Meet the designers for Laine Issue 20
In Laine Magazine 20, we present designs from ten outstanding designers from around the world. Meet Rebecca Clow, Lily Kate France, Eliza Hinkes, Susanna Kaartinen, Marzena Kołaczek, Marion Mursic, Joey Poh, Olga Putano, Qing Studio and Thea Vesterby.
Rebecca Clow
Rebecca Clow lives in Edinburgh, Scotland and works as a product manager for a sustainability start-up. She never thought of herself as a creative person, but knitting changed that — it's the medium that allows her to channel all her ideas. Rebecca usually makes what she wants to wear, so her biggest inspiration is the gaps in her wardrobe. She likes all-over textures and describes her design style as “modern classic”.
For this issue, Rebecca designed Pladda: a top-down sweater with a graphic check pattern.
Lily Kate France
Lily Kate France comes from Lancashire, north England. Besides her design work, she has a part-time marketing and creative role with a local shoe brand. The phrase “elegant everyday” describes her designs: they feature clean silhouettes, neat finishing and clever details that are satisfying to knit. Often the knitted fabric itself provides the inspiration, but she also gets ideas from non-knitted clothing, such as tailoring details on shirts or colour combinations on hiking gear.
Lily Kate’s Peppy shawl is worked as two separate scalene triangles that are joined at the top.
Eliza Hinkes
Eliza Hinkes lives in Seattle, USA, with her husband and cat. She works in the legal field and is a beginner in knitwear design. Eliza gets ideas for her patterns from fashion designers, street-style photographs and vintage knitwear. She also loves looking at colour combinations or different textures, whether from nature or man-made materials, and imagining how they could translate to knitwear. Eliza is drawn towards maximalism: whether it is bright colours, large motifs or complex cables.
For this issue, Eliza designed Ottilia, a rectangular scarf with graphic lace panels.
Susanna Kaartinen
Susanna Kaartinen comes from Finnish Lapland but currently lives in Australia, close to Melbourne. She divides her time between knitwear design and freelance graphic design for Sámi-language publications. Susanna’s style is a combination of clean lines with interesting details. In her designs, she often explores how to integrate the use of colour and texture with the construction, shaping and direction of knitting to create interesting results.
Susanna’s Jiellâh pattern is a relaxed cardigan with clean lines and well-thought-out details.
Marzena Kołaczek
Marzena Kołaczek describes her design style as “modern romanticism”. She likes to create sweaters that are full of beautiful, sophisticated stitch patterns and, at the same time, are suitable to be worn every day and for different occasions. Knitting has been Marzena’s job for many years — first, it was a lovely excuse to open a yarn store, and now she works as a full-time knitwear designer. Marzena lives in Sydney, Australia, but originally comes from Poland.
Marzena’s design for this issue, Devana, is an ethereal, oversized top with dropped shoulders.
Marion Mursic
Marion Mursic lives in the north of France, in a beautiful old fortified town called Montreuil-sur-Mer. She is a full-time music teacher and a full-time mama but also a half-time illustrator and knitwear designer. Marion loves clothes in general and she is often inspired by something someone else is wearing, be it a beautiful shape or a pattern in a garment. She aims to make her designs enjoyable and easy to knit.
Marion’s Sea Salt pattern is an oversized, comfortable hoodie with cropped sleeves.
Joey Poh
Joey Poh — known on social media as Winter’s Weather Knits — was born and raised in Singapore, but she moved to British Columbia, Canada, when she was seven years old. Joey designs as a hobby in her free time, and career-wise, she works in recreation services, overseeing several preschool classes and developing children’s after-school programmes. Joey loves experimenting with texture, stitch patterns and unique construction methods and prefers working with neutral, earthy colours.
For this issue, Joey designed the cute and dainty In Bloom socks knitted from the toe up.
Olga Putano
Olga Putano is a Ukrainian knitwear designer who is maybe best known for her intricate colourwork designs, but she loves to knit and design using different techniques and styles. Olga lives in north-eastern USA with her family and has also published a book featuring beautiful yoke sweater patterns. Knitting has taught her that she can do more than she thought – knowing that you can make a beautiful garment with just two sticks and a strand of yarn is an incredibly freeing feeling.
Oga’s Tepliy sweater is the epitome of sweet and cosy, knitted in lightweight and lofty yarn.
Qing Studio
Qing Studio, formerly known as the yarn dyeing company Qing Fibre, is a London-based knitwear design studio that offers a range of unique and modern knitting and crochet patterns. They created the Heligan pattern through a collaborative process within the design team, drawing inspiration from nature and the changing seasons.
Heligan is a lightweight and playful cabled top worked in the round from top to bottom.
Thea Vesterby
Thea Vesterby’s design style is feminine, with a fondness for shades of blue and pink. Thea lives outside Copenhagen, Denmark in a city called Holte. Last August, she decided to go full-time into knitwear design after 19 years of working at a global digital consulting company in different roles. One of the things Thea finds important in knitting is that it offers training for her brain — she had suffered from stress-related illnesses and found help and comfort in the craft.
For this issue, Thea designed Columns: a light, high-necked pullover worked in a simple lace pattern.
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