, which was now a year or so ago, was for Valentino - selling for prices that were completely "out-of-this-world"!!  More work must have been involved this time as, instead of adapting her original print designs, the new range was based on flowers from a dress in the famous painting, Primavera, by Botticelli.

As well as floral designs for printed fabric, the flowers appeared on a range of Valentino's knitwear.  I love this cream sweater with embroidered flowers and yoke.  (All photos below are from the internet)

Below is part of the Botticelli painting "Primavera" showing the floral dress.

This is a photo of a black version of the embroidered floral sweater - which I like even more than the cream version.

The same flowers appeared on a long cabled knitted cardigan - worn here with a fantastic floral printed t-shirt.

There was even a sweatshirt top decorated with the same flowers.

I was in love with the fantastic range of Celia's Botticelli-inspired floral prints on Valentino's range of long and short dresses.  

Her prints even appeared on knee-high boots - how amazing is that!

 

I think this embroidered evening dress is absolutely gorgeous.

 If only I had the money, figure and places to go in order to wear these amazing creations!

Well done Celia, Valentino and - it goes without saying - the wonderful Botticelli!

Foxgloves and vintage knitwear

Foxgloves are beautiful flowers and very easy to grow.  They look wonderful in gardens or growing wild in fields, where they can look amazing mixed amongst other wild flowers.

The foxgloves in the photographs below are growing at the bottom of a large garden, where they have self-seeded and are just growing as wild flowers.

Foxgloves growing wild at the bottom of a Suffolk garden

The beauty of the plants is that they come in a great number of shades of pinks and white.  I love their tall spikes.

Wild foxgloves in a Suffolk garden

These great flowers have also been the inspiration for designer knitwear - such as on this vintage hand knitted cotton cardigan.  It is covered with vases filled with flowers - jerberas, muscari and foxgloves - with climbing wisteria flowers twirling round the top part of the front and back.

Hand knit cardigan covered with vases of flowers and climbing wisteria

3-D foxgloves are growing round the lower part of the body and sleeves on another vintage hand knitted cardigan.  This time clematis twirls around the top part of the cardigan, with bees dotted between the flowers.

Hand knit foxglove and clematis cotton cardigan

The amazing group of tall, spiky, pale pink foxgloves in the photograph below was growing in the garden of a house I visited some time ago.

Flower bed full of light coloured foxgloves

Don't they just look absolutely incredible?

Bewick swans and swan mitts

Living in Barnes Wetland Centre are two beautiful Bewick swans.  They seem to love swimming around together and are very synchronised.

Synchronised swimming for the Bewick swans

Two Bewick Swans

What a beautiful face, with lovely yellow and black beak.

Bewick swan

I have a PDF knitting pattern in my Ravelry shop for fingerless mitts with a Bewick swan on the front of each glove.  The original gloves were hand knitted in denim blue 4ply wool and are available in my Etsy shop.

Swan fingerless mitts

Swan mitt - left hand

Swan mitts - knitting pattern on Ravelry

Swan mitts for sale in Etsy shop

Peacocks - knit inspiration and noisy birds

One of my ideas for a knitwear design some years ago was based on vases of flowers and peacocks.  Unfortunately, I do not have any photographs of the actual knits, but the designs are still sitting on my computer.  I took a photograph of the screen showing a design for the fronts of a hand knitted 4ply-weight waistcoat.

Peacock and flowers design for the fronts of a hand knitted waistcoat

I am fascinated with peacocks and have seen them wandering around London's Holland Park and Quex Park, which is not far away from London.

I often go to Pendley Manor in Tring for their yearly Shakespeare Festival in August.  This year, for a change, I was there last Friday in order to attend a Murder Mystery dinner with friends, which included an over-night stay in the hotel.  There were, as usual, peacocks wandering around the grounds.  In the garden, I came across this lovely brightly-coloured peacock with a very long set of beautiful tail feathers.

Colourful peacock with very long tail feathers

There was also a dreamy ethereal white one too.

Ethereal white peacock

There are usually signs in the car park to tell people that the peacocks have right of way!

There was one big drawback - however much I love peacocks, I could do with them keeping quiet in the early morning.  One must have been roosting somewhere below my room and it started mewing at 5.30 a.m. and kept on at regular intervals until it was time for me to get up.  I was lying awake thinking about another victim for the Murder Mystery!

King Kong gloves and a shop window full of monkeys

I love monkeys, gorillas, apes and any sort of primate.  In fact, I have a large collection of them - soft toys, ceramics, such as monkey-shaped teapots, cups and plates decorated with monkeys and a plastic Kong Kong-shaped water-drinking bottle - but not the real thing!

My design of King Kong's face and part of the Empire State Building features on a pair of fingerless mitts and the PDF knitting pattern is available from my store on Ravelry

King Kong's face and the Empire State Building on a pair of hand knitted fingerless mitts

I have been to New York several times in the past and on one of my trips came across this shop window display.  Of course, I had to take a photograph of it!

