Designer Interview - Andrea Jurgrau

One of the most enjoyable things about taking part in the Indie Designers' Giftalong has been finding out about so many designers that are out there that I haven't come across before. One I have been especially pleased to get introduced to is Andrea Jurgrau (ajurgrau on Ravelry), aka Bad Cat Designs. Andrea is a Brooklyn-raised designer, who has designed some of the most astonishingly intricate lace creations I have come across, for instance the spectacular Kodama shawl...



As well as self-publishing patterns on Ravelry, Andrea has published a fabulous book, New Vintage Lace. She's taken ideas from vintage lace doilies and reimagined them as stunning modern accessories - not just shawls, but also scarves and hats.

I've been lucky enough to be able to interview Andrea as part of the Giftalong.


For me, the burning question - please introduce us to the Bad Cat.

"The original BadCat was LucyFur.  She was a shelter cat that was mostly Russian Blue, with huge green eyes and a very dense double coat.  Her undercoat was as fine as cashmere.  She was very aggressive when she first came to live with me, but mellowed nicely s she aged.  She had a full set of claws.  She loved to sit in my lap and watch me knit, and also assist in blocking.  She was about 16 when she died, now almost 2 years ago.  I began designing shortly after she came to live with me and on a whim I selected BadCatDesigns to pay homage to my lovely "badcat."  I have a new "badcat." His name is Chai.  He is also a shelter cat, likely a pure Flame Point, but without papers.  He came to me totally declawed, so not only does he like to help block but he requires less direct supervision when he blocks lace with me :)."

What was it that nudged you to make the jump from making other people's patterns to designing your own?

"I have been knitting most of my life, and was taught by my grandmother and her sisters, who did not use patterns.  Or rather, had the "patterns" in their heads.  So I was never much of a pattern follower.  I have knit my share of commercial patterns, but more often started with pattern and then drifted off in my own direction.  The big jump was from just knitting my own "thing" to actually documenting it so someone else could knit it too."

The world's impression of Brooklyn is about as far from your delicate, intricate lace as it's possible to be! Is there a feminine, soft side to Brooklyn we're missing, or does the contrast provide stimulation?

"Ha!  I imagine that there is but I think the Brooklyn in me is more my edge than my soft side.  Brooklyn has changed a lot in the past decade, but I grew up there when it was a bit more rough and tumble than it is now."

Your book, New Vintage Lace, is a wonderful selection of imaginative patterns based on vintage knitted doilies. How did you get interested in these?

"I do love traditional knitting techniques and collect books and patterns for all traditional techniques.  But lace is my most favourite.  I feel connected with the past when I work old designs.  Also, the old lace patterns can be a real challenge to work because the directions are minimal.  I find that fun!"

How did you make time to write a book when you have a full-time day job?

"My housekeeping suffers greatly..."

Do you get a chance to knit anything other than the patterns you're designing, and if so what sort of things do you go for?

"No, right now I only knit my own samples.  I have a sample due 12/1 which I was up late working on.  I should be ready to ship on time!  I have a new book cooking, so will be knitting exclusively for that until at least January.  Then I should be able to add a few other side projects while I finish up the book samples, but again, just my stuff."

Ooh, a new book... what can you tell us?

"My new book is oodles of lace accessories, this time inspired by nature with a very special and secret theme!"


If the new book is anything like as beautiful as New Vintage Lace, we are in for a treat! Just room for one more picture - I can't recommend strongly enough that you visit Andrea's Ravelry designer page and check out the rest of her designs.

Designer Interview - Kirsten McTeer

As part of this year’s Gift-a-long, I’m delighted to have had the opportunity to interview some fellow designers who are also participating! First up is my fellow London designer Kirsten McTeer. Kirsten is a mum of two small boys, who published her first pattern earlier last year and since then has built up a Ravelry store of pretty adult accessories and fun patterns for kids.

What's your first memory of knitting or learning to knit?

"I don't really have a first memory of knitting because I can't remember a time when I couldn't knit. My mother and grandmother were both prolific knitters but each assumed the other must have taught me because neither could remember doing it themselves. I think I must have been about five years old when I learned. I do have a memory of Mum teaching my younger sister to knit. She was about five or six, so I'd have been seven or eight. She used to chant, 'Down the rabbit hole, round the tree, up the rabbit hole, out of the wood'. "

What was it that prompted you to start designing?

