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 – Annina of The Artesanitarium
1) When did you start designing? Could you give us a potted history of your knitting and designing background?
I always had an abundance of knitted things, my grandma was (and still is, at age 95) really a knitting machine! She always gifted some of the most amazing stranded colorwork items but never cables. When I was about 4 or 5 years old I was watching my mom knit a cabled sweater for her god-son. It was so beautiful to me, and I asked how it was done so she showed me, and I can still remember how mind blowing it was, even at that age, that a simple rearranging of stitches could produce something that beautiful.
I did some designing for myself through the years, copied things I saw in magazines, a pair of gloves when I was in pre-school and a pair of socks when in 7th grade, my grandma knit them for me.
The first pattern I wrote was for a sweater, which later became EazySqueezy Sweater. My first real design was in 2009, the crochet Skull Corset Top. It was inspired by a goth girl in my class when I was getting my second degree in culinary arts. I offered her the finished top, but she declined! I went online to cry about it, and all the sudden people started to ask for the pattern! I was amazed! Do people really want to make things that came out of my brain?! The pattern was free on my old website, but through the years I updated it many times, graded it and added cup sizes etc and put a price on it. Sometimes people still use the Wayback Machine to get the original for free. I don’t mind.
My 4th pattern was a cable design, and I just love cables! I’ve been crowned as The Queen of Cables by my fellow designers and publishers. Cables became my favourite thing to design purely because of the aesthetics of them, and I challenge myself to come up with even more intricate patterns.
2) Do you have any recurring sources of inspiration or unusual muses for your design work?
My inspirations come mostly from art or movies by Tim Burton, Scandinavian mythology or music from my favourite artists, like Moonspell, Dream Theater or Cradle of Filth.
The first is purely visual, I see an interesting shape or style of garments or accessories, what else would the characters wear. The vibe of the movie is also often the spring of inspiration.
The second, mythology, it’s mostly what the characters would have been wearing or what a certain phenomenon would have looked like, for example my Aarnivalkea (the equivalent to Willow-of-the-Wisps).
With music it’s more complicated, I can hear a snippet of lyrics and that inspires me to design something. Like my All Things Held Dear socks. I usually include the inspiration lyrics on the pattern page and in the description.
Sometimes designs come to me at the border of sleep and awake. I have one on my needles right now that came to me like that. It’s a yoked sweater with cable waves at the yoke. The waken dream also specified that it should be a design to draw attention to the bad condition of the Baltic Sea.
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?
Lately I have been making actual swatches for my designs. It is also easier for me to first make the chart before knitting the sample. I can surely do without a chart when I knit my sample, but the problems occur when I start to write the pattern and can’t remember how exactly I knit the cables! So, just to be nice to myself, I make the charts first, then alter them if needed when I make the swatch.
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’ve use Stitchmastery for my charts since 2017, because it is the best of the ones I’ve tried. I started with a free trial, loved it so much because it was superior to the programs I had tried before. It saves me so much time, I used to hand draw my charts, and when you need to make corrections in a hand drawn chart, that is a lot of work. The chart-to-written convertor is a game changer! I don’t think I would have written instructions for the cables in my patterns if it wasn’t for Stitchmastery. Sometimes I miss the ability to upload my own picture of a stitch when making my own cable turns, like two color cables and cables with increases/decreases, but other than that, it has all that I have ever needed!
5) Please tell us about your latest publication or next exciting project!
My next pattern launch is a traveling cable sock pattern, Lorelei. It has tiny 2-stitch cables on the foot and all around the leg. Check it out on my website www.artesanitarium.com or on Ravelry: www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/lorelei-socks-2.
Learn more about Annina:
You can learn more on Annina’s website and find her designs on Annina’s Ravelry designer page. You can follow Annina on Instagram.