I picked up my copy of Knit Now 31 today.
I have two designs in it this month. I’m going to talk about Biennial, the jumper today.
Two years ago, I sent off my first proposal, and I have been calling myself a knitwear designer ever since; tentatively at first, but with ever-growing confidence. The last few months have been crazy busy with 6 garment designs and a number of accessories. Biennial started the run and it was my first garment for Knit Now.
Biennial was hard to design. It looks very simple, but it took a lot of brain-cranking to get it that way. The diagonal line that cuts across the arms and body had to be calculated just right for all seven sizes.
To get the line to look like it was slicing straight across the arms and body involved trig and maths I haven’t attempted since college (in case you’re new to this blog, I’m a qualified engineer). Each size has a different line gradient, as I wanted the change from one colour to the other on the body to be complete by the start of armhole shaping. The larger sizes have a gentler slope. I eventually found a simple way to calculate the placement based on seam length.
The editor of Knit Now, Kate Heppell, has been very generous in her praise of Biennial. In the page 3 editorial, she writes “I am absolutely besotted with Elanor King’s Biennial jumper (page 24). Elanor and our technical editors put a lot of work into making sure the design is right, and I think the result is just stunning.”
Wow.
And then there was this conversation on twitter
Jaw-on-floor WOW.
:)))) @clairelneicho (also in Kate’s list) said at the time she had a Cheshire Cat grin when she saw that tweet. Well I still have one, and it’s almost a week later!
Giveaway time!!!
The lovely, generous people at UK Alpaca gave me too much yarn for Biennial, so I have some to pass on to one lucky recipient. If you would like to win 3 balls of this springy, soft, warm, resilient, beautiful British yarn, comment below with your own answer to Karie’s question: “Who are your favourite knitting designers? And why?”
Yarn giveaway restricted to UK and Ireland only (soz! postage!). Draw will take place on or after Feb 21st
Photographs either my own or (c) Practical Publishing by Dan Walmsley
Catchloops 
I love Alana Dakos designs because of the way she uses nature as her inspirations (mostly leaves); also the colours of her garments in her books are lovely natural tones
I hadn’t seen her stuff before, lovely! Tx!
tiny owl knits because i love the whimsical fairy tale designs.
and kieran foley as his designs make me go wow.
Yes they’re both great designers with their own style. The care of magical creatures charm bracelet is very sweet.
Carole Feller, interesting designs and she did a lot to promote Irish yarns
Kate Davies for the fun playfulnesd of her designs and her fight for wool to be wool, and against her stroke
Cat Bordhi for making socks that made me rethink sock construction, tho there may have been some swearwords
And thats just a few designers I’ve recently knit, there are so many to admire and enjoy
And I do like yours!
Thx! I have 2 of Carol’s books and I refer to them all the time. Her schematics are so detailed!
My favourite designer is Stephen West (westknits). I love his modern slightly more masculine design. He uses colour and texture well and is able to showcase yarn at its best. His patterns are clever. His shawls are interesting to knit. He is generous and shares a number of his patterns for free. I am usually sporting one of his shawls and constantly get comments. I like his geometric shapes and his patterns are well written. He also provides excellent tutorials. I think I have made about 10 of his patterns and loved everyone!
KIm Hargreaves is a favourite for classic well designed garments with clean lines and a modern look.
I also love Stephen West for his brilliant use of colour and unique approach to form and design, Both designers provide well written, easy to follow patterns.
Oh, …. and Tin Can Knits,…. beautiful designs that are innovative and varied. Many of her garments are sized from childrens to adult sized and have very well written instructions .
I love Ysolda Teague – beautiful patterns and she’s really happy to help with tricky bits.
I like Norah Gaughan’s designs–so many of them are nature-inspired.
I really like Laura Aylor and Kyle William. Cookie A has some fabulous sock designs too!