"Designing wasn't anything I had ever considered until June of this year. I've always been one of those knitters who follows a pattern to the letter without modifying a thing, except perhaps to make sleeves a little shorter if needed or maybe to add stripes to a plain garment. Then, one weekend morning in June, I woke up with an idea for a shawlette. I knew exactly which yarn I wanted to make it with and I knew exactly what I wanted it to look like. The problem was I hadn't the first clue how to go about making it. I grabbed some spare yarn and the first pair of needles that came to hand and cast on. The first few attempts just weren't right but I started to see what I needed to do to make it how I wanted it, and after frogging and re-starting a few times I cracked it! I had to write down what I was doing, so I could do it again on the "real thing" instead of on this spare yarn I was using, and it occurred to me if I was writing it down for myself I could try offering the pattern on Ravelry as well. The pattern became my Yarnshine shawlette."

Which pattern are you most proud of, and which means the most to you?

"Of my published ones, I'm most proud of my Fairy Ring socks. It's the first design which has had people asking for the pattern before it was published.

The one that means most to me is my Fossilised Ferns set of mitts and scarf. They were designed as a gift for my sister and the mitts have proved to be my most popular pattern. I think it's pretty cool that my sister has the original version of my most popular design."

What do you enjoy most about designing, and are there any bits that drive you mad?

"My favourite bit of designing is making the samples. Some of my designs have come pattern-first and others have been sample-first (and then written up according to what I've knitted) but I do love the knitting part of it. It makes the pattern real when you've got the finished object in your hands. The bits that have driven me mad up to now have been grading sizes that I'm not actually making a sample for. The neckband on The Clock Struck One had me practically tearing my hair out. I ended up on the floor with a load of my son's Lego bricks, one for each stitch, facing up for a Knit and down for a Purl, trying to work out the effects on a 2x2 rib of the decrease to form a V-neck in three different sizes at the same time!"

Where do you get your inspiration from?

"My inspiration usually comes from a texture. It might be a stitch pattern in a stitch dictionary or something like a plant or an architectural feature. Something will catch my eye and I'll think "that will make great socks, or mitts, or a scarf"."

What do you like to knit when you're not designing?

"I like to knit socks and shawls. You can never have too many socks, and there are so many great patterns and yarns out there you could knit socks for the rest of your life and never have to knit the same pair twice. I like shawls for the challenge. I love complex lace. It holds my interest while I'm knitting it and always gets admired by other people!"

Do your kids like to wear what you've knit, or can they be difficult to please?

"My five-year-old will happily wear any hat or mittens I make for him, but he won't wear hand knitted sweaters any more. We did some Kool-Aid dyeing a while ago. He dyed the yarn and I turned it into mittens and he loves them. He has asked if we can do that again but with sock yarn this time so I may find myself making him some socks very soon. My nearly-two-year-old can't dress himself yet so he wears whatever he's put in! I made The Clock Struck One for him last summer and even though he's outgrown the vest now, he still takes the mouse out and about with him."

Which are your favourite yarns to design in?

"I like Wollmeise's sock yarn for socks and for scarves and shawls. I love the colours and the drape. For DK weight there are a few brands I tend to come back to. I like Patons Diploma Gold and Rico Design Essentials Merino DK."

Why did you design to join the GAL & how are you finding it?

"I wasn't aware of last year's GAL at all. Back in the summer there was a post in one of Ravelry's design forums asking if it was going ahead again this year so I looked into it and it just sounded like a lot of fun, and a great opportunity to join in with 'real' designers. For someone who is a newbie like me, it's eye-opening to be able to participate alongside established designers and to be able to learn from their experience."

If you like Kirsten's designs why not join her group on Ravelry?

Go GAL!

Right then, the Indie Designers' Gift-along 2014 is now under way! So here's a quick blog about what I'll be doing - Lots more to come.

()I would have done it yesterday but I accidentally got free tickets for England v South Africa at Twickenham... which slightly put paid to that...)

So, most importantly, I'm taking part in the discounted pattern offer along with tons of other designers. That means you can get 25% off some of my favourite patterns on Ravelry with the code giftalong2014, until 23.59 Eastern Standard Time on 21st November, which as far as I am aware is the time in New York. I will admit that I don't at this stage have a clue when that is here - about 5am on the 22nd - so leave plenty of time in case I am utterly wrong.

