“Like so many other crafts, knitting has the potential to create magic in our lives”

Mosaic-making, woodcarving, tapestry, quilting and so on, are all capable of lifting every day household objects out of the ordinary to brighten our days. Instead, they are often responsible for drab, uninspired works that have the opposite effect. In my teaching workshops, I try to persuade people that they can make something really beautiful and life-enhancing and I usually encounter the same protest, “But you’re an artist. You know about colour and we don’t”. This misconception is one of the main reasons for my writing this book. I want to try to convey to you that a sense of colour is not something you automatically know about; you discover and rediscover its secrets by playing with it and, above all, by constantly looking…

My own story in the knitting world is a graphic example of ‘ignorance is bliss’. Having spent most of my life, until the age of 28, as a painter of still life and portraits, I had no experience of needlework. Often I would find myself drooling over some richly woven or embroidered cloth in a still life and wonder how on earth it was made. Now at that time, in the early sixties, there was a taboo against ‘serious’ artists dabbling in the crafts. However, on a fabric-buying trip with Bill Gibb to the Holm Mills in Inverness, I finally succumbed. The knitting yarns at the back.

– Glorious Knitting, Kaffe Fassett 1985