I've been getting the patterns tested through the Free Pattern Testers group on Ravelry & can recommend it. They've had lots of good ideas & picked up mistakes! I'm now using the group to test all of my currently available paid-for patterns (& more mistakes are emerging...) so I am thoroughly converted to pattern testing. It's also nice to have my testers being generally very complimentary about the patterns...
Anyway, back to the patterns. The book probably started life as a concept with the Luangwa Valley Water Carrier. Walking is always a big part of any Zambian safari (and this year's was our 5th trip to Zambia & the Luangwa Valley), and I wanted to knit something to carry my water bottle in, that would spread the weight over both shoulders, as I've been suffering a bit from back & shoulder problems.
As you can see, walking in Zambia gets you pretty close to the wildlife:
I went for African bush colours and got the design from one of the few man-made things you regularly come across in the Zambian bush, a basketweave fish trap:
And after some fiddling around with eyelets & I cord, was very happy with the result, which got used in Zambia and has since been to Wimbledon, Lord's etc. It also looks like a squid when empty, always a bonus.
So, that got me thinking. If I could knit one bit of Africa, how about others? I already had a skein of the most spectacular multicoloured Indian silk yarn which I didn't know what to do with. It looked like tropical fish, swimming in the shallows. I also had some lovely beads I'd picked up at Unravel, with no real purpose. And that put me onto the next part of our trip, Lake Malawi and its colourful cichlids. I designed a very plain scarf, with picot beads all around, to represent the fishes:
Lake Malawi is called the Lake of Stars, because at night the fishermen go out in tiny boats, each with a light, and it looks as if the lake is studded with golden stars. (I also associated it with stars, because Pumulani Lodge, where we stay, has an enormous telescope which you can use.) More beads - and more gorgeous yarn. The Lake of Stars stole has a beaded picot cast on and wavy eyelet edging, for the lake, with beads around the edge for the villages. Then in the middle are scattered little boat-shaped eyelet patterns, each with its corresponding bead/star.
The photo illustrates the ideal blocking process - soak in the crystal clear waters of Lake Malawi, and leave to dry on a rock...
Some of my test knitters came up with some particularly inspired combinations of beads and yarn - I am really looking forward to seeing how this pattern develops!
The last pattern was inspired by probably the most famous bit of water in the area - the Victoria Falls, on the border between Zambia & Zimbabwe, known far more poetically to the locals as Mosi-oa-Tunya. the Smoke that Thunders. It's so important to Zambia they even named their beer after it:
Knitting a waterfall is quite a common thing for knitters - I've seen lots of waterfall shrugs and the like - but I wanted to create the impression of the changing water down the falls - so the top of the Mosi-oa-Tunya cowl is a pointed edge and the decreases flatten out to the froth of the gorge. Like the Lake of Stars stole, it's knitted in a bluey-green shade of Sparkleduck Galaxy, which is a sparkly sock yarn and was just perfect for these projects (in fact, I'm to be found raving about it in issue 24 of Knit Now magazine, so much did I love it).
One of my testers did one in a self-striping yarn which was also pretty effective.So there we have it. The pricing was a bit tricky - but in the end I decided to price each pattern the same, and with the same amount (50p) going to charity - and the e-book works out as cheaper than 3 patterns, with the same amount (50p per pattern or £2 for the whole book) going to charity. I'd really like to get enough to sponsor a child through Project Luangwa - this is an educational charity which was set up by Robin Pope Safaris, the company whose lodges we stayed at on our last trip.
