MEET BECKY HERRICK by Tracy St. John

We get to work with really amazing designers every day here at Tangled. You can see that manifested in the terrific designs they share with us. Whenever we can, we like to get to know a designer a little better than we might get to do in just the editing/publishing process. Most recently, we spent some time talking with Becky Herrick. She has been with us since the very beginning of Tangled, which I hope makes her as happy as it makes us. Becky is a young designer based in Vermont, and many of her designs reflect the natural (sometimes chilly!) beauty of her surroundings. Her garments are unique and interesting, but not over-designed. She hits just the right balance of creative technique with classic wearability.

Hyde Park, her first design for Tangled magazine, is one of my favorites. Here, she combined classic fair-isle color work with interesting shaping to make a whimsical mitten and hat set. Check out the decrease pattern on the top of the hat!

Decreases, Hyde Park Hat

Hyde Park set

We wanted to find out a bit about what makes Becky tick and what inspires her to pick up her needles and then put on her designer’s hat…….

Tangled: How did you get started as a designer? What motivated you to try writing your first design?

Becky: I learned to knit from a friend who never followed patterns.  I was making up color work hats on DPNs before I learned to read a knitting pattern.  So I guess that means I’ve been designing for myself since the beginning.  But what started me as a designer was an image that just dropped into my head as if from the sky (yes, I know that makes me sound crazy) of cabled gloves framing the little castle in northeast Vermont.

Blue Castle

I knew I needed to design the pattern.  When I was showing my sketches at knit night a friend suggested that if I did all that work I really ought to submit them somewhere.  I got it into my head that if I submitted something as crazy as cabling around corners Knitty would just have to accept the pattern.  I was lucky that Amy Singer felt Knitty was, in fact, a good venue for such a crazy pattern.  But she wanted to hold it for a future issue.  That’s when I realized I could self publish a few patterns in the mean time, so that when the gloves were published I’d have other patterns for people to find.
Tangled: What do you like to knit the best?  Cables, fair-isle, lace?

Becky: This one is easy – cables are my favorite, hands down.  I’ve been drawing celtic knots since before I could knit.  Being able to work those knots into garments is still fascinating for me.  That said, I’ve never met a knitting technique I didn’t like – and I tend to dive in with both feet.  My first cabled project was the Rogue sweater, my first intarsia project had 45 bobbins, I learn techniques as I need them for whatever project I love at the time.

Tangled: What process do you normally use when designing? Are you yarn motivated? Technique inspired? Visually inspired by your surroundings or objects?

Becky: I’m visually inspired, my designs all come either from something around me, or from a design submission idea board.  I also tend to incorporate the same technique into several design ideas all around the same time frame.  If you look at my designs you can see a bunch that use cables as edging – most of those ideas all came around the same time.  Right now I have a bunch of ideas in various stages that use slipped stitches to make interlocking stripes.  Usually I don’t realize these themes until I’m on the third or four design sketch using the same element.

Cable detail, neckline of Cambridge Cables

Cable detail, wristline of Queen City

Tangled: What is your favorite thing you have designed?

Becky: This question shouldn’t be legal, it’s like asking a parent who is their favorite child.  So for my non-answer I’ll say it’s always the next one (yeah, that breaks the child analogy…) I think most knitters can relate to this.  It’s like starting a new project, you get to pick the yarn, see the fabric taking shape, and generally be excited about what comes next.  With a design this continues after it’s off the needles, there’s photography and PDF layout, or sending a design off to a publisher and waiting to see the magic they work as they include it in the issue.  The glow lasts for a little while after the pattern is out, but then I move on to my next great idea, my next submission, or just flip through my sketch book to see what other ideas are waiting to be worked up – and suddenly I have a new favorite.

Tangled: What other designers inspire you?

Becky: I have huge admiration for designers who seem to be doing it all like Gudrun Johnson and Marnie MacLean.  Marnie MacLean has such wonderful ideas and her patterns always look sophisticated and playful at the same time.  (I believe) she’s doing most of everything herself and it all seems well put together, that amazes me.  I want to be like her when I grow up.  Gudrun is self-publishing a book of designs with beautiful photography and the whole process must be so much work my mind boggles at the idea of it.  I love cables (I think we covered that already) and a few designers consistently come out with patterns that make me wish I’d thought of them, including Glenna C , Julia Mueller , and of course Cookie A.
Tangled: How do you feel the internet has affected textile design and the yarn community in general?

Becky: Since I only learned to knit in 2004 I can safely say I wouldn’t be a designer without the internet.  It makes it so much easier to be in touch with other knitters, find tech editors, sell PDFs, basically everything I do in terms of design work is online. I’m not sure I can speak to how the internet has changed textile design or the community in general since I don’t know what the industry was like before hand.  I imagine it was a lot more lonely (at least for those of us not in cities with big knitting groups) – lonely since it’d be hard to see who is knitting your designs.  But I wonder if people spent more time knitting and less time procrastinating online?

