Today’s first interview is with Josh Ryks of Sword of a Knitter.

Josh, modeling Ad Hoc

Who taught you to knit/How did you learn to knit?
I learned to knit from a learn-to-knit kit that came with a book and needles and some notions. I taught myself from that little instruction booklet on some truly horrible acrylic yarn (the stuff was splitty and just awful. My second yarn that I used was much nicer acrylic yarn!) and got going. I remember finding the cast on and knit stitch much easier than the purl stitch. I had to grab a different book for that one!

How did you get started designing?
I started designing after knitting some of Stephen West’s shawls and other “modern” designers that introduced me to the world of color and shaping and new techniques that stemmed from the base techniques of knitting and I understood the structure of it all.
The combinations of color and shape and line and texture hooked me and I actually started thinking that I could do this too. So I did!

Convergent

What inspires your designs?
I find inspiration in black and white photography, architecture, shadow, and line play. I also love tessellation art and the geometric motifs found ornamenting our everyday.

Which comes first – the yarn or the inspiration?
It really depends! I find that the inspiration comes first, but (depending on the yarn!) the yarn may change everything and become the muse of the piece!

Death of the Moon

What characteristics do you try to incorporate in your designs?
Graphic, clean lines with bright, bold splashes of color and techniques that create texture and color play.

What is your favourite type of item to design?
I LOVE designing shawls! It’s the most versatile canvas we have as designers to push the boundaries of knitting and play around with color, shape, technique, line, texture, shadow, etc. It’s also a fantastic why to show off the amazing indie dyers that make such beautiful yarns!

glaciation

Do you have an aspirational knit – a complicated/challenging design that you want to knit “some day” when you feel ready?
I do! It’s a shawl concept that I’ve had milling around for a long time and I will one day sit down and tackle the shaping and technical details to get it started.

Your desert island yarn? (if you could only knit with one yarn from now on which would it be?)
That’s a tough question! Hmm… At the moment it would have to be a combination of Neighborhood Fibre Company’s Rustic Fingering weight single and 716knit 716solo neon-tactic tonal color ways. I could be a very happy knitter with that yarn combo!

What’s your “comfort knitting?”
I would say shawl knitting in any shape or form or design is my comfort knitting. For me, comfort knitting is more about the yarn and the colors I’m using more so than the knitting itself.

Color Spike

Which is your most under-appreciated design?
I would say Color Spike. It’s one of my personal faves and the way the cables and short rows and slipped stitches and color all work together is a great shawl that speaks of Josh and his style of knitting.

Continental or English?
Continental.

What’s the best thing about knitting?
The ability to create something that’s unique, original, and handmade all the while playing with fibers and colors that you can’t get anywhere else!

3-5-7 Mitts

What’s the one piece of advice you’d like to share with other knitters?
Have FUN knitting! Don’t stress about the techniques and any insecurities you may feel about something. Just go for it, have fun, and even if you end up with a mess, have fun and laugh and move on! Knitting is supposed to be fun and make us feel better! So don’t bring stress and obligation into it!

Any knitting/designing New Year’s resolutions?
I am hoping to finish all the mystery designs I have going on at the moment and to publish my second and third collections next year!

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View all of Josh’s patterns here. All photos copyright Josh Ryks. All images used by permission.

You can find Josh on the following social media sites:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Pinterest

What is the Gift-A-Long? The GAL is a big knitting and crochet designer promotion with prizes and more than 5,000 people participating in a giant KAL/CAL. Come join the GAL group on Ravelry!

The first interview today is with male designer Rich Ensor of That Bald Guy Knits.

Rich Ensor

Who taught you to knit/How did you learn to knit?
I am entirely self taught. About 8 years ago, I had a very stressful job, so much so that it was interfering with my sleep. I knew I needed to find a hobby that would allow me to quiet the drama that I was bringing home with me from the office. At the same time, I was pet sitting for a friend, and found a stitch dictionary sitting on her coffee table. I was completely fascinated by the charts and the abbreviations, so I purchased a copy of Knitting for Dummies, some acrylic yarn and straight needles. I would spend about an hour each evening reading through the book and swatching whichever stitch pattern was covered in the challenge. It didn’t take long for me to realize that just making these swatches cleared my head and allowed me to relax, so knitting became my respite.