New York shop window full of toy monkeys and bananas

http://www.ravelry.com/designers/twisted-classics

Vintage knitwear - summer/winter looks - hand knits

The hand knitted cream 4ply-weight mercerised cotton tunic below was featured in a woman's magazine in around the late 1980's or early 1990's together with a free knitting pattern.  It features several textured panels, with the centre wide cable panel containing bobbles.  The lacy leaf pattern panel at the sides also features bobbles and the bottom of the tunic is trimmed with a lacy horizontal leaf-patterned pointed hem.  This is a really pretty summer look and, on a trip to Hong Kong a year or so after the pattern was published, I came across a lady wearing a white tunic that she had knitted from the very same pattern - what a coincidence!  

Twin Leaf Cable hand knitted cotton tunic

This pale blue DK-weight mercerised cotton sweater with patchwork textured patterns in triangular shapes includes cables, bobbles, blackberry stitch and bell-shapes.  The photograph appeared in a knitting book, Cotton Knits, that was published around the same time.

Triangular patchwork DK cotton hand knit sweater

One year during the 1990's there was a catwalk show at the Country Living Fair in Islington and two hand knit tunics were worn by models in the show.  The tunic on the left has a lacy scalloped hem and is covered with intarsia-knit vases of flowers.  The tunic on the right also has a scalloped hem and features panels of different cable and bobble patterns.  Both were hand knitted in 4ply-weight mercerised cotton.

Hand knitted cotton floral and textured tunics

The autumn/winter look below was in a catalogue produced by a clothing company in the early 1990's.  The cardigan is hand knitted and the sunflowers, clematis and lupins are all decorated with bobbles.

Hand knit DK cardigan with bobble-covered flowers

I think that all of these styles are timeless and could still be worn today.

Oystercatchers and Oystercatcher fingerless mitts

Last year, in September, I went on holiday to Penrhyn Bay in North Wales.  The self-catering holiday home directly over-looked the beach, which was not suitable for swimming but was suitable for wading birds such as these two Oystercatchers.  This photograph was taken from the outdoor terrace in front of the house.  Unfortunately the Oystercatchers were too far away to get good photographs and, if you tried to creep near them, they flew away!

2 Oystercatchers on the beach at Penrhyn Bay

One day, I went for a walk on the beach and managed to get a bit nearer, so got some slightly clearer photographs.

Oystercatcher on the beach in North Wales

Oystercatcher looking for food on the beach

On the last morning of the holiday, I had time to kill while waiting for the train in Colwyn Bay so I went to investigate what was happening on the beach.  It was fairly early in the morning and I came across a group of sleepy Oystercatchers.  When I got too near, they woke up and flew off.

Sleepy Oystercatchers on the beach in Colywn Bay, North Wales

 I love Oystercatchers and, after I got home, I decided to design some fingerless mitts with an Oystercatcher on the front.  They were hand knitted in mid blue Drops 4ply Alpaca.

Oystercatcher hand knit fingerless gloves - left mitt

Oystercatcher fingerless mitts - background blue 4ply alpaca

Pansy hand knits - I love pansies

 I love pansies and have used them as inspiration in the past for intarsia hand knits.

Pansy patterned hand knitted cotton bolero

I am not growing any of my own pansies at the moment, so have taken the following photograph from the internet.

The following photographs show various pansy designs on vintage hand knitted cardigans and sweaters from around the early 2000's.

Pansy and cable patchwork squares on hand knitted cardigan

Pansy and rose intarsia hand knit sweater

Cream Pansy hand knitted wool sweater

Pansy and Cable hand knitted wool cardigan

Pansy cashmere hand knitted long gloves

I still love pansies and have designed a knitting pattern for a pair of fingerless gloves with pansies on the fronts.  The PDF pattern is available from TwistedClassics shop on Ravelry.

Pansy fingerless mitts

There is also a pattern available for a matching scarf that is covered with pansies.  This is also available from the TwistedClassics shop on Ravelry.

Hand knit black cashmere scarf covered with pansies

http://www.ravelry.com/designers/twisted-classics

Owls and Barn Owl fingerless mitts - inspired by nature

Last year I was in staying in the Lake District and went to Haverthwaite station for a journey on a steam train.  I was surprised to find 3 owls on show there.

Scopes, Eagle and Barn Owl on show at the station

One was a beautiful Barn Owl.

Beautiful Barn Owl

The second was a Scopes Owl - a female who had been rescued from a lady who became allergic to the feathers and could no longer look after her.

Scopes Owl

The third owl was an Eagle Owl

Eagle Owl

Sad to see that they were chained up and not free to fly whenever they wanted - but at least they were being well looked after.

I love the Barn Owl's fluffy face feathers - and you can see I was there in the Spring from the daffodils in the window box.

Barn Owl on handler's wrist

And there were steam trains at the station too!

Steam locomotive at Haverthwaite station in the Lake District

I love owls and have designed some fingerless gloves with owls on the front.  They can be made in any 4ply wool, cotton or cashmere and the knitting pattern is available to buy from TwistedClassics site on Ravelry.com.

Barn Owl fingerless mitts

Barn Owl mitts - left glove

Barn Owl mitt - right glove

http://www.ravelry.com/designers/twisted-classics