STITCH IT: TABLECLOTH SKIRT STITCH IT

Knitting Lyrical
Stitch a favorite song into your next sweater.

BY THEO WRIGHT

Ih 2 _t ave been designing and hand-knitting song lyrics for the last 0 years. I started knitting traditional Fair Isle patterns, and hen discovered that the same technique is great for knitting words as well. So I started designing and making sweaters with song lyrics. I’ve made lots of mistakes, I’ve gradually improved my technique, and I’ve learned a lot on the way. This article is based on two recent examples: one sweater designed around Richard Thompson’s “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” (a story of love, death, and most importantly, a motorbike), and the other around Tom Waits’ “Dirt in the Ground” (a story of death, darkness, and despair). The same design and construction principles can be applied to any lyrics, poetry, or other words you might want to use.