Color and Texture: Cecelia Campochiaro on Design

What I appreciate most about the act of knitting is that it forces me to be in the present, focusing on the repetitive motions stitch by stitch. Designer Cecelia Campochiaro elevates this mindful approach with “sequence knitting,” creating interesting textured fabrics by repeating a sequence of stitches.

Another of Cecelia’s areas of deep interest is the art of multistrand knitting to create marled fabrics—holding two or more yarns together and working them as one. In her Parastripe Shawl, Cecelia created complex marls by holding two yarns of different colors and textures together as she knitted—one strand of Isager Spinni (100% wool) and one strand of Isager Alpaca 1 (100% Alpaca).

We asked Cecelia how she creates these beautiful new fabrics with such interesting texture and pattern.

Farm & Fiber Knits: We love the extraordinary textured fabrics you create in your knitting. Are there particular yarns or fibers that make those textures really work for you?

Cecelia Campochiaro: Marrying yarns with stitch patterns is something I think about a lot. Sometimes a project starts with a specific yarn and my job is to find a stitch pattern to show off the yarn. Sometimes a project starts with a design concept and the yarn choice comes later.

Photos courtesy of Cecelia Campochiaro

I used to think that if emphasizing texture was the goal, the only logical kind of yarn to use would be round and smooth, worked firmly, and in a flat solid—not too dark. Consider Aran sweaters as the archetypical example of how to highlight texture. This informed the choice of the yarn for the scarves on the cover of Sequence Knitting.

Fortunately, I was wrong. The smooth, round, solid-color yarns always work well, but many other yarns work well too. In fact, the only yarns I avoid are high-contrast variegated yarns. Even very fuzzy or textured yarns like chenilles can be used in motifs where their texture is juxtaposed with a smoother yarn.

Get a closer look! Click any image of Cecelia’s Elisabetta Damask Shawl to open it in full-screen mode. Photos courtesy of Cecelia Campochiaro

I’ve been experimenting with how to show off texture in a range of fabrics. The most extreme is my Elisabetta Damask Shawl, which uses a knit–purl pattern from Reversible Knitting worked in a lace yarn on relatively big needles. If you view the fabric head-on it is transparent, but if you see it an angle, the patches of stockinette and reverse stockinette reflect light differently. It’s a kind of lace knitting without yarnovers.

Another recent texture pattern is Star Square. This pattern is worked in a silk noil lace held with a silk mohair lace where both are the same color. The combination is worked on a US 4 (3.5 mm) needle. The fabric feels wonderful and the stitch pattern shows beautifully.

The Star Square. Photo courtesy of Cecelia Campochiaro

FFK: I'm glad you mentioned your newest book, Reversible Knitting. It's such a beautiful deep-dive into creating knitted textures that are interesting on both sides. What’s your inspiration, or first step in figuring out these motifs?

CC: I think about patterning in an abstract way. Patterning is ancient—it was important in prehistory—and comes from simple geometric math. But many patterns may or may not work for knitting, especially reversible knitting. Sequence Knitting was a special exploration of learning how repeating a sequence of stitches could lead to interesting knitting patterns. Because sequence knitting treats the right and wrong sides the same, most sequence knits are reversible. These days I am playing with simple math to create a range of patterns, and then filtering them for their knitting suitability. Once I think I have a useful pattern, swatching is the next step. Even though my ability to pre-judge how a swatch will look from a chart is improving, it’s still imperfect.

FFK: Do you tend to keep a large stash of yarn, or do you purchase what you need as you begin a project?

CC: I have a reasonably large stash, but it is shrinking as I become more deliberate. I purchase yarns, and I am also given yarn for specific projects. My goal is to have a limited range of natural-fiber bases that are suitable for working with two or more strands held together. It’s also important that the yarns have a good chance of still being available in five years. By keeping my stash to fewer bases, I can have more colors in those bases.

Cecelia’s Parastripe Shawl uses eight different colors and two different textures of yarn. Photo by Gale Zucker

FFK: What was your inspiration for the Parastripe Shawl? Tell us a little bit about your approach to making marls for this particular design.

CC: My starting concept for the Parastripe Shawl was to create marled color movement in an oversized, generous shawl—I didn’t have any stitch pattern in mind in the beginning. The shawl uses four colors of Isager Spinni and four colors of Isager Alpaca 1, which are natural-fiber, lightweight yarns that combine in a lightweight, gauzy fabric. These eight colors make sixteen marls, and I wanted the shawl to use all of them in sixteen bold stripes. I needed a stitch pattern that had the correct row repeat to fit sixteen marl stripes and accentuate the nature of the marls. I’d been exploring chevron patterns for Reversible Knitting and decided to use a syncopated chevron rib for the shawl. Chevron ribs are made up of stockinette and reverse stockinette, like the familiar even ribs, but they sit on the bias. The stockinette and reverse stockinette highlights the look of a marl: on stockinette, there is a vertical streakiness, following the legs of the stitches. On reverse stockinette, there is a horizontal streakiness, following the crowns of the stitches. I’m really pleased with how the shawl came together as a marriage of both the colorwork and the stitch pattern.

Find Cecelia on the web at ceceliacampochiaro.com and on Instagram @ceceliacampochiaro.

Find Reversible Knitting at Schoolhouse Press.

Subscribers can find Cecelia’s Parastripe Shawl in the Farm & Fiber Knits Library.

And find out how Cecelia created the complex marled effects in the Parastripe Shawl.

The Parastripe Shawl is also included in our 2025 The Creative Color Collection. Explore colorwork, stripes, multistrand knits, and more!