Hey lovelies!
Since today is the 1st of July (where on earth has time gone?! This year is just flying in), I thought I would share with you July’s Designer Feature, with the lovely and super talented Lilli from NordicStitches.
So without furtherado, here is my interview with Lilli:
So, Lilli, tell me how you first started to design your own patterns:
When I first started to try knitting from patterns, my sources was Norwegian books and booklets. This was about 12 years ago. I’d known how to knit for a long time but I wanted to knit a sweater, and up to that point all I’d done was use the basic stitches my mother had taught me when I was 5 or 6, to make beanies, legwarmers, and scarves.
When trying to read Norwegian patterns I encountered what we Norwegian Podcasters have mentioned on YouTube, that they’re written out for you who already know how to knit – or have someone to help you. At that time I didn’t. I ended up winging it and it was ok. But when I kept encountering this issue time and time again, I ended up “creating something myself” with the colorwork charts provided in patterns (important note: Not all patterns are difficult to understand, but the majority have been, both for me and hundreds of other knitters).
It was about 8 years of “winging it”, knitting socks and sweaters for friends and sometimes, myself. Knitting kept my head above water in a battle with the Norwegian healthcare system that took more than 10 years. I knit to keep my focus away from a lot of pain and hardships that decade. When the time came that they labeled me disabled because of Fibromyalgia, I asked them to put me in designer school instead so I could take my knitting one step further. They refused and I couldn’t afford it, so I went home with what I felt was a label that didn’t suit me.
That’s when I started designing, because I was, and am still to this day, determined to one day make this a living. It’s a full-time job today, just not one that pays any bills. (Yet!)
I try to design my patterns with beginners in mind. So they may be a little hand-holding for some, but I want to include as many as I can, giving everyone who wants to knit my patterns the possibility to do so. I also offer pattern support on my patterns via Ravelry messages, and I will always do my utmost to help you along the way!
What’s your inspiration?
Old Scandinavian living, nostalgia and patterns – and nature!
I love taking walks in nature, and all the shapes, colors, textures and the changing seasons always intrigue me and spike an interest to keep searching. I never know what I’m searching for, but I always find it. Every time I come home from a hike I’m bursting with inspiration (and energy, because hiking is a wonderful thing to do for both body and mind). What I see out there turns into lace, cables and a mix of texture on paper and in my knitting.
When it comes to Scandinavian nostalgia and living, lace and texture usually come to mind. I love how using the same type of stitches and techniques can create an ocean of different patterns! Hey, that’s inspiring too!
Also, I’m all about the hygge (which we use in Norwegian too). I love lighting candles, listening to the fire crack in the fireplace while snuggling up under a blanket and knit or just doodle ideas on a piece of paper.
Have you any favourite tools for designing? Stitch dictionaries, needles, etc.
I wish I had a library at home with books, but I don’t. I will one day, just haven’t gotten there yet, but it’s not necessary, because we have the Internet today.
I love the Vogue Stitchionary books. Ann Budd books are awesome tools too.
I don’t know how many hours I’ve spent flipping through hashtags on Instagram and pictures on Pinterest, but it is a lot!
Google and YouTube are the two biggest search engines in the world, so whenever I feel stuck, I go there and search for knitting inspiration.
For needles, I love Knitpro (Knitters Pride) Zing needles, and I also love their cubic wood needles.
I always use either DPNs or fixed circular needles. I tend to not like the new fancy tools, haha!
I’d also like to mention the software I use to make my charts, as I make charts for my patterns (They are like pictures of the design and they’ve always made sense to me). I use and love Stitchmastery. It’s a paid for software but they do offer a free trial on their website. It can be a little tricky getting started, but the program comes with a help guide and they have an amazing Ravelry group where you can get help from others who use it. What I love the most about this software is that they give you the opportunity to create your own stitch library, making it that much easier designing if you, like me, tend to stick to a certain type of stitches to create different expressions in your knitting.
Before I started using Stitchmastery, I used A4 spiral notebooks with square paper, just to get my ideas down. I still do that when I’m on the go, or go to bed. I tend to wake up in the middle of the night with an idea and getting up and turning on the computer just isn’t an option 3 AM in the night. Also when on the go it’s pretty handy having those books and a pencil at hand instead of just writing down a couple sentences. I’d rather look back on a sketch of a chart idea than scribbles because scribbles written out in a haste can “get lost in translation”!
Oh! And always have a rubber at hand, scribbles come with a lot of erasing and re-writing!
Out of all the patterns you’ve designed to date, what is your favourite one?
Tell us about your latest design, how did you come up with the idea & bring it to life?
I’ve decided to put these two questions into one and the same, as the answer will be the same 🙂
My favorite design to date is the one I’m releasing July 1st this year (2018): Granny’s Geraniums. Not just because it was my first time designing a modular shawl (Knit in sections without seeming) but also because it’s the first design I’m going to use to raise money for a cause – cancer research. I’ve always had a burning desire to raise money for causes, helping people and animals in need. It comes naturally to me reaching out.
