My hiking tour of the Faroe Islands! The lush greens of the hillsides, the amazing shades of the volcanic rocks, the delicate patterns of the local fungi, and the fun colours the locals paint their homes.

I have always wanted to knit a sweater inspired by subtle coloring on the seashore near my home. I always gravitate towards loud, electric colors so something subtle would be a true challenge.

While driving through the Flint Hills the colours hit me - the sky, the earth, the cattle, wildflowers, so many colours that I could see as a pillow, leg warmers, a sweater, whatever my swatch screamed it wanted to be. KNITSONIK Stranded Colourwork Sourcebook validates and would extend knowledge as how to translate/communicate what one sees into colourwork.

This book is so inspiring. I've always wanted to do something fair isle and the brief look makes me dream it might be possible. My thoughts went to a recent trip to the beach after a storm. The wind was blowing sea foam along the shore that looked like snow and my granddaughter dressed warmly in blue topaz knitwear has left a picture worthy of trying in my mind. Thank yiu fir thus opportunity.

The most beautiful sight I saw on lush, green Prince Edward Island, was the morning in February when I boarded an early morning bus ride to Maine. The Island was covered in a glistening blanket of icicles. As it shimmered in the morning light, I thought it was the most beautiful I had ever seen this Island. If I could capture that beauty again. . . .

This looks like such a cool book! I actually just finished a sweater with colors inspired by a ferry ride from Seattle to Bainbridge Island, and I've been thinking a lot about finding inspiration in unexpected and ordinary places.

Where can one find this book? Amazon (U.S.) Says it's out-of-print.

You can order it direct from Felicity, I'm not sure if she has plans to wholesale at all or not. Amazon lists any book they don't sell as out of print which is a bit misleading. I don't sell my own books to them because they undercut local yarb stores so much.

I live in a scenic region of the United States, the Pacific Northwest. Everyday I am treated to a view of a majestic snow and glacier covered mountain and a lake that is over 600 feet deep. My garden is small but filled with texture, color and life. I would like to do a four seasons study of the interplay of the macro and micro elements of my home.

I immediately want to do different "shelves" represnting museum storage collections. Jars of fishes, pinned insects, tribal masks, precious stones, pressed plants. I'm such a nerd. I also like the idea of doing little organisms I love like slime molds, mosses, cup fungi, and wee plants. Right, still a nerd.

I've been fortunate enough to move to San Francisco in the past year. I moved into an area that's historically been a fair-bit-sketchy, a little-bit-aspirational. As a result, it doesn't have the neat, composed beautiful old houses of the wealthier parts of SF. It has these hilarious childhood-fantasy version, with a curved bay window, an angular bay window and a turret all crammed haphazardly on one house. Many are painted in the craziest color combos (lots bearing small plaques advertising the 'color consultant' that designed the scheme). I've been trying to work out how to put together something with both colorwork and texture that evokes my 'hood.

It's funny how only once you decide to leave a place do you notice the small things that you'll miss. We've decided to move from our home in Cape Town, South Africa to the UK to be closer to husband's ageing mother and the rest of his family. I am thinking about all the small things I'll miss, things you don't realise you take for granted until you live somewhere else: the sound of the mosques in the evening; the little fynbos flowers colouring the mountains like a child's painting; the grey ranks of clouds over the Atlantic, signalling one of the storms for which the Cape is known. All these things I will miss when we live in the UK. I've been thinking of knitting a scarf or long mitts with a stormy sea with white-crested waves, a stormy sky , a field of flowers, the mountain with the waterfalls, and maybe some birds too.

I'm a firm believer in finding inspiration where you look. I do medieval embroidery, and all the patterns they used came from architectural designs, tilework, and florals. There was no Pinterest or Instagram back then :P

I would love to create a design which captures the miraculous recovery of the Australian bush post bushfire. Silver kangaroo paths weave amongst blackened trees and yet, and yet, suddenly your heart is lifted by a surge of the brightest green shoots, popping up along each naked branch. The sky is that extraordinary blue that only a sky in Western Australia seems to have…… blue wrens return, red tail black cockatoos squawk… well, I could go on….

