Nareya Yarn Mosaics are knit or crocheted items which inevitably produce a particular, predetermined, detailed design.  Every stitch is designed to land in just the right row & column of the work, to create the beautiful image which the yarn’s designer intended it for.

I have an amazing storefront in my downstairs sitting room; its walls are lined with designer yarn.  Each ball promises to create a masterpiece in your fingertips, without its crafter needing to change colors.  No cutting, no weaving in ends.  Adults love to watch beauty fall together seamlessly between their fingers, & children who think knitting is boring suddenly want to buy the spool that makes the design of the cat digging through a potted plant.

The only problem is that my amazing storefront only exists in the future.  The time span between Now and Storefront Day can only be shortened by the repetitive movements of my fingers and my well-worn bamboo knitting needles.  One, two, three, four, slide… one, two, three, four, slide…  34 rows of a 4-stitch-wide tube, makes half of one, single, stitch.

I found this beautiful fair isle design on the Two Strands blog:

…and from it, was inspired to create a similar design, which I’m going to create for Nareya Yarn Mosaic’s grand debut.  I call that similar design “My Precious” a la Lord of the Rings.  She (it) will be mailed out to two of my favorite yarn companies, with whom I’ve already discussed my yarn.  Unfortunately, she requires me to knit 2, 516 stitches (342, 176 stitches).

Therefore, submitting to reality (which is a somber bore), and wanting to get Nareya out into production before 2015,  I am starting with a simple pattern I have dubbed “Mi Nieta”; “my granddaughter,” in Spanish.  I only chose this name for two reasons: (1) she is very little, and (2) it’s what my mom calls my daughter.

Mi Nieta:

Knitting is a poetic process to me.  Throughout my posts, I’ll talk about the different qualities which I find to be so poetic.

“Mi Nieta,” my very small and simple pattern above, my little starlet, requires 6,800 stitches.  Therefore, my appreciation today was focused on the beauty of the units which make up a whole.  For this project:

• One stitch is one-fourth of a whole row,
• One row is one-34th of one stitch,
• One stitch is one half of a Split Stitch (more on that later),
• One Split Stitch is one-25th of one knit square; Mi Nieta.

Above is the first row of Mi Nieta.  See how it matches the bottom row of Mi Nieta’s design.

I liken this to “-cosms;” Microcosms and macrocosms.  The microcosmic stitches comprise a macrocosmic row, and the macrocosmic row is in fact a microcosmic unit of a 34-row stitch.  It’s all a comparison.

The way I feel about microcosms in knitting was well put by the following two authors:

“In some sense man is a microcosm of the universe; therefore what man is, is a clue to the universe. We are enfolded in the universe.” —David Bohm

My reflection: Each stitch is a small clue; a preview, to what the whole piece will become.  While one stitch may seem mundane and insignificant, the final piece would be forever altered if that one solitary stitch were made differently.

“My passion for gardening [insert: knitting] may strike some as selfish, or merely an act of resignation in the face of overwhelming problems that beset the world. It is neither. I have found that each garden [insert: stitch] is just what Voltaire proposed in Candide: a microcosm of a just and beautiful society.” — Andrew Weil

My reflection: Each stitch is a microcosm of a just and beautiful society.  It works harmoniously with its neighbors.  Each neighbor links arms, relying on each other for support.  In the absence of this support, every neighbor would literally fall apart.  Each stitch is part of a beautiful mosaic, just as, in an ideal society, every participant would contribute to a collaborative harmony.

Today’s Rave: Seattle Yarn is my favorite yarn store.  It’s filled with unique yarns, both soft & vibrant colors, & an array of needles, beads, & patterns.  Best of all, the staff know everything there is to know about knitting & crochet.  Every time I go there, I see that a customer has taken a seat at the table; a yarn project has been pulled out of a purse; the problem has been posed; and the solution is in session.  They are

free one-on-one corrections of dropped stitches, gauge adjustments, pattern translations, and other tangled matters.  Visit their website for products & classes.  (See also: Seattle Yarn Blog)