Interviews with Knitwear Designers by Leanne Dyck

What is it like to be a knitwear designer? What are the challenges? What are the rewards? How did they begin their career? Who taught them to knit?

photo by ldyck

From 2010 to 2012, for this blog, I interviewed a community of knitwear designers--for this blog. These interviews offer a unique insight into the career of knitwear design. 

Interviews with Knitwear Designers

My advise to knitters is to enjoy the process. You should allow yourself to experience the pleasure of all that yarn running through your fingers, how you feel about your accomplishments, learning new things, and seeing what transpires as you manipulate your yarn and needles. In the end, if you had to knit the same ball of yarn over and over, it could still be a pleasure (well, for a while). We get too focused on the price of the materials we are using and how long it takes and we forget how much we get out of it. Not only do we create things, we entertain ourselves, sooth ourselves, and it helps us get through things we’d just rather not (kid’s sports, waiting rooms, family visits, you name it!)

JillWolcott

Knitwear Designer, Author

Jill Wolcott Knits

Who taught you to knit?

I was taught to knit by my mother when I was five years old. I remember carrying my knitting around the neighbourhood that summer while I was working on my first project—a baby pink scarf. I don’t honestly remember if I ever finished it but I do remember that several of the rows were a dirty grey because I must have been knitting with grubby hands. I also remember counting my stitches at the end of every row and then running home to have my mum fix my dropped stitches.

Holli Yeoh

Knitwear Designer, Author

Where is your favourite place to knit?

Two places: Sitting on the sofa in our basement, the dog snuggled between me and my hubby, watching something good on TV, with a cup of tea at hand. My second favourite place to knit is the streetcar: I have a long commute to one of my regular teaching gigs, and I enjoy very much getting a window seat, listening to music on my headphones, knitting away and enjoying the view as the city goes by. The first is comfier, but the second location has better light!

Kate Atherley

Knitwear Designer, Author

When did you become a knitwear designer?

I’m not sure, I think I always have been. I’ve worked professionally in this business for two years (this interview was conducted in 2012) but I am just now getting to the point where I feel okay to call myself a “Knitwear Designer”. I honestly think people throw the term ‘designer’ around way too much. Designers are those who work tirelessly for their art. It’s like a home baker calling themselves a Chef. There is a big difference!

How did you become a knitwear designer?

WORK!! Lots of work! I average about 100 hours a week. I wake at seven and work until bedtime. That's the only way to make it in this business. You have to be willing to put in the time.

Rohn Strong

Knitwear Designer, Author

Crafting a Handmade Home

How did you become a knitwear designer?

Like many people, I started altering patterns, then I morphed into designing my own patterns just for myself, then decided to start developing patterns for public consumption.

Stephanie Tallent

Knitwear Designer, Author

SunsetCat Designs

I've always created. I majored in crafts (jewellery, ceramics and textiles) in art college and received my degree in Fine Arts. I was working as a jeweller, both teaching and designing, and was feeling uninspired. We wanted to have a baby and I felt that the toxins I was exposed to at the jewellery studio were just too risky. Knitting was my passion though and it was consuming all of my free time. I decided that it was time to apply my design skills to knitting.

It didn't occur to me that I had no instruction or experience in knitwear design. My art college education gave me a good grounding in design in a general sense and I applied that and my common sense to figuring out how to design knitting patterns. There were few resources at the time although now there are many books on designing your own knits.

Holli Yeoh

Knitwear Designer, Author

Tell me about your first pattern. Where was it first published?

About ten years ago (2010), I was shopping at the Boulder Handweavers’ Guild annual sale and I saw a marvelous felted bag that I wanted to buy. It was $75, and quite outside of my budget at the time. I was with my mom at the sale and we decided we would try to figure out how to make the bag ourselves, so we went to the local yarn shop, bought some wool yarn and a book with some information on felting, and I went home and started to play. I ended up with one of my favorite bags of all time—I still use it today—and it also became my published knitting design.

My first published design was in Family Circle Easy Knitting. I always loved that magazine and was sad to see it go away!

Donna Druchunas

Knitwear Designer, Author

Sheep to Shawl

What is the most rewarding aspect about being a knitwear designer? What’s the most challenging?

Creating something that people love to knit is a fabulous feeling! I think self doubt is the most challenging. Every time a design goes out, it’s a part of me, and I’m hoping that I wasn’t fooling myself into thinking it looks good!

Rosemary Hill

Knitwear Designer, Author

Designs by Romi

What is the most rewarding aspect of being a knitwear designer? 

It's exciting to see knitters' reactions to my designs to see if they understand what I'm trying to communicate with them. Being able to spend my days immersed in the knitting—both the physical knitting and the planning and making it work part—are immensely rewarding.

Challenging?

Marketing and paperwork are definitely challenging for me. I would love to be able to just create and have someone else swoop in and spread the word for me and do my books.

Holli Yeoh

Knitwear Designer, Author

Did you know...

Famous Dyslexic Authors...

Jeff Kinney

Next Sunday...

Leanne Dyck in A Needle Pulling Thread

I wrote a brief 'spotlight' article for A Needle Pulling Thread (spring, 2008)...

