GAL interview with Emily Ringelman
My kids have been after me for most of your Pure whimsy patterns, but I just keep making submission swatches and offering to teach them to knit. So far 2 of them crochet. Does your family inspire you when you choose which design to develop?
Definitely. My husband occasionally has an off-beat idea (like the Duck Hat) that I’ll make happen. Lately I’ve been designing things for my baby, too, because I think she’ll look cute in something.
You as a designer questions:
What is your design process?
I design “on the needles” for the most part, which means that I personally do all of the work for a new design- I rarely hire a sample knitter. Usually I do enough math to cast on for the size I’m making, then write the pattern one section at a time as I knit.
What influences your style?
I love nautical stuff, and you can often see the influence in my work. I generally try to design things that I would actually wear as opposed to what’s trendy, because for the most part samples come back to me, and I hate having a box of samples I won’t wear!
What about designing and producing patterns are you most adept at, what parts are you most fond of, and what parts are challenging? (Pattern Grading, the last week of editing, coming up with a name for a project, self promotion?)
I’d say my favorite part is doing the actual knitting. I’m the absolute worst at naming designs! Sometimes a completely finished design will sit for a week while I hem and haw over a name.
You as a Giftalong designer:
What have you learned from the promotion?
That what I think will be popular is not always so. Can’t make assumptions about knitters!
You as someone who likes to make things questions:
What is your usual process on a fiber project, for instance, do you start with a yarn, a cute pattern, a need you’ve noticed, something exciting you saw in a movie you want to copy, or a technique you want to learn – then what do you do next and then what?
All of the above. I’ve made a sweater for the baby because she needs one, a hat out of yarn that was just sooo pretty even though I didn’t need a hat, a sweater I copied from a movie. When I was first learning to knit I picked every single project because it featured a new-to-me technique. Lately I have very little non-design knitting time so I focus on items that I (or my husband or baby) actually need.
Does anything intimidate you in knitting or crochet?
When you want to learn something, do you look it up in a book, on U-tube, or seek a real person to teach you?
Usually books or blogs.
Any repetitive motion disorders due to knitting or crochet? How do you deal with them?
I’ve had tennis elbow and sore hands a few times. Rest is really the only thing that helps. That and minimizing use of the mouse during computer time.
What makes you buy a pattern (lovely photo, the story of the project, it looks do-able, it looks slightly challenging…)
Love at first sight or something completely original and unusual.
