Mon Tricot Spiral Motif

Recently, I won an eBay auction for several Mon Tricot special issues. Mon Tricot was a French knitting/crochet periodical published in the 70s and 80s. I have numerous issues that I bought back in the 70s and at the time I thought the designs as a whole were much more interesting than those in American craft magazines. Every so often, I pick up a few more issues via eBay auctions.

The auction I won included a couple of the stitch dictionaries and The Knitters' Basic Book, Vol 1 and 2. This set is a goldmine of basic information on knitting and crocheting, garment construction , patterns and techniques.
In Vol. 2, there are several patterns for basic shawls of different types and this one, composed of a spiral motif which stopped me in my tracks:Immediately, I got out a crochet hook and used the Silk Garden and the SWTC Karaoke that were at hand and was rather amazed to get the sculptural swirled motifs on the top:

I went to a larger hook and got the bottom motif which looks more like the ones depicted in the magazine. I knew that this motif pattern would be a keeper for me, one that will probably appear here and there in many pieces that I do. And I may even make that shawl!

In a previous entry, I wrote about the lack of longterm mourning symbols in our present culture and have been thinking about what I might do to create my own.
I know that no one will think of this as a mourning wreath on the door, but that's what it is to me. I may or may not add something that will make it more apparent. And I probably need to think it through more, but to me it symbolizes the spiral that is grief, that is life, that is eternal. The center could be the lost loved one....and all that radiates outward from that life...

This was made with SWTC Karaoke (50/50 soy silk/wool.) I felted it a bit by hand at the kitchen sink.

Back to those sculptural versions of this motif....I think perhaps they could be opened and flattened by blocking. The one in Silk Garden is soft and pliable. The one in Karaoke is quite firm.

I combined that wacky supercoil yarn with it and made a wire hanger:
and came up with this ornament:

My friend Laura said it looks like something Dr. Seussish.
It's very joyful in any case and it makes me smile whenever I see it.