Cordon

How did you get started designing?
I stumbled into designing completely by accident. I had been knitting for a few years, and I usually knit socks exclusively during the summer months. I like knitting really interesting sock patterns, but found that many sock patterns are not written for a size that will fit. I had become rather adept at resizing socks either by adding a repeat, or altering a chart. My LYS was hosting a Sock Design class by Anne Hanson, which sounded like it would be fun. I had no intention of becoming a designer. I was thinking that the class would help me unleash some creativity for personal use. As part of the class, every participant was working on their own creation. My LYS owner saw my sock-in-progress at the end of the day, and offered to buy the pattern for their website. I found that I really enjoyed the process of writing the pattern, and thus, a designer was born.

Do you find it challenging to be a “man who knits”?
I think the only challenge I’ve every found as a male knitter is finding a pattern that I like that will also fit. This really isn’t that much of a challenge because there are so many resources out there to help a knitter figure out how to resize a pattern.

What inspires your designs?
The best answer I can give is that designing is like playing to me. I like to play with stitches and swatches until I find something that is visually appealing. I don’t really have a set process that I follow. Sometimes, I’ll start with a stitch pattern. Other times, I’ll doodle for a while until the scribbles look like something I’d want to knit.

Shaking with Mirth

Which comes first – the yarn or the inspiration?
Sometimes it’s the yarn, and sometimes it’s the inspiration. I’ve designed some socks for clubs, so in those cases it’s always the yarn that comes first. There are other times when I have a chart scribbled down, and I rummage through my stash looking for the right yarn for that chart.

What characteristics do you try to incorporate in your designs?
Twisted stitches and cables tend to be a recurring theme in my designs. I have started branching out into other areas. Cordon is a color work pattern, which was a lot of fun to design. Shaking with Mirth is a lace pattern, which was a huge learning experience for me.

What is your favourite type of item to design?
Socks – it’s a small canvas with so much potential.

On the Edge of a Maelstrom

Tell me about “On the Edge of a Maelstorm“, what is the story behind this design?
On the Edge of a Maelstrom was commissioned for the Barking Dog Yarns sock club. This was the first time I was working with Suzan, and I wanted to do something that felt special. I like the idea of having a cabled sock where the cables were interrupted by a band that traveled around the leg. This pattern is a really good example of playing with some stitch patterns to get an interesting result.

Do you have an aspirational knit – a complicated/challenging design that you want to knit “some day” when you feel ready?
The short answer is probably anything that isn’t a sock. Time is really my biggest challenge when it comes to designing. I have this day job that gets in the way, which is why I stick with socks because they just make sense to me. When I have a little bit more time on my hands, I hope to branch out and design some other garments.

Gossamer Arbor

Do you think that being a male designer helps set you apart/differentiates you as a designer?
The only quantitative example of how my gender may set me apart is that I do get occasional feedback from knitters that they like the fact that many of my sock patterns are something a man would wear. That’s most likely because most of the sock patterns that I’ve written are socks that I would wear. Other than that, I don’t think that my gender differentiates me from other designers, and honestly, I don’t want it to. I want people to want to knit my designs because there is something appealing about the pattern itself.

What is coming next? What’s in your release queue?
I have two completed samples that I am woefully behind on getting the patterns written. I hope to have one of them ready for publication in early January. The other will probably be ready in the February/March timeframe.

Your desert island yarn? (if you could only knit with one yarn from now on which would it be?)
Cephalopod Yarns Skinny Bugga! – which is sadly discontinued.

Gatlinburg“>Gatlinburg

Which is your most under-appreciated design?
Gatlinburg

What’s the one piece of advice you’d like to share with other knitters?
Everything gets easier with practice, so keep at it.

Any knitting/designing New Year’s resolutions?
I’m planning a move next year, so I’m giving myself some low expectations for knitting and designing to keep myself from getting too stressed out. I think my only resolutions are to keep knitting, and keep it fun.

