CHRISTEL
SEYFARTH
"If I hadn't started knitting as a child, I think I would have started painting instead. For me, it's not about how you express yourself creatively, but how you convey it. Knitting then became my destiny".
I think it is inherent in us to share the inner visions we generate throughout our lives. Once uncorked, mine just bubble to the surface like sparkling wine…
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When I hand knit, I work with many different colours at the same time. By allowing the colours to flow softly from one to the other, I create a living canvas of gentle colour shifts. These designs are not planned in advance but allowed during knitting to subtly, intuitively take on a life of their own. I am simply following along, watching the action. These handknitted models take hundreds of hours to complete and are always uniquely personal.
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I am best at large, complex works with lots of stitches, lots of colors and patterns. It takes a woman to attack these big projects! Therefore, over the years I have simplified the process so that there is only a minimum of purl stitches and virtually no ends to sew in - and only two colors are knitted at a time. In addition, I knit all my models on circular needles and cut them up afterwards. I emphasize a complete finish and always knit pintucks and/or facings on my models.
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Just go ahead yourself…
For those of you who want to knit yourself, I have made a number of hand-knitted designs which are available as knit-kits in my eSHOP, where there are also many other temptations.
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You can also buy a large selection of handknitted ready-mades. Every spring we fill up the shop with a new hand-knitted
collection.
Sources of inspiration
I learned to knit from my grandmother when I was 5 years old, and have been knitting ever since. There was no one who knitted in the family, so my grandmother collected scraps of yarn in all sorts of colors for me from her knitting friends on the island. Since there was very little yarn in these yarn scraps, my practical grandmother suggested that I just roll them all on top of each other, and thus get one big ball. I knitted various large and small projects and as a teenager I turned so skilled that I sold my very colorful works of art to my friends and their mothers. So you can really say that I got the joy of color from my early childhood.
Fanø's universe
I was born into a sailor's family on Fanø, the westernmost island of Denmark, and I have lived here pretty much my whole life. I get a large part of my inspiration from here, from the sea, the light, the waves, the storm, the birds and the powerful nature. But also from the hundred-year-old tradition of the Fanø island costume.
The longing of travelling
Like all islanders who are born and raised into sailor families, I have always been characterized by my longing and desire for travelling, and as a young person I lived both in the USA and in Canada. I have dipped into many parts of the world - and packed all my impressions into my creative backpack. But it's only when I'm sitting in peace and quiet at home on Fanø that my designs find their shape and the impressions fall into place.
Art and costumes
With an open heart and mind, you can find inspiration wherever you are. While my colour choices are marked by the proximity to Fanø's natural habitats and the multiplicity in the big beyond, my fashion choice is permeated by my passion for old costumes: Turkish coats, the simple cut in Eastern clothes, the Rococo's voluminous detail richness and much more. I also love flowers and birds, leaves, checked squares, triangles and to combine organic patterns with graphic patterns. I seldom work with just one base colour and one pattern colour - I prefer large groups of base and pattern colours that hop, skip and dance to their own lively tune while I follow along. As an old "hønsestrikker" (no-rules knitter), I dislike too much "do this- not that" and I always try to find the easiest way out of a complicated piece of knitting.
However, on one point I am a pedant:
"It must be made properly!" No matter how otherwise wild or anarchistic it is. I always emphasise an elegant and thorough finish.
My patterns
My patterns are precisely written so that you can easily follow them, except that the pattern does not decide how to put the base and pattern colors together. You will be assigned a base color group and a pattern color group, and then you must decide for yourself the order of the color sequence. It's much easier - and more fun - than it sounds! Even if two knitters are knitting the same pattern, each and every model will be unique - it will be YOUR model. The models are knitted on circular needles and cut up just like you do with Norwegian sweaters. Although there are often many colors in a kit, only 2 colors are knitted at a time. If you can knit pattern knitting, you can also knit my models.
Ready to be noticed?
I am not hot on the heels of fashion trends, for I simply assume that if it is unique and exciting, then it is also fashion. So, be ready to be noticed when you are finished with one design and ready to start on the next project. For my way and style of knitting is very addictive.
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