The Path to Knitting Isn’t Always Straight

I always thought I would design knitting patterns; the path to making this a reality was a long and circuitous one.

Knitting came into my life in the early 2000s. I’d just had my second child and my oldest was starting at a Waldorf school. Carrying a baby around was an open invitation for people to ask: “Do you knit?”

How else would said baby acquire a cute strawberry hat to warm their head? My son was learning how to knit in class, so I decided to join him, using Kids Knitting by Melanie Falick as a guide.

Sweater no. 1  in Neighborhood Fiber Co. Studio Worsted; Dress no. 1; Pants no. 1. 

After a few lumpy projects, I got the hang of making somewhat even stitches, and then I was off to the races. The timing of my taking up needles was fortuitous. New yarn stores were popping up and there were websites and blogs (including this very one) for inspiration, as well as ways to share the results of my new passion.

I started working at a yarn store, which was a great education. Facing all sorts of issues forced me to think quickly and improvise.

Sweater no. 1 in MDK Atlas; Dress no. 1 (modified); Pants no. 1.

As I got deeper into all things knitting related, I thought, this is what I want to do. And the internet made it all seem tantalizingly within reach. My dearest ambition was to have a design in Knitty. I had friends, co-workers, and/or members of knitting groups who were designing or writing books, and I wanted that as well. But a lack of inspiration and confidence combined to delay this dream.

I started using knitting and other fiber crafts to make artwork. I had a studio space in a building full of painters. During open studio events, I would spend a lot of time informing folks about what a fiber artist was.

Along the way I started sewing and began a project where I made one hundred dresses in a year. This spawned 100 Acts of Sewing, which became a business and, suddenly, I was designing sewing patterns. But I was a knitter.

Over the years, I designed more sewing patterns, taught workshops, and wrote a book. So much of my time and energy was devoted to thinking about garment sewing. Plus, I was knitting less because of a repetitive stress injury on my elbow.

Sweater no. 1;  Dress no. 1; Trouser pattern from The Act of Sewing. 

My first great fiber love and I drifted apart. If this were a movie, this would be the scene where I pass knitting on the street and we barely recognize each other. Cue the sad music.

Some seeds take time to germinate. Even so, twenty years is a really long time. But here we are, it’s 2025 and I’ve designed my first sweater pattern.

Putting the sample sweater on for the first time, after weaving in ends, blocking, and sewing it together—not only had I made this garment, but I really made it. Hallelujah!

I started off with a sewing pattern, because I liked the idea of having knit and sewn versions. This does mean that the sweater pieces are knit flat. As a devotee of top down, in-the-round sweater knitting, I’m as surprised as anybody!

Sweater no. 1  in Sea Change Fibers Gorge Worsted, Dress no. 2; Pants no. 1. 

But after taking this project with me traveling, I’ve come to appreciate the portability of knitting up separate pieces. Knitting flat pieces also gives me an opportunity to play around with block printing shapes on knitted fabric. My dotty sweater is a “proof of concept” with some fine tuning needed and a tutorial to come soon.

Don’t worry, there are instructions for an in-the-round version as well, because I love having options.

I’ve always believed that sewing and knitting go well together. They work symbiotically, a slow craft for a cozy movie watching time and then a dedicated session at the sewing machine to crank out a garment with relative speed.

I like to layer my handknits over shirts and dresses and love having the ability to engineer the proportions, slotting the elements together like building blocks.

As with all my designs, my sweater is a simple one. It’s a blank canvas, quite literally, for the yarn and any other embellishment to shine.