If you could have dinner with one knitting designer (living or dead) who would it be and why?
Probably Cookie A because she’s the reigning Queen of Socks, and I think I would learn much from her.

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View all of Rich’s patterns here. All photos copyright Rich Ensor. All images used by permission.

You can find Rich on the following social media sites:

• Pinterest
• Twitter
• That Bald Guy Knits Ravelry Group

What is the Gift-A-Long? The GAL is a big knitting and crochet designer promotion with prizes and more than 5,000 people participating in a giant KAL/CAL. Come join the GAL group on Ravelry!

Today’s interview is with the youngest designer in this series, Mr. Josiah Bain (16) of The Sock Monkey.

Mr. Josiah Bain

Who taught you to knit/How did you learn to knit?
Well, I actually taught myself to knit when I was six or seven by watching my mother trying to figure out her knitting. I’d already mastered crochet, but while crochet allowed you to sort of do 3D and freeform shapes, it didn’t really look as intricate as knitting. My mother was learning how to knit from a friend, and she didn’t want me to teach me until she mastered it. So I went downstairs one night, got some chopsticks from the silverware drawer, terrible Red Heart in a multicolored blue/green/white color, and just started knitting. While I wasn’t doing it correctly by any stretch of the imagination, that was how I started out.

How did you get started designing?
I’m not entirely certain. I didn’t really knit from a pattern at all before I discovered Ravelry, so I just sort of always made things up. I think I was intrigued by the idea of getting published in a magazine, so that’s when I decided to go ahead and sit down and brainstorm a pattern idea to submit to Knitty.

Mirror

What inspires your designs?
Wow, that depends. I’ve come up with things inspired by music, TV and movies, nature, and people that I know. I also think a good mood board is an inspiration catalyst, at least for me.

Which comes first – the yarn or the inspiration?
That also depends! I think that for, say, a sock pattern, I need to have at least an idea of the yarn structure and color to be able to do anything. Sometimes a particular yarn will grab my attention, and then that yarn will dictate what I’m going to do with it. For another type of project, the design really benefits if I swatched with the intended yarn so that I could form a clear picture of that design. I think that as I grow as a designer, I’ll be able to speak more clearly to that, but I’m really still just figuring things out right now.

Juliet Poe Cowl

What characteristics do you try to incorporate in your designs?
I’m making an effort to refine my style right now. Last year (and also the first part of this one), I just sort of put out whatever I thought up. What I’m going to try to do now on out is to really think through my designs; to only put out the patterns that I know are amazing and I know are the best that I can make, even if it means putting off other opportunities. Right now, I’m going through a minimalism phase, so stockinette stitch paired with really elegant detail is my friend at the moment.

What is your favourite type of item to design?
Depends on what mood I’m in. I’m most comfortable with sock design, but I’ve noticed a severe drop in other people’s sock knitting over the past few years, so I’m trying to branch out into other things as well. I’m having lots of fun with striped shawls and intarsia on hats and pullovers. I’m not sure exactly how many folks will share my intarsia enthusiasm, though.

Tauriel

Do you find it challenging to be a “man who knits”?
Not especially. A few years ago, definitely, but now, I’ve learned not to let it bother me when people sort of stare at me.

Do you think that being a male designer helps set you apart as a designer?
Being a guy and being a teenager does set me apart—online, when people have my designs in front of them, it’s great. But in person, I think that they always take the fact that I’m a designer with a grain of salt. Things have changed in the knitting pattern design industry with the launch of Ravelry. Anyone can take the label of “designer.” That is a good thing in many ways, and I know that there are numerous designers that wouldn’t be designing if it hadn’t been for that aspect of Ravelry. To those people who try work their business, like me, you can get lost in the mix of other patterns that aren’t as good as yours in presentation and design. And if a relatively unknown designer walks up and says, “Yeah, I’m a designer of things,” I think that the patterns with mediocre design and presentation comes into their minds. That’s what happens with me when I’m introduced in person.