If you knit one of my patterns, or any of the other 1000s of fab patterns available, don't forget to join in the fun on the Ravelry group - there are prizes available and everything.

I'll be tweeting about the Gift-along and how it goes & during the discount period I'll be tweeting my pattern of the day to show off some of what other designers have got to offer - follow me @hanwellknitter.

This blog will be taking a new and exciting turn with interviews with some other GAL designers - more to come on that!

I've been pinning some of the nicest things I've found in the GAL to my Pinterest boards.

And if I can find the time I might even be taking part myself and knitting one or two of those patterns! Trust me, there's a lot of temptation.

Finally, I've got a pretty Ravatar with the gold Gift-along logo on it:

 

Self-confessedly frantic update!

Ok, it's been a while, but I'm very excited to say I'll be participating in this year's Ravelry Indie Designers' Gift-a-long. There will be lots and lots going on, including a 25% discount on tons of my patterns, and I'll be updating this blog regularly with news about what I, and the other participating designers, are getting up to. HOWEVER that all starts in a couple of days - if you want to see which patterns will be discounted in the meantime, take a look here.

So, the reason for this frantic blog post is I had better update you on what has been happening in the last 5 months, at least on the knitting front. I've self published my Eldorado Shawl...

 



and my Leeland Market Bag

(what a great excuse to buy cake!)

I've had more patterns in Knit Now and for Artesano, with some really lovely things in the pipeline for both as well.

I've been pattern testing some of my free patterns - Beaujolais fingerless mitts and Dorothy bag are now in tip-top condition & are both perfect for Christmas presents, please enjoy!

I've made loads of jam, and been elected President of the Hanwell Women's Institute (it's my first meeting as President tomorrow...)

I used my sewing machine to make customised hippy flares for Hanwell Carnival.

I've also just about finished knitting myself a Louisa Harding jumper, enjoying the restful experience of working with someone else's pattern.

So I hope that's enough for now, and you'll be getting some more thoughtful blogging in the near future...

Beautiful art/game/yarn...

Well, it's been a while since I dropped by here, and the lack of blogging hasn't been due to lack of stuff happening (the opposite: lack of time to block. In fact I should probably be writing the Billet's Hart allotment newsletter at the moment instead of doing this).

We've just got back from holiday in Australia, seeing various friends there and in Hong Kong on the way (and making some new ones:

)

 

 

Whilst there, not one but four of my favourite recent patterns got published, three in Knit Now  and one for Artesano yarns. So there's quite a lot to cover, and this will be a bit of a spidery blog post telling you about them, because it's not obvious how I string them all together...

 

Two of the Knit Now patterns are part of a special Arts & Crafts supplement and I don't mind telling you I was quite desperate to get a pattern accepted for this issue. My Pre-Raphaelite passion may not be quite as intense as it was when I was a teenager but it still burns, and I'd had in mind for some time a pattern passed on the shawl used in Arthur Hughes' painting April Love.

 

This one was really just a straight steal from the picture, the challenge being to replicate the very floaty loveliness of the shawl in knitting yarn. Rowan came to the rescue, with Baby Silk Merino and Kidsilk Haze, and the result is my simple April Stole.

Second Arts and Craft design was a bit more complex. Started with this painting by John William Waterhouse:

 

Then took a pinch of catwalk....

 



That's from Anna Sui's Spring 2014 Ready to Wear. I had my colours - blue and gold - and my look - flowing and lush - but what garment would it add up to? Here's where I went back again to my teenage years and not to my Dante Gabriel Rossetti posters but... the school panto. My friend Sara played Dandini, Prince Charming's valet, in the Ysgol David Hughes production of Cinderella and I had an image of her, dressed in Principal Boy style, dancing to Don't Stop Me Now by Queen as her character prepared for the ball. That memory gave me the final bit of inspiration for a dashing take on the Pre-Raphaelite look, a long-line gilet in Louisa Harding Grace Harmonies with the gold provided by a ribbon detail, and named Dandini after Sara's character.

