Earlier this week the preview for Knitscene Fall 2013 went up, and I am happy to share that I am the featured designer. Below are the four designs in my collection. (Photos are courtesy of Knitscene). I am in love with the styling of the photos; I wish all those clothes were in my closet!
 Rosemary Cardigan |  Alison Pullover |
 Emmylou Shawl |  June Mitts |
Before I go into detail about each design, I thought I'd share the story of designing this collection from start to finish.
Back in August 2012, Lisa Shroyer, former editor of Knitscene, asked if I would be the featured designer for the Fall 2013 issue. I read this email while I was in a salon waiting for a haircut. I stifled a giggle, really wanting to get up on one of the chairs and jump up and down. A few minutes later it was my turn, and I plopped down in the chair. It was my first time in this salon, and after a couple minutes of small talk, the girl cutting my hair asked what I did for a living. I practically burst telling her about the opportunity that just landed in my lap and how utterly excited I was! She laughed and said “I was wonderin’ ‘bout why you had such a big grin on your face!” So we laughed together and I continued on to tell her what it was like designing knitting patterns. She is not a crafter, so I'm not sure just how much of my excited rambling she really understood.
In my old life I worked in the fashion industry for 8 years. I was always the assistant, which meant I really didn’t do much design work. A few times I got the opportunity to help with the designing, but never a whole collection. The last time I had designed an entire collection was as a final assignment in college. I was so excited and yet at the same time nervous as heck. There is always the fear of designing something that you love but finding that nobody else loves it in return. So I set about scribbling ideas for designs I have had in my head for a long time and never yet had the opportunity to work on. After a few pages of scribbling, a theme emerged. Cables and twisted stitches. I love designing all-over cable patterns and motifs. When I think of cables I think of an intricate fisherman sweater. But cables can be so much more than that, ranging from a preppy pullover to an elegant border detail. Here was my opportunity to show the range of what cables can be. With four pattern slots available I decided on two garments and two accessories. My final page of scribbles was my rough line sheet of my final designs with little design notes. It doesn’t look like much, but in my head I could already see the final projects.
Back in August 2012, Lisa Shroyer, former editor of Knitscene, asked if I would be the featured designer for the Fall 2013 issue. I read this email while I was in a salon waiting for a haircut. I stifled a giggle, really wanting to get up on one of the chairs and jump up and down. A few minutes later it was my turn, and I plopped down in the chair. It was my first time in this salon, and after a couple minutes of small talk, the girl cutting my hair asked what I did for a living. I practically burst telling her about the opportunity that just landed in my lap and how utterly excited I was! She laughed and said “I was wonderin’ ‘bout why you had such a big grin on your face!” So we laughed together and I continued on to tell her what it was like designing knitting patterns. She is not a crafter, so I'm not sure just how much of my excited rambling she really understood.
In my old life I worked in the fashion industry for 8 years. I was always the assistant, which meant I really didn’t do much design work. A few times I got the opportunity to help with the designing, but never a whole collection. The last time I had designed an entire collection was as a final assignment in college. I was so excited and yet at the same time nervous as heck. There is always the fear of designing something that you love but finding that nobody else loves it in return. So I set about scribbling ideas for designs I have had in my head for a long time and never yet had the opportunity to work on. After a few pages of scribbling, a theme emerged. Cables and twisted stitches. I love designing all-over cable patterns and motifs. When I think of cables I think of an intricate fisherman sweater. But cables can be so much more than that, ranging from a preppy pullover to an elegant border detail. Here was my opportunity to show the range of what cables can be. With four pattern slots available I decided on two garments and two accessories. My final page of scribbles was my rough line sheet of my final designs with little design notes. It doesn’t look like much, but in my head I could already see the final projects.
The next step was yarn and color selection. I tend to get in a yarn rut and just go for classic worsted weight wools. For these designs I did mostly stick with wool, but two of them are lovely blends. I am a big fan of heathered and hand painted yarns; their depth of color is much more interesting to me than a plain solid yarn. I love bright colors, so I tried to choose a vivid but wearable palette of rich fall colors. Once the yarns and colors were decided I digitally rendered my designs into my final line sheet. This is where my fashion industry experience really came in handy with being able to draw my designs in Adobe Illustrator and see what they looked like in the right colors. As you can see, the color and yarn for the fingerless gloves ending up changing; sometimes the yarn you like just doesn’t work out the way you want it to.
After getting the approval on my designs the hard work began. Time to calculate! I think I wore out the buttons on my calculator. I didn’t take long before two boxes of squooshy yarn started to take over a corner of my office/studio. Over the next few months those boxes slowly became less and less filled with yarn, and the pile of finished samples got bigger and bigger. Although there were a few moments of grumbling and ripping back, designing this collection was a truly joyful experience. I hope you enjoy knitting these projects as much as I did.
Knitscene Fall will be on newsstands July 16th. The digital edition is available now for download.
Over the next week or two I'll write blog posts about each design and my inspiration and process for designing. Until next time, Happy Knitting!
Knitscene Fall will be on newsstands July 16th. The digital edition is available now for download.
Over the next week or two I'll write blog posts about each design and my inspiration and process for designing. Until next time, Happy Knitting!
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