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Remembering Annie Modesitt

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The losses just keep piling up this year, and it was announced that knitwear designer, teacher, yarn maker and proponent of going your own way with knitting, Annie Modesitt, died October 1.

She had been battling cancer for years, and she last posted on her blog late in August that she as undergoing a last-ditch chemotherapy treatment. Since that time she had entered hospice care.

Annie was a self-taught knitter who used what’s known as the combination style of knitting, which allowed her to knit very quickly and with even tension. She says in her book Confessions of a Knitting Heretic that her first project was a colorwork sweater from Vogue Knitting designed by Deborah Newton that involved 37 colors of yarn (despite the yarn store owner’s insistence that she start with something simpler). She finished it in less than a week.

Her mantra can be summed up by other words from that book: “If you are getting the fabric you want from your knitting, then you are knitting the Right Way for you!”

This is why she called herself a heretic, because at the time most teachers insisted on what’s known as the Western method of knitting and the word “wrong” was thrown around quite a bit. She felt the most important thing was to empower new knitters to find their own way of doing things and to understand how knitting works so that their interest could be ignited into a passion.

As a designer she gravitated to feminine, colorful and technical designs. She called on her millinery experience to knit amazing hats that might have been seen at a tea party at Downton Abbey.

She trusted knitters to use their intellect to be able to knit patterns, rather than suggesting that some patterns are better for beginners. (See that 37-color sweater for instance.)

She was the author of seven knitting books and contributed to many books and magazines through the years. Her flip books showing knitting techniques are delightful, and all her designs encourage knitters to try new things and be a little fearless.

She also launched ModeKnit Yarn, an independent yarn company producing vibrant colors that look great together.

She will be missed.

[Photo: ModeKnit Yarn staff selfie, via the ModeKnit Yarn website.]

Comments

  1. i met her many years ago when our LYS had her teach a couple classes. i found her to be a delight and hilarious. she will be missed in the community of true knitters. she had a pov but it didnt interfere with her knitting.

  2. My heart breaks hearing this. My schedule never allowed me to meet Annie or to participate in one of her classes. She will be missed. Condolences to her family.

Have you read?

Patchwork Blanket Knitting Patterns

Any time of year is a good time for stash busting, but if you can combine it with knitting a blanket that will keep you warm when it (finally!) gets cooler that’s even better. Let’s take a look at some fun patchwork blanket knitting patterns. 

If you want to keep it super simple, you can just make blocks of garter stitch and sew them together, like the beginner’s patchwork baby blanket from Mini Baa Baa or the color block blanket from Make and Do Crew. Both projects are worked in strips and sew together, with the baby version calling for two strands of DK or light worsted weight yarn held together and the larger one using bulky yarn. 

Add a little more texture with the mixed blocks of the cottage quilt throw from Mama in a Stitch. This one combines garter stitch and seed stitch and uses worsted weight yarn. She used a crochet join to make the chains on top of the blocks, but you can join them however you like. It calls for eight colors but you can use what you have, and there are three size options. 

Get a real sampler style patchwork blanket with this design from Knit Sew Make. It calls for worsted weight yarn and has four size options. All of the patterns just use knit and purl stitches so this one is still pretty easy for beginners. 

If you want a more complex colorwork project that will keep you entertained all season, try the Peace by Piece blanket pattern from Needle and Feather. This one is made up of two color colorwork blocks and calls for worsted weight yarn. You can choose to use just a few of the blocks and repeat them more often, or make multiples of the whole set. 

The knitted patchwork recipe from Martine Ellis (free on Ravelry) uses mitered squares in fingering weight yarn, so it’s perfect for using up all your leftover sock yarn and mini skeins. This one is a tutorial more than a pattern so you can make your blanket as big as you like or keep going until you run out of yarn. 

Susan B. Anderson’s 100 Squares blanket (find it on Ravelry) has a lot of mitered squares, too, but they’re arranged in fun ways and includes some quilt inspired designs as well. This one also is a bit of method more than pattern but it sure looks like a lot of fun for using all the leftovers. 

Of course you can totally improvise a patchwork blanket using the yarn and stitches you like, but I hope these patterns inspire you to look at your leftover yarn in a new way.