 

So, the obvious jump from the Arts and Crafts movement would be... the World Cup. Erm... I had an idea for a hat that was basically half a football, sized for kids and adults, using the classic construction of joined hexagons and pentagons. It sounded simple but actually, it's quite a hard thing to knit accurately. You can't really use stranded colourwork, unless you're far more of a genius knitter than I am, because the strands across the back between sections are so long; I didn't want to use straight intarsia either, because I wanted the effect of diagonal lines at the edge of each piece. (And I am not ashamed to admit I suffer from wonky-edge-stitch-instaria syndrome). It also didn't help when defining edges pieces of the same colour. I went to one of my favourite technqiues, the single stitch cable or cross stitch, which could be used either to join a new colour or to create an edge without joining a colour. The pattern looks quite complicated, partly because it's almost impossible to sensibly chart, but I really have done all the hard work for you, because once you start knitting it's quite obvious where the joins should come.

 

 

Now, I always say I don't design for children (not having any of my own to hand) but Football Crazy is really all about taking me back to my own football-loving childhood, so perhaps there is something in common between my 3 patterns for issue 34, and that's things that obsessed me at school!

 

 

As a coda to all of this, I've got to show you my new design for Artesano, Buscot, not because it's got anything to do with my childhood, but because I simply love it...

 





It's part of a new collection to support Artesano's new Linen Silk DK yarn and rarely have I knitted with a yarn  that is such a pleasure to turn into stocking stitch and cables. Even opening the parcel full of shining, rich, skeins of yarn was a sensory experience. Artesano have chosen to make the pattern free, so I'm hoping lots of people will get as much joy from knitting it as I did!



Sporting chance...

It's occasionally interesting, if sometimes a little scary, to wonder what our younger selves would make of our lives now. One thing I know my 17-year old self would have a hard time accepting is that my only published work is knitting patterns, because when I was 17, I was absolutely sure I was going to be a famous and published novelist, ideally in my 20s. This did not happen. I was forever writing books when I was at school, usually progressing no further than the first few chapters, because although I was generally very good at creating characters, situations, dialogue, etc, I used to find myself at a bit of a loss to come up with anything for all of these fascinating people to do.

I've found myself thinking a lot about one of these efforts recently, one of the few which reached the end, albeit I realised it was far too short to be considered a proper novel. I called it "Sport For All", after some sort of initiative that was going on at the time aimed, I assume, at getting feeble bookish types like me involved in sport. The plot was this. The time is around 1990. My hero was in his early 20s and working for a publishing company on the outskirts of a town in the Home Counties (a thinly-disguised Reading). He was at an educational publishers, where he'd taken a job, rather than go to university, in order to carry on with his real passion, keeping goal for the local non-league football club. He was also gay, not out to his parents, teammates or work colleagues, only his younger sister and a small group of friends. We first meet him during a football match, the early rounds of the FA Cup, which his team has done well to qualify for. He plays well that day, and his team are only just beaten by their (then) fourth-division opposition, from a town a few miles away. He is congratulated by their young star striker who scored the only goal.

In the meantime, his publishers are working on a new series of books about sport for schools and ask him to edit the football one, and to find a professional player who will feature in the book. He instantly thinks of the player from the fourth-division team, who is clearly destined for greatness and agrees to take part in the project. They meet and, in the course of putting the book together, realise they are attracted to each other and start a tentative relationship, very much away from their teammates and colleagues.

Just as things are going well and the book is nearly finished, a 'big club up north' buy the striker. My goalkeeping hero tells him their relationship has to end as it would scupper his chances of making it big if the truth about his sexuality comes out, and so they go their separate ways.

A few years later, the 'keeper is working as sports reporter for a gay magazine (basically Gay Times, which I think was just about it in 1990) and living in London, when he hears rumours from colleagues that a big star is about to be outed by the tabloids. It's his old lover from Reading, now a top player. He can only watch from a distance as the footballer's life falls apart.

After I wrote the first, short, draft, I realised it needed considerable beefing up if it was ever going to make it as a novel, so I began the process of re-writing. Hence the above précis is far more detailed at the start. What I remember is feeling something of a sense of urgency.  I felt sure that if I took 5 or 10 years to write the book, it would lose a lot of its significance, as gay footballers would by then be commonplace. (Then I went to university and discovered clubbing and cider, and I'm afraid that was that for the book).

If you had told my 17-year old self that, by the beginning of 2014, there would still not be a current professional league footballer in England who was out, I would have been astounded. Especially if you had added that by then it would be perfectly unremarkable for cabinet ministers, newsreaders and company CEOs to be honest about their sexuality.