Rows and rows of corn. Almost every morning, I walk on gravel farming roads in central Iowa. I marvel at how quickly the corn grows from a tiny little sprout to 7 feet tall in a matter of months.

For me it would be the the inspiration of fall leaves because that is what is currently around me. Fall leaves on a horseback trail ride with the browns of a muddy trail and greens from the evergreen trees, filtered sunlight. The book looks amazing and even though I hadn't thought I would design my own colorwork, I feel I must have this in my library.

My post might show up twice but since I don't see it I will share again my inspiration. My inspiration for stranded colorwork is my beehives. I am a beekeeper and the colors in my hives are glorious. The beautiful pollen tucked into the honeycomb in reds, pinks, golds, yellows, greens and whites create a patchwork of color. The warm reddy brown of the propolis (plant resins bees bring in to make hive airtight and line their honeycomb edges for antibiotic properties), the chamois browns of the wax caps over the honeycombs protecting developing baby bees, the beautiful nectar on its way to becoming honey looks like stained-glass of a cathedral when held to the light. The bees themselves with their warm tones and distinctive black stripes and fuzzy yellow hairs which pollen sticks to are an inspiration into themselves. The beautiful sunshine and blue skies that my little bees soar up to over the green canopies of summer in search of their flowers. Thank you for allowing me to share this. Now I must get busy on the design. This has been a great start to my day to reflect on my honeybees and their gifts to us.

I'd like to create a couple of designs using colors found in the "David Bowie is" retrospective that is currently housed at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. It would give me a good excuse to keep going back!

gorgeous book! i've always wanted to knit something inspired by my calico cat, phoebe. she has such lovely spots...

I live in a town where it can be hard to notice beauty in your surroundings because nothing seems to change or advance. A few years ago, I noticed how much the sky is always changing and becoming something new and fresh so I've been watching it and taking pictures when I'm feeling like I'm stuck in a rut. I've noticed some gorgeous displays over the past few years and they always lift my spirits so I'd like to do a design based on some of the sky-scapes that I've photographed and some of the ones that have yet to appear. I think that a morning to night infinity scarf would be lovely and can't wait to get to work on it. Whether or not I win the free copy, Ysolda has sold me on getting this book into my personal library. Thanks so much for the great review and for the opportunity to win a copy! I can't wait for the guest post on Thursday. ^_^

I've been studying the disappearing coast of Louisiana, which is a breeding ground for fish, shrimp, crabs and so much other wildlife. The colors are so beautiful and I'd love to knit a piece where that feeling is captured.

I, being Estonian, have been going mushrooming pretty much every fall of my life (despite living in the US, we time visits back so that it is during harvest/foraging). I have always thought that mossy woods would make the greatest garment palette.

I'd like to knit my son's favourite cartoon "Sarah & Duck" - it's full of design inspiration. Sea cows and buttons and lemons and ribbon sisters, it's crammed full of joy!

I'd love to design a colour work idea inspired by my teddy bear, Catherine. I got her when I was one year old, and now (er, a few years later!) she's had multiple 'surgeries' and skin grafts, but she still sits in pride-of-place on my dresser in her hand knit icelandic sweater, the dress I sewed myself at 7 years old, and her lovely long black hair (I made her a wig). But I felt a bit guilty, so two days ago I bought her a little tiny (18") bed from IKEA that I'm going to enjoy assembling and painting for her. Oh!! And I just realized - I went to an exhibit at the American Swedish Art Institute in Minneapolis last month, and I can make her a proper Rya rug for her bed!! Wow, that would be perfect - her in her bed (with a handmade feather bed/mattress of course), a nice soft feather pillow, a custom Rya rug, and wearing her nifty new colour work shawl .... :)

I have a picture of a water lily (photographed in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, USA) that I was just thinking that I wanted to make into colorwork--blues greens, white and yellow (on flickr: https://www.flickr.com/phot....

I'd like to be entered into the prize draw please. The place in my life I'd like to turn into a stranded colourwork pattern would be the old grease factory where I used to work, with it's enormous slightly stained stainless steel tanks flanked by black and grey pipework, little yellow labels everywhere, all sitting on top of a glossy, slightly tattered deep, blood red floor.

