I’ve been working on the Pattern-That-Just-Won’t-Be for what seems an eternity. It’s a cabled hat and glove set. I’ve been twisting, untwisting, reversing, resizing and otherwise manipulating the cable pattern; it’s amusing. Sort of. Today, when I looked at it after an evening of shape-shifting, it hit me how very Celtic a lot of cable patterns are. Enigmatic and magically twisty, celtic cables make toothsome fodder for the knitter.
Take for example, this clever knitter. Devorgilla has been exploring the translation of Celtic knots to knitting since about 2010 (on Ravelry, anyhow). It seems she had afghan squares in mind when she created these enticing knotted blocks, but I think they’d lend themselves to many projects.
There are a number of publications, clip art and online sources where Celtic motifs can be found. This one “Celtic Charted Designs” by good ol’ Dover, are gridded and ready to be transposed into stranded colorwork, intarsia or cables. It can be downloaded as an e-book in both the US and Canada for about 5 clams.
“Celtic Knotwork Designs” by Sheila Sturrock contains some great information about early motifs and some simple processes for plotting motifs onto graph paper; I’m sure this could just as easily be accomplished in any knitting chart software.
Here’s an interesting idea! Clanbadge.com has created a font through which Celtic knots and borders can be composed using a restricted area of your keyboard. $20 includes 76 editable designs and the potential for many more, plus a free Celtic lettering font. It works for PC or Mac.
Aon-Celtic.com (above) offers a wide range of freeware that includes many, many motifs, borders, buttons and flags as well as some charted designs. They too offer a free lettering font.
I doubt these will help the Pattern-That-Just-Won’t-Be, but I can certainly see them in a pair of leg warmers I’ve been meaning to knit!
Elizabeth
I have a couple of Alice Starmore’s earlier books featuring celtic designs. Remind me to bring them for you to see next time I’m in Picton (unless you already have them). You mentioned the art of styling when I was in the shop today and these books are about as good as it gets in in that department. BTW, I was fortunate enough to take classes with Alice about twenty years ago, including her class on closed knotwork. I think she was about the only designer doing that at that time.
Nicky
You’re a knit goddess so I know the pattern that wouldn’t be will so be! But on another note … those cable squares will be amazing for the blanket you’re planning to make. *cough* 😛 😀