Island Cloak, 1992

This cloak was created for The Great New Zealand Cloak Competition held at the Compendium Gallery in Devonport. It was judged by Lucy Gaffin, a textile artist from the U.K. It represents New Zealand as islands, from sea deep water, shallow waves, sand, farmland to mountains with snow and then the sky. There are also crochet embellishments to show trees. I didn't have a pattern for the cloak and I had an idea for the intarsia design which luckily worked well. The cloak was knitted in one piece from bottom, over six weeks while working full time. My husband did calculations to help me get to the shoulders correctly. lnstagram: @connielene

Details

Photographer: Nathalie Gregory
Credit: Garment loan courtesy of ConnieLene Johnston
Copyright: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 Licence
Designer: Connie Johnston
Maker: ConnieLene Johnston
Garment type: Full length knitted cloak
Material: Wool, Mohair, Cotton, Silk, Linen
Features: Intarsia knit lansdcape design on a full circle silhouette, shoulderpads, tassels down sides
Colour: Blues, greens, browns, black, white
Exhibition: KNIT: Original fashion created from yarn
Last published: 2026
Date: 1992