Knitting was a gift given to me by my mom and grandma. Mom desired to have her daughter share in the pleasure of her craft. She also wished to further the development of a grandparent -- grandchild relationship. Bearing these things in mind she whispered in grandma's ear. "She's ready" and my knitting life commenced.

(The Norwegian Purl)

Many people have been puzzled by my stitches:  Why do I knit like that? What exactly am I doing? Those who know smile and inquire, "Who taught you to knit?" 

I smile back and say, "My Icelandic Canadian Grandma." 

Though both my mom and grandma have long since passed, I continue their knitting legacy.

Although mom was not my first knitting teacher, she did ensure that my knitting experiences remained fun and rewarding. It is this philosophy that inspires my designs. I seek to break all design components down to their simplest form so that all knitters regardless of their skill level can have a fun and rewarding knitting experience. Please log on to my web site and witness the unfolding of my knitwear design career.

Guest Post: Knitwear Designer/Author Kate Atherley

Who taught you to knit?

My grandmother, Hilda Lowe. Hilda was a life-long knitter. I don’t really remember learning to knit, just that I used to do it at her side. I suspect I learned by osmosis!

What knitting method do you use? Continental? English? Or...?

Predominantly an English knitter, but I work Fair Isle two-handed, and when confronted with large swathes of garter stitch, will often switch over to Continental.

What is your favourite stitch pattern?

I love tricky lace patterns – the more complicated the better.

Why do you enjoy working Fair Isle knits?

It’s like colouring for grown-ups!

What is your favourite yarn?

I have a soft spot for mohair. I love it in sock yarns because it’s so very very warm (and my feet are very very cold), and I love the big fluffy puffy colourful chunky weight mohair.

Is there a needle size that you prefer? Bamboo, plastic or steel needles?

I’m a sock knitter: my favourite needles are my 6 inch 2.5mm Signature DPNs.

What is your favourite item to knit?

As above: socks. If I want something comforting and easy, it’s a stocking stitch sock in a self-striping yarn all the way. If I want something toothy, I love complicated socks: cables, lace, colorwork. I do a lot of knitting out of the house: on public transport, in pubs and restaurants, as a passenger in the car, and socks are very portable.

Where is your favourite place to knit?

Two places: Sitting on the sofa in our basement, the dog snuggled between me and my hubby, watching something good on TV, with a cup of tea at hand. My second favourite place to knit is the streetcar: I have a long commute to one of my regular teaching gigs, and I enjoy very much getting a window seat, listening to music on my headphones, knitting away and enjoying the view as the city goes by. The first is comfier, but the second location has better light!

What are you currently working on?

I’m working on a set of lace sock and fingerless mitt designs... very excited about them!

Why did you become a knitwear designer?

Because I have small feet. I bought Nancy Bush’s seminal book Folk Socks when it was first published in the late 1990s. Ms. Bush generally only provides one size for a sock pattern, and I found myself needing to make alterations to the patterns to ensure they fit. Here I am, 15 years later, resizing socks for a living!

Tell me about your first pattern.

I’m not sure I remember my first... I’ve been teaching for over 10 years, and I started designing patterns for sale at the stores I teach at. One of my earliest patterns was a Santa Hat, which I still love.

Where did it appear--on your website, in a magazine or ezine?

For the first few years, I published patterns only for sale in the stores I taught at; it wasn’t until Spring 2005 issue of Knitty that I had anything published to a broader audience. My first Knitty article was ‘Socks 101’.  I’ve published a number of articles and designs in Knitty and other magazines since then, including Interweave Sockupied, Creative Knitting and others – and written my own book!

(For details about Kate's book--including a buy link--please scroll down to the bottom of this post.)

Do you attend fibre festivals? 

Living in Toronto, I’m lucky enough to have access to two excellent festivals close by: the Toronto Downtown Knit Collective Knitter’s Frolic in the spring, and the Kitchener Waterloo Knitter’s Guide Knitter’s Fair in the fall. They are both excellent places to see, fondle and purchase knitterly goodies. I’ve also been attending Rhinebeck recently – an incredible event.

Have you taught knitting classes? Where? When?

All the time. I teach five or six times a week at stores, events, conferences and fibre festivals. This fall alone I’ve got a full schedule in Toronto area stores, and I’m off to teach at Toronto’s Creativ (*yes, it is spelled like that*) Festival, at Vancouver’s Knit Social Event, at Vogue Knitting Live in Chicago, and Interweave KnitLab in San Mateo. I love teaching, and I believe strongly that it’s made me a better designer and pattern editor. Talking to knitters of all experience levels every day shows me what knitters want to knit, and teaches me what knitters enjoy, what they struggle with, and what they want to do.

What is the most rewarding aspect about being a knitwear designer?

That I’m doing what I love.

Challenging?

Creativity is challenging; I have to remind myself often that the work itself is difficult. Designing is a process of trial and error: sketch, swatch, knit, examine, adjust and repeat until you have what you want.  The initial idea can be easy: refining it to be something wonderful is the challenging – but very rewarding part. 