Y'know, I was never happy with the "purple" that blue & red kids tempera paint made. It was always so gross.

I've been dying to turn the inside of Buffalo city hall into a color work pattern!

I think this book applies to weaving as well as knitting. I am fascinated with it and how it applies color theory to every day life and inspirations.

Wow!

On yes this is the book of the year. I have looked at things so different with what I have seen in the little bit of the book. So want to add this to my knitting book Collection.

I am currently knitting a cardigan whose color scheme was developed from a paper napkin I fell in love with - rather fell in love with its colors.

What would inspire me is a bright colorful field of tulips. Thanks for the great review. I really need this book!
gussek on Ravelry

Inspiration really is everywhere! Mine is the muted greens, grey-blues and yellows of the waving grass found on the edge of sand dunes and beaches.

I enjoyed reading this post as much as I expect I would enjoy this book. I really love stranded colorwork and I have ideas in my head that have yet to reveal themselves in knitting. I hope this book will uncover them.
I would really like to capture the beaty of northern california coasts and redwood forests. My beloved aunt lived in those woods and I lived just on the outskirts, but would visit often until she died. Since then I have relocated to the midwest US, much to my regret. I can't afford to move back. I miss her and I miss my california rugged coasts and woods.

I just bought my ticket home to visit my family at Christmas. Upon departing the play and walking through Terminal 3 at O'Hare in Chicago, the view below always gets me in holiday spirit. I would like to try and turn this photo into a holiday stocking or tree skirt, adding a little more green and subtracting the thumb!

Oops. didn't get added the first time!

What beautiful knitting. An inspiration to us all.

OH! I'd love to win a copy of this book! If I don't win it is definitely going on my Christmas list! :)

There are so many places that I've seen that I've wanted to put into my knitting. Trees in the summer that are right next to each other, but due to the sunlight & clouds have very different coloring against the summer sky. There is a nursery near me with a riot of colorful flowers all throughout the year.

I wonder how a rainy day would like in colourwork? :D

This looks like such an interesting book! I'd love to create a stranded pattern from geometric, black-painted fencing that is all over the gardens on my estate. They frame a really beautifully managed garden.

oh wow! I'd love to win a copy. I think I would like to use the exterior of my Grandmother's house in North Bay... It is a lovely old brick building with a big white porch. It is both hard and angular but also softened by it's age, and by many things growing all around it.

I was sitting in church one Sunday, and there was a gorgeous painting on the screen in front. I kept thinking what a beautiful color work sweater it would make. :-)
Farflegirl on Ravelry

I would love to add this book to my knitting library. vjferguson@frontier.com

Every morning, on my way to work, I pass Grass Lake. It is a real shallow lake so the look of it changes depending upon the amount of recent rainfall. When the water level is low, I see much more of the flora and fauna. When the water level is high, I get to enjoy beautiful sunrises over the water (in the summer! ). The beauty of this lake makes my heart soar every time I see it and I think it would be fun to try to translate this complex beauty into some mittens or a cowl.

It may sound trite, but I think I would try a Colorwork based on my cat, Massimo 's face

Thank you, Ysolda, for such a thoughtful (and thought-provoking review). I look forward to having Felicity's book in my own library.

I would love to learn how to express the beautiful colors in nature to my knitting. I immediately think of violets, orchids, tan hills with oaks, and the beautiful beaches of Kauai. I would love to have this book!

Thank you for writing such a thoughtful review. If I'm not the lucky winner I will absolutely be buying this book. There are two places I want to translate to knitting that immediately come to mind. One is my garden. The other is the library that I work in. Thanks for the chance to win

Ooh, I'd love to capture meal plans this way, or holiday menus! Bookshelves full of memorable books.

Oh Wow! Just Wow! Can't wait to see this book! I have been immersed in the spinning of Shetland fiber for the last year as the NY State Sheep and Wool festival used it as the featured breed for 2014, and our team was determined to honor the Shetland knitting tradition for the Fleece to Shawl competition (we won!). This book looks smashing, exciting, revolutionary, yet fully grounded in the tradition of Shetland colorwork. Haven't even seen it yet but your preview shows that, like Felicity's sound adventures, this is going to be thought provoking, fun, and capture the essence of the thing.