Kristin Nicholas Knitwear Design

Designing
Kristin Nicholas is one of America's most prolific handknitting designers. Known for her comfortable, classic silhouettes, her garments are often featured on the pages of Vogue Knitting, Interweave Knits, Family Circle Knitting, Woman's Day, House and Garden, and many major women's magazines. For 16 years she was Creative Director for Classic Elite Yarns based in Lowell, Massachusetts.

Most of her designing is done on the needles as she swatches a chosen yarn with graph paper beside her, making notes as she knits. Once Kristin decides a stitch is "right," she translates it into a set of knitting instructions for one of her talented test-knitters to work up into the first sample garment.

Ethnic Inspiration
Kristin's use of color has developed over the 20 years she has been knitting and designing. She is especially inspired by ethnic textiles. Favorite sources of inspiration are Indian saris and embroideries, Turkish and Persian carpets, Peruvian knitwear, and embroideries from the Bukhara region of China. Her colorful knitwear is recognizable for unusual color combinations and interesting edge treatments for borders and necklines.

Cable Knitting
Kristin is also a master of cabling and stitchwork. While many of her designs contain cable stitches of her own creation, she also refers to favorite dog-eared, tattered "stitch dictionaries" to translate classic cables into contemporary knitwear.

Favorites
Here are a few of Kristin's all-time favorite designs.

Vogue Knitting, Fall 2006
Fair Isle and Embroidered Socks

Interweave Knits Little Majolica Fall 2006
Interweave Knits, Fall 2006
Little Majolica

Interweave Knits Seeing Dots Adult Spring 2006 Interweave Knits Seeing Dots Child Spring 2006
Interweave Knits, Spring 2006
Seeing Dots Cardigan

Nashua North American Designer 1 Stripes and Cables
Nashua Handknits
Left: Striped Cabled Pullover from North American Designer Collection 1
Right: Colorful Cardigan from North American Designer Collection 3

Colorwork Classic
Interweave Knits, Winter 2004
Photograph courtesy of Chris Hartlove

Knit It Jacket
Better Homes and Gardens Knit It

Knit It Child's Pullover
Better Homes and Gardens Knit It

Stop-Traffic Circles, Interweave Knits Winter 2003
Interweave Knits, Winter 2003
Photograph courtesy of Chris Hartlove

Vogue Knitting Winter 2003
Vogue Knitting, Winter 2003
Photograph courtesy of Vogue^Ž Knitting International

Vogue Knitting 20th Anniversary Left Picture
Vogue Knitting, 20th Anniversary Collector's Issue, Fall 2002
Photograph courtesy of Vogue^Ž Knitting International

Interweave Knits Cover Bag Interweave Knits Cover Bag Side Detail
Interweave Knits, Summer 2000 (featured on cover)
Photograph courtesy of Chris Hartlove

Interweave Knits Pumpkin Aran
Interweave Knits, Winter 2000/2001
Photograph courtesy of Chris Hartlove

Vogue Knitting Pillow
Vogue Knitting, Fall 1997
Photograph courtesy of Vogue^Ž Knitting International

Evergreen Arans
From Knitting the New Classics, Sterling/Lark publishers, Š1995 Classic Elite Yarns

Where to Buy
For back issues of Interweave Knits: www.interweave.com
For back issues of Vogue Knitting: www.vogueknitting.com

About Duplicate Stitchery

One of my favorite ways to make a design "sing" is by using duplicate stitchery on handknits. An ordinary piece of Fair Isle knitting can be altogether transformed by adding small bits new colors in duplicate stitch.

The process of duplicate stitching is not hard. After the first few motifs are completed, it becomes automatic and almost therapeutic in its motions. It is a great way to use up odd bits of yarn and bring exciting surface interest to a simple two-color knit fabric. This technique can also be used as a substitute for intarsia knitting, eliminating the need to weave in dozens of ends - a distinct advantage!

See a detailed duplicate stitch tutorial on my blog by clicking here.