The golden age of intarsia

The other day I was going past my crazy catlady neighbour's house. She had a dozen boxes out on the sidewalk, filled higgledy-piggledy with books to get rid of. Many of them were in Russian. But then, my eagle eye spied the words "Kaffe Fassett" peaking out from under something in Cyrillic script.

Ho ho! A hardcover Glorious Knitting!


I scrounged around a bit more after that, and came up with a couple of those crafty needlepoint books filled with patterns to gussy up your glasses cases, or make "coasters" with tent stitch, and Knitting Masterpieces! (Here's a link on Ravelry -- people have indeed made these sweaters!)

While I like to think of Glorious Knitting as timeless, it is from the mid-80s, the golden age of intarsia and big hair. Knitting Masterpieces is from 1987, and while the hair is a bit toned-down, the intarsia is aaaalllllllll here!

The idea is clever -- knit up great classics of world art. Cave paintings, Egyptian tomb decoration, Caesar's head from a Roman coin, Mondrian lines, Gauguin ladies.


The book tells me this is Achilles from this pot by Exekias. I prefer this pot, with Achilles and Ajax playing chess/draughts/backgammon. (I really, really love that pot!) Whatever, I would love to make Achilles onto something, like a baby blanket! I guess a cushion would do??

This one: no.


This one: At least he doesn't have big hair.


And this, perhaps my favourite:


Maybe another cushion for the couch. Achilles on one side, David on the other?