spotlight: gudrun johnston
In the spirit of our ongoing #quincekal, the Quince Kid-along, today we highlight the wonderful designs by Gudrun Johnston in her Knit With Me collection. Gudrun graciously took some time for a little Q&A with us to chat about her design work.
- Knit with Me is a collection of patterns written for quite an impressive range of sizes. There’s a distinct mother-daughter aspect to the collection and the wonderful imagery. What was the inspiration behind these designs?
It really just came about as the result of having been knitting for my own daughter, Maya, for several years. As she got older there started to be a definite overlap in our taste of clothing and she would often want to wear the things I was designing. As I started to think about the notion of this collection I could see it would also be a fun project to work on with her. Maya is very artistic, so she helped out with the initial sketches and even went on to do some of the technique drawings. Then as we started to think about the photo shoot we realized we had all these mutual mother/daughter friends, and thankfully they agreed to take part!
Part of what I also wanted this collection to be about was accessibility to the patterns. Nothing too difficult to make and garments that could be worn by both mother and daughter. We also decided to include a very simple first sweater.
top: Braeburn pullovers in Lark; bottom: McIntosh cardigans in Chickadee
- Is there anything in particular that you enjoy about knitting and designing children’s garments, as opposed to those for adults?
Well, I will admit I love that they can be achieved in less time! Funnily enough I haven't actually designed something just for children that doesn't also exist in adult sizes. Perhaps I should!
- If you had to choose one, which Quince yarn is your favorite?
I haven't tried all the Quince yarns (new ones have been added since this collection), but I think I can firmly say Chickadee. It has such lovely stitch definition and bounce to it!
in Chickadee, left to right: Soay, Empire, and Hampshire
- Any plans for more children’s patterns in the future? What else is in the design pipeline?
I do have some ideas for kids' patterns but no concrete deadlines on when they will get done just yet! There are of course other things in the pipeline. One of which is another mother/daughter collaboration of sorts. I'm planning on putting together a collection that will be inspired by (and also recreate) some of my own mother's designs from the 1970s.
Thanks again, Gudrun—we're excited to hear there's a new mother/daughter collab happening, and we can't wait to see the designs inspired by your mother's work. . . sounds wonderful!
Our Kid-along #quincekal continues through the month of December. We hope this inspires you to think of casting on for one of the many beauties found in Knit With Me—come join us over on the Quince Ravelry group!
