Louise designs under the moniker of Inspiration Knits. Just released as a digital book it is also available in print and we are thrilled that two of the many gorgeous designs in the book feature MillaMia yarn.
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| Knit Play Colour Cover |
But more of that later. We thought we'd start this blog by telling you a bit about our relationship with Louise. The fact that we have known her for quite a few years now makes profiling her brilliant new book on our blog all the more exciting. We first met Louise at a trunk show in Twickenham. It was one of the first trunk shows we had done as MillaMia and we did not quite know what to expect. We were therefore thrilled that knitters that loved our early MillaMia patterns actually bothered to turn up and spend half the morning chatting to us. Louise was one of those knitters. She had recently had children and had used many of the MillaMia patterns knitting for them. As you can see from Louise's designs today she clearly loves colour and I remember talking to her on that day about this already then. She was one of the rarer knitters we meet that dared to put together her own colour combinations for her MillaMia projects - and they always looked great. At that trunk show she mentioned that she was thinking of going into designing.
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| Ice Storm Cowl |
Fast forward a few years and lo and behold that is exactly what she did. From the outset we were more than happy to support Louise with yarn - we were flattered that MillaMia Naturally Soft Merino was one of her favourites. Louise quickly took Ravelry by storm - first with her funny April Fools prank (ask her about it if you ever meet her!) and then with the beautiful Ice Storm patterns. (shown in the picture to the left in Naturally Soft Merino Putty Grey)
Now she has taken things one step further. With Knit, Play, Colour Louise has spent a year designing, knitting and playing with yarn. The book features 10 accessories patterns ranging from cowls and shawls to blankets and wraps. For each project, Louise includes the standard pattern, and then gently leads the knitter towards playful options to help them make their project truly unique and one of kind. Each pattern’s ‘Play’ section features swatches and suggestions for a variety of different yarns, as well as how to make changes to suit the comfort level of the knitter.
Our favourites of course are the two featuring MillaMia yarn - this time using our Naturally Soft Aran for the first time.
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| Shadow Lines |
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| Warm hearted |
Warm- hearted is one of those blankets that will clearly become an heirloom for any child (or adult) lucky enough to receive it. Shown here in Latte aran it will be a quicker knit thanks to the Aran weight and the subtle melange of the Latte colour will really enhance the finished result. I also think this would be beautiful in Stone or Dusk.
And Shadow Lines is a stunning oversized scarf that really shows our yarn to its best. It looks so soft - you just want to snuggle yourself up in it.
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| Shadow Lines |
Plus plenty of other beautiful patterns like this Flight of Colour to the right - shallow triangle scarf, striped in three colours.Knit Play Colour is available in both print and digitally. The printed book is RRP £16.95, which will include a code to download a free digital copy. Digital only RRP £14.95.
Louise has kindly offered MillaMia Blog Readeres one free digital copy - to win simply tell us via a comment what inspires you to play with colour.
all photos (C) Louise Zass Bangham
posted by Katarina