With this design and more to come in the future – I hope to raise a lot of money for different causes. I believe that we as knitters can use our knitting and amazing community to do a lot of good in the world.
This shawl design became an idea 4 years ago when I asked my mom what my granny’s favorite flowers were, as I wanted to design something in her name. After she had talked it over with my still living grandpa, they’d come to the conclusion that one of them would have been Geraniums. The pattern had a name long before it was a pattern! The actual design wasn’t done until winter 2018 and knit up during spring. It wasn’t 4 years of knitting and ripping back, more like 4 years of playing around with an idea until I felt ready to tackle it.
I never got to meet my grandmother, as she died from colon cancer a few years before I was born. She taught my aunts and mom to knit, and my mom taught me the basics. So there is a little bit of my gran in every stitch I knit. This design is a thankful tribute to her. I consider her a big reason why I do what I do, even though I never met her.
Since I consider my grandmother to be the main source of my creative gene-pool, I wanted this design to be something new. I wanted to design a triangular shawl because they’re so versatile, but I knew I wanted to knit it in a way I’d never knit anything.
So without having knit a modular shawl (or anything modular for that matter), I designed it from a sketched triangle on a printers A4 paper. I drew up lines inside a triangle to see what my eyes liked the best. When the lines were in place, I made notes of what texture and lace I wanted where.
From there I took notes of which directions to pick up stitches for it to be as easy as possible (so most people could knit it), and then I knit the mitered square before designing the side charts and the leafy border. I have dyscalculia (dyslectic with numbers) so it always takes me a lot of re-knitting and re-counting (and tons of coffee…) to finish a design, but I’ve come to terms with the fact that that’s how it is for me, and I work with what I have.
For some reason, this way of designing felt easier and I have so many ideas for more modular shawl designs now, it’s a little ridiculous!
50% of the proceeds from the shawl is released July 1st and out this year (2018) will go to cancer research, in the name of my grandmother.
Do you have any tips for others who would like to start designing?
Don’t be afraid to throw away ideas! I know, that’s probably not what you expected?
I don’t know how many sketches and charts I’ve never come to use. Some ideas are great, some ideas are fine and some ideas are just that – ideas. Learn to filter. Because having a mountain of sketchbooks, hundreds of charts and a book of scribbles can be more stressful than helpful. If I haven’t touched an idea for more than a year it usually goes out the window because something new will always come along. You’ll learn new techniques, new stitch combinations and inspiration will always be there.
Find your voice.
If you start designing because you want to become the new Steven West or Hoji Locatelli, you’re off to a crooked start.
Start designing if you want to. If you have something you want to say. Take your favorite textures, shapes and go from there.
Never directly copy any pattern, it can get you in trouble. Try creating something new. It’s ok to be inspired by other patterns, but copying isn’t the way to go. The knitting community is a transparent place and if you start designing by copying someone, people will see through it. Knitting has been around for a long time, and most likely someone will probably have come up with the idea you have before you have – but it’s ok. We use the same textures and have the same ideas, but it is the voice behind the design that’s going to shine through.
Knitting always moves, there’s always something new and interesting happening all around the world. Don’t be afraid to use the Internet, ask for help if you’re stuck or just go for it. Sometimes just grabbing a pencil and looking at paper can be enough. Go to a yarn store and touch yarn! Flip through books and ask Google! Searching for “How to design a knitted …” in the Google search engine can take you anywhere!
There are plenty don’t-s but get cracking! Believe in yourself, don’t be afraid to try and fail and try again!
(Anyone else have Frank Sinatra‘s “Pick Yourself Up” on the brain now?)
Most importantly, I’d like to say: YOU CAN DO IT!
It doesn’t have to be fancy, it doesn’t have to be the next big thing, it just has to be YOU!
(Lilli’s gorgeous Granny’s Geraniums Shawl has been released today, so make sure you head over to her Ravelry Store and get a copy. Let’s honour her grandmother & help raise money for Cancer Research).
So that’s it for my July designer feature, I hope you’ve liked it! Please let me know down below!
Also, if you are a designer and would like to be featured on one of my monthly features, please get in contact with me (cosycuteknits@gmail.com), I would love to hear from you!
❤
I have been really inspired by two of my favourite podcasts 
Needles: US 2/2.75mm KnitPro Symfonie circulars (
Specifics:
I’ve made some progress on these socks since last time as well. I’ve now completed the leg on both socks, and I’ve added in the waste yarn of the afterthought heel on both as well. Now I just have to work my way down the foot, which shouldn’t take too long!
Needles: US 1.5/2.5mm KnitPro Symfonie circulars (magic loop) (Amazon UK)
This skein is the ‘Pandemonium’ colourway on the Supreme Sock base (100% Superwash Merino). Does this not just scream all things Autumnal?! It’s absolutely GORGEOUS and I can’t wait to cast it on this Autumn. Perhaps a shawl?
CosyCuteKnits 