Meduseld

Do you have an aspirational knit – a complicated/challenging design that you want to knit “someday” when you feel ready?
To be honest, I don’t have one of those. I’m not exactly sure why I don’t have an aspirational knit, because I have seen some of the unbelievable things that have been done, and I have shaken my head in awe of other knitters’ creativity. Maybe it’s because that I haven’t seen the right design yet.

Your desert island yarn? (if you could only knit with one yarn from now on which would it be?)
No, no! Please don’t ask me this! I think, if I had to make a choice, I’d choose something from Quince and Co … perhaps Tern? Or Finch … Maybe just a small-farm Cormo fingering weight. I’ll let you know if I do ever have to choose. Hopefully that time will never come.

What’s your “comfort knitting?”
Garter stitch on an item with long rows. Or stockinette stitch socks.

Curry

Which is your most under-appreciated design?
Definitely Curry. I think that this is mostly my fault though; I got a tad carried away with curled cuffs and I’ve learned not to use vivid mustard in a design sample. But it is a very versatile pattern. The stockinette fabric in between the eyelet panels biases, and I think they would look really striking with a ribbed cuff and semisolid hand dyed yarn. I’ll have to knit up another sample.

Continental or English?
Continental! I’ve tried English (when I was first learning), but now I think that I only use English for that colorwork technique where you hold one color in your left hand and the other in the right.

What’s the best thing about knitting?
One thing that really drives me crazy is when people are just standing (or sitting) around literally doing nothing. The best thing about knitting is that times when you aren’t sure what to do aren’t wasted on doing nothing. In fact, I’ve come to look forward to those little breaks in schedule.

What’s the one piece of advice you’d like to share with other knitters?
I guess that would be to get educated. There are so many things that you can learn about the science of knitting, the science of the fibers that we use, that it’s amazing. Frankly, I don’t think that you could ever stop from learning something new in this craft. Take time to learn where your fibers come from, how they are raised, and what they are best used for in knitting. Take time to get to know how your stitches will behave in different ways when you do different things with them. It is not only interesting, but it gives a deeper connection with our projects and our stashes.

Any knitting/designing New Year’s resolutions?
I did that whole New Year’s resolutions thing at the beginning of this year, and I must say that I don’t really want to do it again in 2016. I have some interesting things planned for next year, though, but I can’t say too much about them yet. That said, I do want to explore more with brioche and colorwork.

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View all of Josiah’s patterns here. All photos copyright Josiah Bain. All images used by permission.

You can find Mr. Josiah Bain on the following social media sites:

• The Sock Monkey Ravelry Group

Today’s second interview is with designer Steven Hicks of Rodeo Knits, the first in the sub-series of interviews with male designers. I was curious to find out if their views on designing were influenced by their gender so I asked them two additional questions: “Do you find it challenging to be a “man who knits”?” and “Do you think being a male designer helps set you apart/differentiates you as a designer?”

Steven Hicks

Who taught you to knit/How did you learn to knit?
I taught myself to knit out of Family Circle magazine when I was about 7 years old. My first project was a hat — the pattern was literally a big garter stitch square with a whip stitch seam joining the cast on/bind off and a length of yarn threaded through the garter bumps on one end to close it up. Actually, a perfect first pattern and so much better than an interminable scarf.

How did you get started designing?
Like many knitters/crocheters/crafters, after so many years of practicing your hobby, you start to drift away from following patterns religiously and start tinkering with your own designs. This period for me coincided with a new yarn shop that opened in my hometown. It was a matter of being in the right place at the right time that gave me the opportunity to start teaching classes and designing patterns for those classes.

What inspires your designs?
I’m generally inspired by a technique or a specific stitch and then expanding on that and seeing where it takes me. For example, I was enamored with a star stitch and the texture it created. From there, I designed the three patterns Carriage Trail, Quarry Creek and Ridgeview. Each uses the same star stitch with variations of other textures like cables or lace.

Ridgeview

Which comes first – the yarn or the inspiration?
For me it’s inspiration and the yarn comes second. At the same time, the inspiration can be affected by my desire to use a specific yarn, though more likely, it’s a weight of yarn that I want to use. I’m very caught up in sport and light DK weight yarns right now.