(Whether I would have been more astounded by that than the fact that I have not yet won the Booker is a moot point).

Now you may be wondering what all of this has to do with the usual subject of this blog; viz. knitting. Sexuality and sport have been linked all over the news just lately, in some very good ways, with positive reactions (let's exclude the Twitter trolls) to those sports people who have spoken out, but also negatively, in the issues about Russian laws and attitudes that have been highlighted by the Winter Olympics. A group of knitting designers have got together to do their bit to try & make this a positive by donating some or all of their pattern sales to LGBT organisations around the world during the Winter Olympics and I'm very pleased to be with them. There's more details and a full list of all the patterns included in the project at BristolIvy's blog - please check it out, there's so many fab patterns there is bound to be something you want to knit!

As a lot of my patterns already include a charity donation I will be donating all profits from Talboys Wrap and Montserrat to the Albert Kennedy Trust, which supports LGBT young people in the UK. Because while we may be rightly concerned about attitudes in Russia, the fact that, were I so minded, I could still write some version of "Sport for All" in 2014, shows that things are still a long way from perfect here.

Ashes to sashes...

It has come up occasionally on this blog, but only occasionally, that one of my other loves, apart from yarn & knitting & making stuff, is cricket. I can often be found, in what passes for summer in London, sitting in the pavilion at Lord's clutching my sock knitting and a glass of wine. waiting to see what comment the Members will make today (my favourite was an elderly Scottish gentleman who hadn't seen anyone knitting in the round since his mum used to send him socks when he was in the Navy in the war).

I'm a Londoner now, and therefore a member at my local club, Middlesex (who play their county games mostly at Lord's), but Yorkshire by birth (as has definitely been mentioned on this blog before now!). This winter has not been a pleasant one for the England cricket fan, awaking every morning to hear what new depths the team had plumbed on the tour of Australia. (The good news is we have retained an Ashes - well done Charlotte Edwards and the England women's cricket team.) Last year, however, things were different, with England on largely winning form (albeit, and I don't just say this with hindsight, the signs of the imminent collapse were there). I went to both the New Zealand and Australia tests at Lord's & was otherwise glued to the Tests on TV. Now I adore my cricket, but even I will admit there are times when one's attention can drift, which is one of the factors that makes it the ideal sport for the knitter. During the New Zealand series, my attention drifted to the new pavilion at Yorkshire's splendid ground, Headingley.

And in particular its triangular roof. The colours happened to chime rather well with the designs I was doing for Artesano Yarns at the time in their British Blue Faced Blend yarn, and so my thoughts naturally turned to: could I knit the roof?

So, I took some techniques from Shetland shawl shaping and worked out a way to make interlocking, seamless, garter stitch triangles and neatened it off with a bright edging. Serendipitously, Knit Now have put together an issue full of fascinating geometric patterns & angular knitting (I especially love the Biennial Jumper but I am a sucker for a diagonal). And here it is, Headingley Scarf:

 



In lovely Artesano Blue Faced Blend.

Lofty thoughts

It's been a busy Christmas as you can probably tell from the fact that this blog has been un-updated for so long! But there have been lots of exciting crafty developments in train, I've been pattern testing like mad & working on all sorts of samples, mostly for patterns due out over the next few months.

I am typing this from my rather brilliant new workspace, in our spanking new loft conversion! There's a proper desk to sit at, under the eaves, a new carpet (OBVIOUSLY in British Wool!!!), a Bluetooth speaker (currently playing "Victory for the Comic Muse" by the Divine Comedy) and, finally, space for a sewing machine which was my excellent Christmas present from my husband. I haven't had much chance to play with it yet but have all sorts of plans! The loft still smells a bit woolly from the carpet.

New on the pattern from since the last post were two more patterns for Artesano - firstly this lovely wrap, Dionysus:

and a beret called Demeter:

They're both in a yarn called Nebula which is a pleasure to work with - I love the way it has little slubs of different, sometimes totally unexpected, colours. The colourway for the wrap I was particularly taken with!

I also did a test knit on my two asparagus scarves - Asparagus Lace Scarf and Sparrow Grass.

So they're both now available with proper charts & there's a discount if you buy both together. Now lots of nice people have knitted great projects from my patterns I've also got a board on Pinterest with some of my favourite knitters' projects!

here's an example of a tester's Asparagus Lace: