Introducing: Fleurville 4 ply
Published on 13 March 2019 By Meg 3 min read
Melody Hoffman, also known as bmandarines, is the next knitwear designer to collaborate with The Yarn Collective to create a yarn and colour palette for their sumptuous range. With nature, minimalism, and folklore as her inspiration, Melody brings us Fleurville 4 ply: a stunningly soft merino wool with beautiful lofty stitch definition in ten garden hues, and patterns of nature motifs and delicate stitch details.
The idea for Fleurville blossomed from Melody’s obsession with flowers and plants, and soon bloomed into her developing a gorgeous organic colour palette inspired by nature. Working with photo references of nature’s finest flora, the Fleurville palette came to life. Delicate Rose and Carnation hues are paired with saturated Stem and Poppy, and earthier, muted tones Hellebore and Brunia are there to round the collection out perfectly to create the perfect garden of shades.
Melody describes her process and inspiration: ‘My work is inspired and influenced by so many things like nature, minimalism, folklore, wabi-sabi, and ecology. I like to think that my designs are modern and simple but with something slightly whimsical. I play with different textures, simple and ‘little’ stitches in a colour palette that is not so eclectic but yet very well loved! I'm a neutral lover at heart so subtle and muted colours are my favourites.’
Fleurville 4ply is made up of ten nature-inspired shades of luxuriously soft merino wool, all hand-dyed in small batches in Peru. The final result is a colour palette that looks as if it was plucked directly from nature: delicate colours, and beauty in its imperfections.
The kettle dying method helped me to achieve a slight variation of colour within each colourway which I thought would be quite representative at how perfectly un-perfect nature is.”
Palest blush Carnation, vibrant Peony, and rich Delphinium blend beautifully with Rose and Lily. Deep semi solid green Stem, earthy Hellebore, and neutrals are the perfect balance for the dreamy pastels that are celebrated in Fleurville.
Along with the ten yarn shades, Fleurville features two gorgeous knitting patterns designed by Melody. The delicately patterned Flora Cowl is the perfect nod to the changing seasons with its beautiful colourwork and stitch pattern.
The gently patterned Flora Hat is the perfect way to round out this mini pattern collection. Knitted in the round using a provisional cast on, a second hat cleverly tucks inside creating a perfectly reversible hat that is a lovely addition to your forest and garden frolicking adventures.
Melody combined colours with texture, experimenting as she swatched: ‘Swatching was such a fun experience! I loved how the colours looked in the skein, but I had no idea how the different colours within the skein would knit up! So I spent a little bit of time re-discovering the colourways by knitting them. Then came the swatching for the designs themselves. I ended up loving a little stitch which I believe is called a Knot stitch, and decided to use it for all of my patterns.’