Tangled: Is designing your career? If not, would you like it to be? Where do you see yourself in a year as far as your design work goes?

Becky: Designing isn’t my career – in fact at this point it barely covers my yarn addiction.  I’m not sure I’d want it to be my Career with a capitol C either.  I like designing, but I also really enjoy knitting other people’s designs and I know career designers don’t have a lot of time for that.  In fact I know some don’t even have time to knit their own designs and have to hire sample knitters.  That would make me really sad.
I would love to be able to cobble together a living out of a number of projects, the list includes (but isn’t limited to) designing, dying and selling yarn and fiber (from the sheep I don’t own yet, of course), tech editing, running a doggy day care, and maybe having a part-time job at the local coffee house or book store – just to get myself out of the house.  The chances this could become a reality are pretty closely tied to me winning the lottery though…  As to where I see myself in a year?  My friend Calley and I are working on a book proposal right now.  So if I’m really lucky in a year I hope to be working with an editor towards getting a book published!

We will be the lucky ones when Becky gets her book published………..keep your needles flying and your ideas flowing! We can’t wait to see what you come up with next!

VINTAGE TREASURE by Tracy St. John

About a year ago (okay, two), I received a fabulous gift from a friend……….a big box of vintage knit and crochet patterns and magazines. They spanned the years from the early 1930′s up into the fabulous crochet 1970′s. I was super-excited about and grateful for this gift, but as the not-so-proud wearer of the “World’s Worst Procrastinator” tiara, it has taken me this long to get around to sorting and organizing this trove. I’m a great one for excuses, too. Too much work to do, too much crocheting to do, I don’t have time for a project like this, excuses galore. All justifications so that I would not get into what I knew would be an obsessive-compulsive journey down vintage design memory lane. I started at first to just sort the knitting from the crochet, thinking that I would put them in notebooks and look through them as I had time.

Six hours later, I was still sitting on the floor with a large heap of happy nostalgic textile magazine chaos. The photography, the styling, the advertisements, the men who looked so happy to be wearing hand-knit fair-isle sweaters while sipping gin-and-tonic and smoking a cigarette………..they must have had a whole gallon of gin.

I did have things sorted out, really I did. The pile of magazines which had something in them I wanted to re-vamp and make right this very minute, and the pile that had something in them that could wait a couple of weeks. As I was sorting, I saw that the hook and needle sizes we are familiar with today are a bit different than the size denotations of the past.  I did a bit of rooting around on the web, and found a couple of helpful size conversion charts, one for needles, and one for hooks. Maybe you have a vintage pattern of your own that you may not be sure of the tool size needed to make it, so please check out these sites if you do.

Now all I have to do is write a pattern for a crocheted time machine, or maybe a device which would slow down the spin of the earth, so that I have about twelve extra hours of yarn time every day. Then I might have a chance of making everything I want to make. The good news for you is that even if I don’t find a way to crochet more time, I will find the time to share  (and possibly clarify, re-write and adapt to modern terms) as many amazing vintage patterns with you as I can. They are just too fabulous to sit around in notebooks in my office without coming alive on needles or hooks once again. Keep watching, and as soon as I can take off my tiara, I will post a pattern or two (or twelve) here.

SPLIT PERSONALITY by Tracy St. John

My crocheted afghan scarf is my favorite thing I have ever made. Ever. I think I am going to ask to be buried with it if I haven’t completely worn it out by then.  A group of my crochet friends gathered with me and we all started happily making hexagons together. It was so much fun to make all of my little hexagons out of mountains of  lightweight scrap and watching the mismatched colors glow together as if I had a plan for them. ” What a great idea, this is the best project ever!”, I remember thinking. It was so much fun until it came time to weave in all of those *&$#@ ends. About halfway through my fabulous scrappy masterpiece, I realized that I was NEVER going to finish it. I could not abide the thought of making even one more adorable little hexagon and then weaving in all six of the ends that were its annoying little offspring. So, I did what every resourceful crafter does when faced with the insurmountable obstacle of project apathy…..I cheated.

I believe it took me about three months to make the hexagon portion of the scarf, and about three days to finish it off in shell stitch. I love my scarf. I love that it is different on each side. I love that it represents two classic afghan designs that my grandma would have had laying over her sofa. Mostly, I love that it is finished. I can happily ignore my crochet friends’ bitter mockery of my decision to take the easy way out while I have my favorite scarf wrapped around my neck.  I’m pretty sure they are just jealous anyway; after all, I have a fabulous completed scarf, and they have lots and lots of ends to weave in.

For those of you who have less pride than sense, here is my recipe for you to make your own split personality afghan scarf. I call it a recipe because it may not be the most in-depth pattern ever written, but you will get the hang of it as you go, and probably season it to your own taste. Maybe you will change course in the middle and create your own recipe. I hope you enjoy yours as much as I do mine!

Use whatever yarn you like with the appropriate size hook for your yarn. I used sport and sock yarn, and a size D hook.

