We're so close now to publishing the Elemental collection. The book is in the very final stages with the editors checking every last detail for you. There's three editors working away on this, each bringing a different perspective and expertise.
And now... here is the cover! We do hope you like it :)
pssst/ if you haven't already, sign up for my newsletter to have details of it's publication come straight to your inbox.
I can't wait for you to see it!
As we draw ever closer to the publication of the Elemental collection, you'll be wanting to make sure you have your yarn!
Below is an image of the front cover of each single pattern. Exactly the same info will be included in the book. The yardage calculations include a tolerance (about 10%) and the swatch can be knit in any colour... in fact, once you've made one, you won't need to reswatch. From each image you can also click through to the pattern's own page, where all the info is laid out in my usual way.
The yarn used is Bloomsbury DK from The Yarn Collective. I'll do a proper review another day, but suffice to say this yarn is delicious! It has amazing stitch definition, a wonderful shine and bounces back despite repeated frogging. Carol Feller curated these colours, and they work so well together.
As I've mentioned before, these patterns are graded through gauge, and fine adjustments in needle size is all that's needed. You will need to swatch before starting your first Hat, and that will help to determine size - slouch as well as fit. Do have a look to at the notes about the size the model is wearing, and her head size - Beth was tiny! The sample size does fit on my head (garter stitch is way stretchier than it ought to be) but they fit like a skinny beanie, without slouch, so do consider what style you prefer to wear. There is also the option of working fewer or more panels, too.
Fear not though, as there will be a Ravelry discussion thread for each Hat, so you'll be able to pop over and ask away. I haven't planned a KAL for these Hats as I've been so busy with everything else, but I don't see why we can't knit along together during September?
Korra was the first Hat I designed for this collection, but having worked through Toph, I went back and redesigned it, and defined exactly what I wanted it to be. In keeping with the theories, this Hat features a little of each of the other Elemental Hats.
Within this design you'll find the short row forms that feature heavily within Azula and Toph. You'll also find the strong lines from Opal and Katara, which are also influence not by the short rows of the background, but by the short rows of the foreground. It also features a distinctly different coloured brim, although it doesn't require a two colour graft.
It also features a slightly different, more gathered crown. It doesn't demand to be flat, and instead asks that the fabric collects more organically. The overall shape is that of a comfort slouch, yet if you were to look closely at the pattern, the maths is quite different from the others.
The construction is different from the others, too, or at least in it's approach. Yes, it's knit sideways with short row shaping integrated within the short row patterning, but the way you work the panels asks you to think a little for yourself within a given set of parameters. There are warnings not to go off piste else the fabric won't be balanced, but there is an element of build-your-own here, allowing you to making the Hat unique to you.
Korra is by far the easiest of the five Hats to knit, provided you follow the guidelines for maintaining a balanced fabric. The short row forms are small and easily memorised, and are a good stepping stone towards the more complex Hats
When it came to the photoshoot, this was the first Hat we shot and the only Hat we didn't need to reshoot for optional extras. Considering this was the first time Beth had ever modelled, and given her nervousness about that, I think these photos are bloody brilliant and carry a hint of purity, innocence? with them.
Korra herself is an avatar, which means she is a master of all the elements. She's the Avatar of the second series, and as was the case with her predecessors, her job is to maintain balance between the nations. There is also a spiritual element to all avatar characters, and it makes me really admire the creators of this series, and the thoughtfulness they placed into each and every character and role.
Yarn wise, Korra uses one skein of of Soot and Russet of the Bloomsbury DK. I got both Azula and Korra from the one skein of Russet, but the dark grey fell a little short when I was working on Opal, so do bear that in mind.
And there we have the five Hats in the Elemental collection! There's lots more I want to talk about - the photoshoot location, Beth our wonderful model, and the yarn itself - as we lead up to the release date. Publication isn't long away now and I'm getting pretty excited :D
Katara and Opal share a key feature, and that is is that it's not the short row forms that create the details, but the lines around them. It'll become evident more going forward, but the types of short row forms used in these patterns (i.e. the shapes created by the short rows) are generally used as the detail, the colour that stands out. With these two Hats, those forms sit back and shape the lines around them.
Katara was the first Hat I designed this way, thinking about line, and the effect on the line by the short rows. It took a little juggling at first but once I'd got to grips with it, I rather enjoyed looking at the short rows differently. The easiest way to manage this would be to have the lines run the full length of the Hat (which you'll see later in the final design) but doing it this way affects the balance of the fabric quite differently.
The effect is that of gentle waves, or lightly drifting sea plants, being directed by the ebb and flow of the water. I'm really pleased with this deign, it has a strong yet gentle effect; striking but not overpowering.
