14 October, 2011 – Paper Moon Knits

I do love movies. I would have to say that after knitting and history, watching a great movie (okay, maybe even just a good one), is really one of my favorite things to do. I particularly like old movies (1940’s mostly) and one of my favorites is The Maltese Falcon. What does this have to do with knitting, you say? Quite a lot, today.

This afternoon, The Sanguine Gryphon released their new collection for Fall 2011 and it’s called Film Noir. Two of my designs, Yvonne De Carlo and Lizabeth Scott are featured in this collection. As usual, SG is a wonderful company to be associated with. I’d especially like to thank Jamie, with whom I had a lovely design chat back in early June. If you haven’t tried their yarns, I highly recommend them. Between the colors and the way they’re spun, you couldn’t imagine more in a yarn.

These two were inspired by the only female characters in The Maltese Falcon, Brigid O’Shaughnessy and Effie Perrine. Brigid is played by Mary Astor. She drives the movie, regardless of what people say about Humphrey Bogart. His character here is very straight-forward, but you can’t really figure Brigid out until almost the end of this movie. The Lizabeth Scott gloves were inspired by Brigid. (And they made the “cover” of the collection!!) They’re knit in Skinny Bugga (color Ambush Bug which, to me, is a color not to be pinned down by words — a cross between mauve and taupe). It’s a luxurious blend of fingering weight merino and cashmere with a touch of nylon to make it work well for gloves, socks, hats and the like.

The Yvonne De Carlo vest was inspired by Effie, Sam Spade’s tough-as-nails-and-feminine-at-the-same-time secretary. In another era, she would have been Sam’s partner, not Archer. The vest is knit in Traveller, which is my new favorite yarn! It’s a superwash merino DK, but somehow feels like something much, much more. The color is What Cheer, a beautiful Caribbean blue.

Check out the other beautiful patterns in this collection. I’m particularly drawn to John Huston, Peter Lorre and Cary Grant (of course)!