Dec 7, 2018

Interview with a designer: Beverly S. (Yarnintercept)

Another week another interesting interview:

This time I was lucky enough to interview  Beverly S. (Yarnintercept).   She is another participating designer in the Indie Gift-a-long.
I personally am intrigued by her pattern for the Dark Passage Socks, picture bellow:

photo by Beverly S.

1.What inspires you to design? 



I find inspiration in lots of places. architecture, friends and family members, movies, the yarn itself, or stitch dictionaries. Sometimes I just want to explore what I can do with a certain kind of stitch. 


2.If you could knit/ crochet one thing - anything in the world what would that be? 



If time and my own lack of fortitude weren't a factor, I'd make a blanket with the world map on it or flags of the world. There's a flags blanket on Ravelry that I'm fascinated by. (I have a thing for Geography!) 




3.Describe your ideal day as a designer, what would you do and what would you prefer not to do? 



First, coffee! Then l would browse through stitch pattern books and do a few small swatches of a stitch pattern or stranded design - or I'd just cast on and start knitting. Swatching isn't my favorite thing...so I might get two or three rows in and decide I know what I'm doing! Creating charts for colorwork or cabled designs is fun. Grading sizes is not so much fun. 




4.How do you start a project, with yarn, pattern, idea or what? 



It depends. Sometimes a yarn decides it needs to be made into something, now. With my Wednesday Night pattern, I knew the yarn had to be a shallow, asymmetrical shawl.  Other times, I have an idea of how to use a stitch or combo of stitches and start playing around - In Reverse (the mitts came first) started with the stitch pattern and then I got wrapped up in the technique of knitting top down - that is, from the fingerless end to the wrist cuff. And sometimes, I am inspired and want to represent that inspiration - my Dark Passage socks were inspired by the movie of the same name, but then took off from there. It was my most technically challenging design - a two color cast on, two color cables, and a deceptively easy looking sole design that took a lot of time, and math, to get just right. 


photo by Beverly S.

5.What inspires you to pick up needles and start on the project? 



The need to create. To turn a "ball of string" (as my husband calls it) into something beautiful. 


6.What do you enjoy the most about the designing and what you dislike the most? 



I love when a pattern just happens effortlessly. Sometimes it comes off the needles with no problem and minimal reworking. I hate when I have to fight the stitches, the yarn, or my own stubbornness to make a design work. I dislike how much time it takes me to get a design out there. I'm not prolific because I have a full-time job as a math teacher, and sometimes, I just procrastinate. I currently have a design in the testing phase now that was photographed over a year ago. All I needed to do was finish typing up the pattern! 


7.Are there any particular techniques you find challenging or impossible to work with? 



I've never tried steeking or brioche. I'm also not a fan of intarsia. I've knit it out of necessity, but I'd never design something using intarsia as I find it way too fiddly. 


8.What is on your needles now? 



So.many.things. For the gift along, I'm currently knitting Claire Slade's  Midnights Owl and crocheting Rachy Newin's  Heart of a Rockstar Cowl. I also finished YOUR pattern, Cecile! Besides the two current projects, I have a mitten design that needs finishing, a sweater vest, a few pairs of fingerless gloves, socks, a shawl or two, a cowl design with just the ribbing done....I could go on and on. 


9.Do you work on multiple projects at the same time or single project?



Do people really knit one thing at a time? It boggles the mind! I am most definitely a multiple projects knitter. I am easily distracted by new yarn, a new pattern, a new stitch and I always have to cast on RIGHT.NOW. 

                                                                       Wednesday Night
photo by Beverly S.
Where to find Beverly S. (Yarnintercept):

Beverly S. on Ravelry

Beverly S. in Twiter


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