The Woman’s Club of Palo Alto asked local artists to turn the club’s 1930’s folding chairs into works of art to be auctioned to benefit the club and the Pacific Art League. I wanted to accentuate the gorgeous antique wood with my yarnbombing, instead of obscuring it. I used organic cotton with natural plant dyes and left most of the chair exposed.

Technique: In order to accentuate, not obscure, the gorgeous antique wood with my knitting, I upholstered the seat alone with a basket weave cable knit stitch. Basket weave cables are a type of Aran stitch, complicated textures often used in fisherman’s sweaters on the Aran Islands west of Ireland. It’s 4 repeats wide x 10 repeats tall for the pattern below. Each vertical repeat took me about 45 min to an hour. The underside is a reverse stockinette stitch. It took about 2+ hours, but I did it twice to get the fit perfect, so more than that. I joined the two panels with a vertical reverse stockinette seam. I spent about 15 hours on the design, planning, construction, and fitting.

Materials: Hand knit organic cotton with natural plant dyes, made in the USA. I used about $30 worth of materials.

Suggested starting bid is $500.

Thank you, moipouf, for the gorgeous photography.

Basket weave aran stitch pattern from knitting-bee.com:

Abbreviations:

k = Knit
p = Purl
c6f = (cable 6 front)- slip 3 stitches to a cable needle and hold at the front of the work, knit 3, then knit the 3 stitches from the cable needle.
c6b = (cable 6 back)- slip 3 stitches to a cable needle and hold at the back of the work, knit 3, then knit the 3 stitches from the cable needle.
t5f = (twist 5 front)- slip next 3 sts to cable needle and hold at front, p2, then k3 from cable needle.
t5b = (twist 5 back)- slip next 2 sts to cable needle and hold at back, k3, then p2 from cable needle.
rs = right side of work

Cast on multiples of 20 + 11

Row 1: (rs) p3, k3, p4 c6f; rep from to last 5 sts, p5
Row 2: k5, * p6, k4; rep from * to last 6 sts, p3, k3
Row 3: p3; * t5f, t5b; rep from * to last 8 sts, t5f, p3
Row 4: k3, p3; * k4, p6; rep from * to last 5 sts, k5
Row 5: p5, * c6b, p4; rep from * to last 6 sts, k3, p3
Row 6: k3, p3; * k4, p6; rep from * to last 5 sts, k5
Row 7: p3, * t5b, t5f; rep from * to last 8 sts, t5b, p3
Row 8: k5, * p6, k4; rep from * to last 6 sts, p3, k3

Above 8 rows make up pattern.