Beyond Knit & Purl by Kate Atherley

Blurb:  Beyond Knit and Purl is designed to be the book that takes you from being confident about your needles to being confident about patterns. 

Guest Post: knitwear designer Jill Wolcott

I am a hand knitwear designer.  Unlike most hand knit designers, I didn’t come to this because of my love of knitting.  In fact, I re-discovered hand knitting after I began to do machine knitting which I came to as a fashion designer! 

I learned to hand knit as a tagalong with my older sister’s Brownie troop to lessons at the local yarn shop in Olympia, Washington.  I was 6 years old and loathed everything about it.  We learned the English method and I would happily have abandoned my project if my mother hadn’t made me finish it.

My mother was a knitter and I always think of her sitting in a chair in the living room with her feet on an ottoman, the New Yorker on her knees and her knitting needles clicking.  She knit primarily stockinette (probably to aid with reading progress).  We were thrilled when she learned Seed Stitch and we got something other than rib trim on our cardigans.  She is what I call a flicker—she flicks her yarn with her right forefinger.  I leaned to Continental Knit in 1995.  I wrote a Continental knitting instructional book with my former business partner in 2006 for which I did 96 illustrations.

I knitted the odd piece in the years intervening being 6 and 1993 when I started submitting machine knit designs to magazines. I had turned to machine knitting after moving to a new city where there were no jobs for my design skills.  I figured people always needed sweaters!  When I began learning how to use the knitting machine I disliked almost everything being created by machine knitters.  I pulled out old Vogue Knitting magazines (I had always kept a subscription to that even though I didn’t really knit) and figured out how to accomplish things I liked using my hand knitting knowledge (and occasionally calling my mother) on the knitting machine.

In 1994 before leaving for a vacation I picked up yarn from the sale bin of a local yarn shop because I didn’t feel I could stand to be away from knitting for two weeks.  I really enjoyed the portability of hand knitting and had a great time designing and knitting a sweater.  That sweater was an intarsia patchwork of different stitch patterns in three colors, put together in a planned random pattern.  I was hooked on hand knitting.

I started to do hand knit design as well as machine knits.  I like almost every type of stitch pattern, although I am not inclined to do much stranded knitting.  I love vintage lace patterns, and often find myself dissecting patterns to find their hidden elements.  Mostly though I am pursuing an idea, so I find stitch patterns that suit the concept.

The first knitting pattern I wrote was for a coat for a friend’s toddler daughter.  I wrote a variation of that design for a pattern that I sold to Machine Knitting News.  I think my first hand knit pattern was for Knitters.  I had a terrible time learning how to write effective patterns.  What magazines publish didn’t really seem clear to me; I think I struggled for about five years before I realized that I just saw things differently.  I call myself “directionally dyslexic”.  I have a hard time with right and left, and right side and wrong side conversions.  I do shaping for both sides in my patterns, and am pretty meticulous about tracking right and wrong sides.  I don’t have to be as concerned about how much space I use.  I also do my charts to reflect the stitches on the side you are looking at because I can’t do the mental transition.  Really, I’m not as dumb as this makes me sound! 

I have my own pattern line which allows me to write in a style that is clearer to how my brain functions. I have about 50 patterns currently available on my website, and at least that many more available on Ravelry in an old format while waiting for transition to my new format.  I always have about two dozen projects in the works.  Unlike many hand knit designers, I don’t knit my samples.  I write the patterns from swatches and they are knit (almost always just once!) from my instructions.

Knitwear design is rewarding because I get to create both shape and fabric.  I never cease having more ideas than I could possibly pursue, and every day I love sitting down to knit swatches.  The challenge is that knitwear design is not valued within the hand knitting community and it is extremely difficult to make money at it. 

At heart I am a fashion designer.  I love and follow fashion,  and I try to translate what I see in fashion for people who knit.  I look at all types of garments and translate elements and shapes into my designs.  I want to design things that, for the most part, will be fashionable in three years if that’s how long you take to knit it.  I create contemporary fashion, not fast fashion.  I am inspired by yarn, and stitch patterns, but almost always it comes back to fashion and style for me.

My advice to knitters is to enjoy the process.  It be just about the knit product, you should allow yourself to experience the pleasure of all that yarn running through your fingers, how you feel about your accomplishments, learning new things, and seeing what transpires as you manipulate your yarn and needles.  In the end, if you had to knit the same ball of yarn over and over, it could still be a pleasure (well, for a while).  We get too focused on the price of the materials we are using and how long it takes and we forget how much we get out of it.  Not only do we create things, we entertain ourselves, sooth ourselves, and help us get through things we’d just rather not (kid’s sports, waiting rooms, family visits, you name it!).

The most important things I am working on right now are books. I am focusing on redoing the Continental knitting method book.  I am changing the voice and the focus.  I want to provide how-to-knit instruction, and also give guidance through many of the things needed to transition from scarves to creating garments or more complex projects.  After that I have about five books to write!

I am a solo business owner for the first time in over 10 years.  This has proved to be more enjoyable than I thought it would be, although it is also scary and unnerving sometimes.

To view more of Jill's lovely designs, please log on to www.jillwolcottknits.com