I'd say we photographed this one Hat more than any of the others. We shot it against three different murals, in different lights. Tom shot these and had us use the reflectors, as the light was still so strong at 8pm. I don't like reflectors, I don't like the result of flat light on the face, and we shot extras to give us more choice. The best photos of the Hat with the best light (in my opinion!) had a large mural that ended up looking very odd within the frame, so they got ditched. My absolute favourite shots were taken inside one of the old structures with the most amazing graffiti, but the shots are too grainy and not so sharp, even if the mood, light and environment were perfect. I've settled on these now, though - they show the Hat off well which is the most important thing.
One of the things that strikes me as I look through all of the Hat photographs together is the way Beth lends her mood so well and yet so differently to each. There's something so gentle and natural about these, yet strong and powerful at the same time.
The crown is softly gathered leaning towards flat, and the longest lines from the body reach in towards the centre like tentacles. Did I mention already that I really like the way the lines dance around the body of this one?
Katara is a water bending master, and one of the original characters in Avatar. Infact, the very first scene opens with her, and the story unfolds around her and her brother. She's arguably one of the more mature characters with a strong sense of what needs to be done. Kind brave and passionate, she's an early heroine of the series.
Shape wise, you're looking at slightly slouchy - a little longer in the body and not so roomy in the circumference, but just enough room not to squash the head. The crown isn't mathematically a flat circle, but it's close-ish (there's only so far you can push those short rows at gauge, y'know!)
Yarn wise, this one uses a skein of Bloomsbury DK in Surf and a few yards in Sand. And like all the others, it's graded through gauge, so you'll want to check your needle size and gauge before starting. The sideways knit garter stitch makes for an incredibly stretchy rib, and the not-so-rabid short rows don't really tighten up the fabric (the same can't be said for Azula) so there's definitely some forgiveness in the fabric.
Opal was the final Hat of the collection that I designed, and it was the hardest. The hardest to try and think about how I could represent the concept of air. Air is everywhere yet it has no real tangible essence.
I started by drawing out types of clouds in a very representative way, but they didn't work for me, I didn't like the result. Fire worked that way because it was dramatic and strong, but the clouds didn't really look all that effective, more like blobs of white against blobs of grey. It might be more achievable with a finer gauge yarn, where there's more room to add in that many more short rows and create different forms, but here it wasn't working.
I really liked the idea of working with storms, the angrier side of the air element, but again visually that was hard to do effectively. There wasn't quite the room to create large swirling storms clouds, with or without lightening strikes.
In the end, I figured it was better to move away from trying to hammer this one out literally, and go with a more symbolic angle. The symbol for air is generally 3 wavy lines, representing the invisible movement of air. Throw in some dark swirly forms to represent stormy clouds, and Opal was born.
The background to these photos is an old mural of a large pink butterfly inside a very derelict room at the nearby quarry. I'll talk about the photoshoot location more in another post, but as much as I like the pink against this Hat, it was the hardest Hat to get right. The editing, the shoot itself, so many things proved challenging. Everyone who's written a book, especially a pattern book or design collection, will tell you that there's always one that won't behave.
Series one of the Avatar starts with the story of how the fire tribe have all but wiped out the air tribe. In fact Avatar is commonly known as The Last Airbender, and it seems rather apt that this design should be the most elusive of them all.
Opal is from the second series, and is a distance relative of other characters that have Hats named from them. In this series the air tribe have grown strong and their lost skills returned, although it took Opal some time to come to terms with her skills and heritage. Like many of the air tribe, her nature is on the gentler side, and this Hat is certainly a more tranquil knit.
Yarn wise, you'll need a skein of Bloomsbury DK in Soot, and a small amount in Sand. This Hat tripped me up on my yardage estimations (mostly because I'd planned a more even balance of the colours with clouds and such) and so I had to ask the folks at LoveKnitting for a few extra yards! They came to the rescue and I got it all done it time for the photoshoot, which was a mighty relief.
I mention this as a warning that you will be able to get all 5 Hats from one skein each of the 6 colours except you may need a bit more of the dark grey (depending on your gauge, naturally).
The cover is almost done, and we've started working on the layout! (I say we, as I'm not doing the legwork here - team Woolly is in action). The patterns are all through their first round of tech editing and for the final round, we'll have a small army of editors to make triply sure that these patterns are top notch. Normally, I'd do an extra round of editing with one or two editors - this way, I get the same kind of attention to detail only quicker (at least, that's the plan).
We're still aiming for the first week of September for publication, and it's all coming together well.
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