Kaffe's Press Room
Let's Knit Magazine, March 2008
"I was born in California in a coastal community of artists and pioneering types. My parents built a Frank Lloyd Wright inspired restaurant 800 feet above the Pacific Ocean.
Though it was isolated community, I was encouraged to express my artistic side, so painted, danced and did drama. I got a scholarship to a good old fashioned art school in Boston so lived and studied there for a few years before visiting London for a 3 month vacation. More than 40 years later I find myself still here mainly because I discovered knitting yarns in a mill in Inverness and got a fellow passenger to teach me to knit on the train ride back to London. I put all 20 colours of Shetland yarns I had purchased in the same sweater and took it straight to Vogue Magazine to ask them if they would be interested in featuring it. Reticent English, I wasn't!!
Focus on Kaffe Fassett, Women's Weekly, April 2008
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Focus on Kaffe Fassett, Women's Weekly, April 2008
Kaffe Fassett is one of the most influential living textile artists and the best selling author of knitting, mosaic and patchwork titles. He has hosted his own TV series, Glorious Colour, and was the first living textile artist to have a one man show at London's V&A. His extraordinary passion and insatiable appetite for colour is apparent whatever medium he uses, whether he is painting, knitting, creating patchwork, needlepoint or mosaics, Kaffe perceives all his work in the same way - as the opportunity to play with colours and patterns.
Hailing from sunny California, he began his training as a fine artist in Boston, before moving to London to paint in the mid sixties. His first venture into textiles was knitting. On a trip to a Scottish woollen mill with celebrated fashion designer of the time, Bill Gibb, Kaffe was inspired by the colours in the landscape and, finding the same colours at the mill in Shetland wool, he bought some yarn and knitting needles. A passenger on the train back to London taught him how to knit and the rest is history!
His first design had the ultimate accolade of appearing in Vogue. Within a short time, Missoni was commissioning his commercial collections and celebrities were clamouring for his one-off creations.
Over the years, his talents have diversified but not diluted. His vibrant and characteristic designs look fabulous whether they're stitched in needlepoint on canvas, pieced together in patchwork as quilts, or as designs in mosaics.
For many Years, Kaffe has worked closely with Rowan Yarns in Yorkshire to produce designer patterns to inspire hand-knitters.
A major part of his output is now an expanding range of fabric prints for the patchwork markets.
Each design and colourway in the fabric range is a delight. You only have to look at a small selection of his patchwork designs, shown here, to be stunned by their vivacity and profusion of pattern. But if you examine them you'll only find simple arrangements of squares, diamonds and triangles - it's the colour that brings them alive.
With a diary that's full of books to write, lecture tours involving slide talks and workshops on colour in design, which take him all over the world, Kaffe's thirst for creative inspiration is never-ending.
Kaffe Fassett is one of the most influential living textile artists and the best selling author of knitting, mosaic and patchwork titles. He has hosted his own TV series, Glorious Colour, and was the first living textile artist to have a one man show at London's V&A. His extraordinary passion and insatiable appetite for colour is apparent whatever medium he uses, whether he is painting, knitting, creating patchwork, needlepoint or mosaics, Kaffe perceives all his work in the same way - as the opportunity to play with colours and patterns.
Hailing from sunny California, he began his training as a fine artist in Boston, before moving to London to paint in the mid sixties. His first venture into textiles was knitting. Click on the picture to read more
Kaffe's Article in Vogue Knitting International
Click to read moreKaffe Fassett is known for his signature knitwear designs: intricate intarsias and elaborate patterns rendered in layers of glorious colour. But VK readers may not know that Kaffe's unique sense of colour and design has inspired legions of devoted fans-and brought him recognition worldwide as an expert on colour and craft. "I'm a painter, knitter, quill needle artist and designer", he says, "but my approach to every discipline is the same-manipulating pattern and seeing how colour comes alive in different forms".
Until age 28, Kaffe devoted his life to painting. Born in San Francisco, he won a scholarship to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston at age 19-but left after three months to paint in London, where he took up residence in 1964.
An Article on Kaffe & Liza Prior Lucy in QuiltWorks Today Magazine
Click to read moreDriving out of New York City, Liza Prior Lucy was entering the Lincoln Tunnel when she braked to a screeching halt. After 15 minutes in standstill traffic, her impatience flared: "The only thing I could see were the glaring red taillights of the truck in front of me!", but she found her passenger's reaction far more memorable. Completely relaxed, Kaffe Fassett was gazing at a tattered old poster. He recalls, "Its multilayers of peeling paint mesmerized me. They formed an intricate pattern that looked like a single encrusted texture that was beautiful".
This incident, the first of many lessons in observation that Kaffe would give Liza, occurred in 1985 when they were barely acquainted. "He always has his eyes open to the world around him", she declares. The learning has been reciprocal because Kaffe describes Liza as a great teacher who has taught him how to teach. Now that they work together, Kaffe's expertise in design is combined with Liza's outstanding quilting and teaching skills. By recognizing their distinct talents and backgrounds, one can more fully appreciate the brilliance of their collaborative work.
A Review of 'Pattern Library'
Click to read moreEnrich your favourite knitwear by dipping your needles into the palette of painterly knitwear designer, Kaffe Fassett
Published in time for Christmas, but intended as a companion for life, this is a new book from the original master of colour and pattern.
Tall and still strikingly handsome, Kaffe Fassett's looks and his creative energy belie his65 years. He led the way into his light, bright front room and sat on the floor on a pile of his cushions in the bay window, beneath his collection of lucky Buddhas. He explained to me, "'Pattern Library' has taken 3 years to compile. It harks back to my earliest knitting motifs, featuring designs for the Italian fashion house Missoni, Scottish fashion designer Bill Gibb and The Peruvian Connection. Every design in the book is done in basic stocking stitch, so even beginners can jump in and unleash their creativity, choosing colours and making their own personal combinations".
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