Knitting inspiration from untraditional sources, Annette Danielsen
In Denmark, we are lucky to have a lot of very talented knit designers, who have helped shape and influence our perception of knitting and the way we design knitwear today. To mention a few: Åse Jensen, Marianne Isager, Helga Isager, Susie Haumann, and Annette Danielsen.
All of these designers help shape the Scandinavian knitting tradition. Sometimes I think we take for granted how amazing a tradition we actually have. But then sometimes a book release has the ability to make us stop and think about the fact that we are very fortunate to have so many talented knit designers in Denmark.
A designer who has really come to the center of the knitting stage over the last 10-15 years is Annette Danielsen. She has just released her new book Scratching the Surface”(translated from Danish).
I think Annette Danielsen does something very interesting when she designs and publishes books. Both in this new book "Scratching the Surface" and in her book "Knitting Fools" published a couple of years ago. They are both inspired by something very unrelated to knitting. Annette Danielsen was inspired by the Danish painter Michael Kvium's paintings in Knitting Fools. His paintings are often very gloomy, even eerie, as he works with themes such as blindness, deformed bodies and mental disabilities. It's not exactly what you connect with knitting, which is much more cozy, soft, tactile and an activity you do with good friends. So combining the two, and still getting some beautiful and useful designs out of it, is very impressive and wildly inspiring. I have had the design Fletværk from the book on my knitting wish list for a long time!
In her latest book “Scratching the surface”, Annette Danielsen is influenced by the Danish potter Axel Salto. Axel Salto lived from 1889 to 1961 and has had a great influence on Danish art history. He worked at the prestigious Royal Porcelain Factory in Copenhagen. He is particularly famous for 3 designs: The rifled design, which is simply repetitive patterns in the glaze, the buttoned design, inspired by chestnuts and eucalyptus fruits, and the budding design inspired by growing plants. He is known to use a lot of glaze on his works and for his use of organic shapes. It is incredibly exciting to see what Annette Danielsen can get out of the beautiful patterns and shapes, and how she translates it into patterns in wool.
You can buy the book “Scratching the surface” here at Önling (book is currently only available in Danish) and we have also made yarn kits ready, so you can buy kits for all the beautiful models and choose from several great color variants for each model. This makes it easy to get started and to get her designs on your needles. You can see all the yarn kits here. All models are knitted in Isager's lovely and luxurious yarns. We are looking forward to getting started with the designs, and we especially can’t wait to get started with the model called “Løg” (translation: Onion). Which model would you like to knit?
Mette Lundstad,
Knitting and design enthusiast at Önling