What characteristics do you try to incorporate in your designs?
I think because I started from the teaching side of the business, I’m always trying to incorporate a new technique or skill into each design. I want everyone to know that they can do anything in yarn, to refuse to be intimidated by anything. I think the hardest part about any technique in knitting is trying to learn it from a badly written pattern, and writing patterns is hard work. And I’m sure I’ve written my fair share of terrible patterns.

Trio – South Hills, Quarry Creek, Carriage Trail

Do you find it challenging to be a “man who knits”?
There’s an initial novelty in being a man with needles and yarn. There’s also always the “Oh, Rosey Grier did needlepoint” comment. And of course, some yarn shops aren’t able to comprehend that I know what I’m doing. But with Ravelry and the rise of some big name male designers/knitters, that’s changing very quickly.

What is your favourite type of item to design?
Right now it’s neckwear — scarves, cowls, shawls, etc — but I’m also going through a major stranded colorwork phase. So far it’s a series of hats, which just seem so accessible. I just released Whittaker and there are at least three more to follow.

Whittaker

Tell me about “The Vandalia Collection”, what is the story behind this collection?
“The Vandalia Collection” was the first group of patterns I released as a “serious designer.” I wish there were a more interesting story to go along with it. I sat down with a notebook and my sketches of ideas and just put it together, making changes and edits so that I feel like it goes together a little more cohesively and has a wider range of designs. And since I try to name all of my patterns after something related to West Virginia, my adopted home state, I thought Vandalia would be a good name for the collection. Vandalia was an early name proposed for the state of West Virginia.

Do you have an aspirational knit – a complicated/challenging design that you want to knit “some day” when you feel ready?
I’ve been working on a series of sweaters that I’m very excited about, but also very nervous about. There is so much that goes into a sweater design, so many moving parts. 2016 is the year, though.

Do you think being a male designer helps set you apart/differentiates you as a designer?
I’m not sure gender has much to do with a person’s ability as a designer but it is a defining characteristic, albeit one that I can’t control, that does help give me an identity. For example, sometimes I’ll run into someone that I’ve met very briefly at the local yarn shop and they’ll say “Oh, you’re that guy who knits” and it’s a great conversation starter.

What is coming next? What’s in your release queue?
There are three more stranded colorwork hats that I’m refining and reknitting and testing and a cowl that I’m still designing-on-the-needles and now I’ve reached a point where I need to make some big decisions. And sweaters! But that’s down the road.

Sneak Peek

Your desert island yarn? (if you could only knit with one yarn from now on which would it be?)
“Only one” is a knitter’s worst nightmare! But I almost always reach for Miss Babs’ Yowza. I mean, the yardage is unbeatable, colors are gorgeous and the weight is perfect for a lot of different projects.

Which is your most under-appreciated design?
I really wish that Ruffner was more popular and I know deep down that it comes to the photographs. In a perfect world, I’d love to pull that one away from the world, make it disappear, and re-release it with amazing photos. It’s a lace poncho knit flat but completely seamless thanks to a well-placed provisional cast on.

What’s the one piece of advice you’d like to share with other knitters?
You can knit anything. Knitting is only knits or purls with some variations and sometimes an intentional hole. And an unintentional hole is just a design element.

Any knitting/designing New Year’s resolutions?
It’s definitely sweaters. There are at least 6 designs that I’ve been working on trying to refine and work on all the different sizes and options.

If you could have dinner with one knitting designer (living or dead) who would it be and why?
I’d say Pam Allen (call me!). She always seems to have a timeless sense and accessibility in her designs. And I love the Quince and Co. yarn and what they stand for.

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View all of Steven’s patterns here. All images copyright Steven Hicks. All images used by permission.

You can find Steven on the following social media sites:

• Instagram
• Twitter
• Tumblr

What is the Gift-A-Long? The GAL is a big knitting and crochet designer promotion with prizes and more than 5,000 people participating in a giant KAL/CAL. Come join the GAL group on Ravelry!