In 2017 we ran a survey of Stitchmastery users and one response particularly caught our imagination – someone told us they would like to hear from other Stitchmastery users and how they make use of the software. We’re delighted to bring you a series of interviews with designers, tech editors, magazine editors and teachers – we hope you enjoy reading them!

Interviewee – Lynette Meek aka Le Tissier Designs

1) When did you start designing? Could you give us a potted history of your knitting and designing background?

I actually started designing first for the kids I babysat for, crocheting Barbie clothes and those little types of things. But I didn’t start designing knitwear until I was around 20 or 21, and it was only items for myself. I was training to be a costume designer in the theatre department of the University of Victoria at that time, which gave me the basics of design and form. Then I got married and had children and made lots of Halloween costumes and clothes for dance classes. When my first husband and I split up, I went back to school and that was when I started knitting seriously, as my stress relief.

I really started designing for other people when I started working in my local yarn store in Nanaimo – I was hired to teach classes and I struggled to find suitable patterns for teaching different techniques, so I started designing my own patterns for the classes. Students started saying “you should sell these on Ravelry”, so I’ve been on Ravelry since about 2008. There was also a local company who sent out patterns to yarn stores when most people were still buying patterns on paper. So teaching was really what kick started my designing seriously. In 2011 I entered a Vogue Knitting design competition and came 2nd runner up, so I designed for them and a few other magazines for a while. Now I mostly design for independent release.

2) Do you have any recurring sources of inspiration or unusual muses for your design work?

I’ve always been interested in vintage fashion, I do a lot of work with lace and beads because I like a lot of embellishment – tassels, baubles, pom-poms and lots and lots of beads! My current obsession is with Indian Chintz.  I recently saw an exhibition at the RBCM in Victoria and I am working on a new shawl inspired by that. And courtier style clothing where every detail counts – Dior is one of my favourite designers. I also love colour, Monet paintings, and new yarns – I’m lucky that the owner of the yarn store I work in is always happy to order new things so there are always new colours and textures to see. I live in the west coast of Canada which truly is a beautiful place. I love walking and I get inspired by all sorts of things – it might be the shape of a flower, or a wild piece of lichen. I probably never stop designing in my head – I’m always thinking about things I’ve seen and how I can recreate them or be inspired by them.

3) When you have an idea, do you always work to a set workflow (eg swatch-knit-chart or chart first then knit) or does your approach change with each design?

It’s very flexible. Most of my ideas, I can literally see it in my head and just start knitting right away. I knit, take notes and then write the pattern afterwards. Sometimes if I’m designing for specific constraints eg for a specific yarn collaboration, I’ll start with a swatch and work on it from that direction. Most of the things I design are accessories so it’s less complex than designing garments which need writing skills I don’t have. It takes a lot of effort to adjust designs to fit properly for a big range of sizes and I don’t think it always works or should be attempted. If I am designing a garment, I’ll pay for tech editing and grading but sometimes the tech editor makes more money from the pattern than I do, so I tend to stick with smaller items that I am confident about the result, and get them test knitted if they are complex.

4) What made you choose to use Stitchmastery? Is there a particular feature you use most regularly or couldn’t do without? And is there anything you wish Stitchmastery could do?

I found Stitchmastery about 5 or 6 years ago. Until then, I had beaten Word into submission, I learned how to create charts and sub in different characters. I actually didn’t know there were programmes out there that you can use for charts until I got so frustrated with it! I saw Stitchmastery mentioned, read a couple of reviews and a couple of posts you’d put out and thought this is the way I want to go. Cathy can attest that I’m not the most tech-minded, I’ve had to ask for help a few times but she’s always happy to help and I really appreciate that. I think what I love best about it is that it provides the written instructions automatically. It took me a while to realise I could check my charts with the Validation tool, I think because I’m so busy actually using the programme I don’t stop to learn about it, so every time I do a pattern I find something new. Now that I understand how it works a bit better, it’s really changed the way I write my patterns. It has made pattern writing a lot easier and quicker for me. I love how I can use colour to box out different areas that need special instructions. It’s great how many different stitches there are available.

One thing I would like to be able to do would be to design colourwork charts using symbols rather than colours, so that people can print them out and colour their own – not everyone can deal with substituting colours when there’s already colour on the page. I’m about to teach a intensive Fair Isle class and I’ve made charts using symbols for different stitches but it takes a while to edit the key etc, so if there were some basic colours preset with symbols (maybe textural ones) instead of colour squares, a bit like cross-stitch/needlework charts, that could be really helpful.

5) Please tell us about your latest publication or next exciting project!

I’m in a busy phase of life as we are downsizing and moving house, but I have a few ongoing projects. On Ravelry I’m hosting a long term lace dress knit-along. I’m designing it in panels so they can be adjusted for almost any size, and there are several people knitting along with me. The Fair Isle intensive classes I’m teaching will hopefully produce a little baby jacket and bonnet. I’m also working on a lace shawl called The Green Man, though it’s in hiatus just now.

One of my passion projects is taking my lace knitting and hand painting them with dyes, so I’m looking forward to being in the new house and getting back to that. I have several lace pieces that are waiting for that. Another bucket list item is a trip to Scotland, my grandmother was Scottish and there’s so much knitting from there so I’d love to go one day. Other than that, I don’t have any big design things going on, but I love what I’m doing and I feel really lucky to be able to keep on doing it. It’s a simple life but I enjoy it!

Learn more about Lynette:

You can find Lynette’s designs on Ravelry and Lynette’s designs on Gosadi, follow Lynette on Instagram or Le Tissier Designs on Facebook, and read Lynette’s blog here.