From Stage to Stitches: The Jetty Cardigan Designer, Cheryl Toy
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Talking &Make Spring Summer Designs With Becky Baker
In this blog post, knitwear designer Becky Baker talks us through her three gorgeous designs for &Make Spring Summer 2023!
As a lifelong knitter living in Scotland with her husband Lewis, Becky Baker of The Fibre Co. has plenty of commercial knitwear experience!
Introduced to hand knitting at an early age by her grandmother and great aunties, Becky went on to study Fashion Knitwear Design and Knitted Textiles at Nottingham Trent University, UK. From then onwards, Becky has played a key role as a ‘Design Project Manager’ at The Fibre Co., whilst also publishing many incredible designs in The Fibre Co. yarns.
We spoke with Becky about her three new designs for &Make Spring Summer 2023 and how our &Make yarn played a key role in her design process.
Tell us about your recent design in The Fibre Co. yarn—what inspired this design?
“For the &Make SS23 collection we wanted fun playful designs that would be perfect for wearing and for styling your home. After some brainstorming and collection planning with the team, I went off and worked on some swatches and ideas for the accessories and homeware. I like to design on the needles sometimes and play around with stitches, if I know the silhouette that I am looking for I may even skip drawing it out and go straight to swatching to try out some ideas.
Through all my years knitting I’ve never actually made a twisted headband, scrunchie or pillow so was really excited to work on these designs and to present my ideas to Daphne and the team. With Hair Necessities and Pillow Possibilities, it’s a great way to explore different knitting stitches and textures. You can have lots of fun experimenting.“
Why is the yarn you used so perfect for it?
“&Make Aran is perfect for Pillow Possibilities as the Aran weight gives a good structure for a home accessory. It’s ideal for cables and textures and knits up at a good speed for making a larger pillow.
We chose &Make DK for the Style-It Eyelet Shawl and Hair Necessities as it’s the best weight for Spring Summer accessories.“
DK-weight yarn is lighter and cooler to wear when the weather warms up and is the perfect match for Hair Necessities and the Style-it Eyelet Shawl!
What makes your design special?
“For the Style-It Eyelet shawl, we wanted to carry on with our &Make theme of showing how one pattern can be customized and reimagined when worked in different colours. So, I designed a two-colour stripe version and also a four-colour block stripe. It’s amazing the fun you can have with different colourways and &Make DK has so many beautiful colours to choose from.“
How often do you knit?
“For work and commissions, a lot but never for my personal collection, I never have the time for both.“
Describe your yarn stash!
“My yarn stash is insane, through my years in the industry I have gathered up so much and I really struggle to part with any of it as I think someday, I will use that.
I have cupboards full of yarn cones for machine knitting and trunks and trunks of skeins and balls. I might have to have a clear-out!” 😁
What are your knitting goals for the future?
“I would love to knit more for myself or my daughter. I have only ever made her one baby hat which she never ended up wearing in the end. I would like to design a capsule collection for her or some Mum and Mini designs.“
Which project are you most proud of?
“When it comes to hand knitting, I think I still really love my Seacross sweater made for The Fibre Co. It was my first complex yoke sweater and I just love the pattern and possible colour combinations.“
If someone wanted to take up knitting, what advice would you give them?
“The advice I would give to any newbie knitter is to pick projects that are small to start with, something you will find fun and would like to wear yourself. There is so much content on YouTube that you can easily find a tutorial on how to do something if you get stuck or join a local knitting group. I learned a lot from a hand knitting course I took years ago and although I learned to knit when I was younger, going to a course and learning with others boosted my confidence to try new things.“
We have a fantastic YouTube Playlist available for anyone looking for how-to video tutorials as well as previous KAL’s and knitting classes! With over 60 videos, discover new crochet and knitting techniques today!
About &Make SS23
Developing designs for The Fibre Co.’s &Make yarn range this season was all about creative possibilities for your making journey! The results are fun playful designs in both knit and crochet for the wardrobe as well as the home.
Each pattern provides an opportunity to learn something new, while gaining a beautiful functional finished handmade project. The different textures, colour options and techniques come to life in designs that are simple to create yet high
in style.
Explore our &Make SS23 collection today.
Knitting with &Make?
If you are knitting any of our &Make Spring Summer designs, please do share it with us!
We would love to see it. If you are sharing on social media, please use any of the following hashtags: #TheFibreCoAndMake, #AndMake, #AndMakeMakes and please tag us @thefibrecompany!
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