Hexagons

With color of choice, ch 4, join with sl st to form ring.
Round 1: Ch 3 (counts as 1st dc), dc in ring, ch 1, *2 dc in ring, ch 1; rep from * 4 times more, sl st in top of beg ch-3 to join. End off color -6 ch-1 sps.

Round 2: Attach color of choice in any ch-1 sp. Ch 3 (counts as 1st dc), dc in same sp, ch 2, 2 dc in same sp, ch 1, *2 dc in next ch-1 sp, ch 2, 2 dc in same sp, ch 1; rep from * 4 times more, sl st in top of beg ch-3 to join. End off color.

Round 3 (first motif only): Attach color of choice in any ch-1 sp. Ch 1, 1 sc in same sp, *sc in next 2 dc, 3 sc in next ch-2 sp, sc in next 2 dc, sc in next ch-1 sp; rep from * around, ending last rep sc in next 2 dc, 3 sc in next ch-2 sp, sc in next 2 dc. Sl st in beg sc to join. End off color. Weave in all ends.
Round 3 (joining round for all subsequent motifs): Attach color of choice in any ch-1 sp. Ch 1, sc in same sp, *sc in next 2 dc, 2 sc in next ch-2 sp, sl st in 2nd of 3- sc corner group of first motif, one more sc in same ch-2 sp of current motif, sc in next 2 dc, sc in next ch-1 sp, sl st in corresponding sc of first motif; rep from * for as many sides as need to be joined, then refer to rnd 3 of the first motif to complete round for the un-joined sides. End off, weave in ends.

Make and join as many hexagons as you can stand doing. I strongly urge you to weave in the ends of each hex as you complete it. You can refer to the photos here to see how many hexes wide I made my scarf and how I arranged them. When you are tired of hexagons, you will need to make some half-hexes to give you a straight top edge in which to begin working your shell stitch. I made two half-hexes for the top of mine.

Half-Hexagon

With color of choice, ch 4, join with sl st to form ring.

Row 1: Ch 4 (counts as dc, ch 1),  (2 dc in ring, ch 1) 3 times, dc in ring, end off color.

Row 2: Join next color in last ch-1 sp of Row 1. Ch 5 (counts as dc, ch 2), 2 dc in same sp, [ch 1, (2 dc, ch 2 dc) in next ch-1 sp] twice, ch 1, (2 dc, ch 2, dc in last ch-1 sp. End off color.

Row 3:(Note: you will treat this row as you would a round 3 of a full hex, and join the half-hex to the scarf at the appropriate points, just as you would for a full hex.) Join next color in last ch-2 sp of Row 2. Ch 1,   sc in same sp, (join), sc in same sp, sc in next 2 dc, sc in next ch-1 sp(join), [sc in next 2 dc, 3 sc in next ch-2 sp (join), sc in next 2 dc, sc in next ch-1 sp (join)] twice, sc in next 2 dc, sc in last ch-2 sp (join), work 1 more sc in same ch-2 sp, end off.

Shell Stitch

This particular shell stitch is a multiple of four sts plus one. It is only important that your edge lays flat, without being “ruffled” (too many sts), or “puckered” (too few sts). With RS of scarf facing, join yarn to straight top edge of scarf. Ch 1, then work evenly spaced scs across the width of the scarf. If you do not get a correct multiple on your first try across the scarf, you can work one more row of sc, increasing or decreasing as necessary to get the correct multiple, just keep in mind what you want your edge to look like when deciding whether to increase or decrease.

Row 1: Ch 1, sc in same st, * sk  next st, 3 dc in next st, sk next st, sc in next st; rep from * across, turn. End off current color and change to new color if desired.

Row 2: Ch 3 (counts as dc), dc in same st, *sk next st, sc in next st, sk next st, 3 dc in next st; rep from * across, working 2 dc in last st to end last rep. End off color if desired, turn.

Repeat Rows 1 and 2 until your shell stitch section is the desired length, changing colors as desired. If you like, you can crochet over your ends as you go so that you don’t have to contest with all of those ends once your scarf is finished.

Edging

With RS facing, join color of choice to any sc worked into ch-sp on any hexagon on the hexagon side of the scarf. Ch 1, sc in same st. *Ch 3 (or 4, or as many as you like, depending on how loopy you want your edging to be), sc in sc above next ch-sp; rep from * along the hexagon portion of the scarf. When you reach the shell stitch portion of the scarf, treat the end of each row which ended in 2 dc (row 2 of the shell stitch portion) as you would the ch-sp of the hexagon portion and **work a sc in the side of the next dc, ch 3; rep from ** along side of shell st portion. When you reach the bottom (short) edge of the shells, ***sc in the 2nd of the 3 dc of each shell, ch 3; rep from *** along bottom edge. Resume working from ** along other long edge of shell portion. Work from * when you reach the other side of the hexagon portion, sl st in beg sc to join when edging is complete.

Weave in whatever ends are left to weave, block your scarf lightly, and amaze your friends while you wear your own finished masterpiece. In this case, cheaters DO prosper!