Meet the designers for Laine Issue 22
In Laine Magazine 22, we present designs from eleven outstanding designers from around the world. Meet Anna Daku, Inés García Suárez, Maria Gomes, Gudrun Johnston, Pauliina Leisti, Yukie Onodera, Eri Shimizu, Megumi Shinagawa, Karoline Skovgaard Bentsen, Ayano Tanaka and Maaike van Geijn.
Anna Daku
Anna Daku is Canadian, living north of Elk Island National Park in Alberta with her husband and four children. In between designing knitting patterns, she cares for her kids, their home and livestock, which includes a small flock of mixed Shetland and Icelandic sheep. Anna designs garments that are enjoyable to work on, with a classic look and interesting stitch patterns.
For this issue, Anna designed Amisk: an oversized cardigan knitted in unspun yarn.
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Inés García Suárez
Inés García Suárez lives in Madrid, Spain, working as a knitwear designer and a knitting teacher. Inés finds design ideas practically anywhere, from the city lights to the shapes of nature. The most notable feature in all her patterns is the techniques. Inés tries to create interesting constructions with well-thought-out and unusual cast-ons.
Inés’ Bokeh pattern is a light, triangular shawl with easy-to-memorize lacework.
Maria Gomes
Maria Gomes lives in Maia, Portugal. After working for more than two decades in the corporate world, she left everything behind and focused on knitting. Maria is inspired by the beach and the sea in the north of Portugal, as well as yarns and colours. Her designs are casual and comfortable, with some interesting details. She loves to use fingering-weight yarns and mohair.
Maria’s Stripes not Stripes pattern is a classic striped sweater with a twist.
Gudrun Johnston
Gudrun Johnston was born in Shetland and currently lives in Massachusetts, USA. She is a full-time knitwear designer who also works as a brand director for Simply Shetland, the North American distributor of yarns by Jamieson’s of Shetland. Gudrun mostly gets her ideas and inspiration from her Shetland heritage.
For this issue, Gudrun designed Luumu: a good everyday cardigan with an interesting construction.
Pauliina Leisti
Pauliina Leisti lives in Tuusula, Finland, working as an entrepreneur on various creative projects, including knitwear design. Pauliina loves to learn new things — now she is into making music, pottery and oil painting! Pauliina is inspired by wool and other natural materials, but her ideas can also come from movies or TV series, especially those set in the 18th to early 20th century.
Pauliina’s Aalya sweater is a relaxed garment with an interesting stitch pattern.
Yukie Onodera
Yukie Onodera — known on social media as Derako (Knitail) — comes from the Miyagi prefecture of Japan. She has a full-time office job while also working as a knitwear designer. Yukie draws inspiration from various sources, such as movies, music, antique goods, fabrics, landscapes and emotions. She always aims for her garments to be easy to combine with other clothing.
For this issue, Yukie designed the cute Braids shawl that features long cabled “tails” on both edges.
Eri Shimizu
Eri Shimizu loves top-down sweaters and likes to add little details to her garments. Eri lives in the Japanese countryside. She is inspired by nature and everyday scenery, movies, music, novels and art — but also by yarns: touching the strands and thinking about what they would suit. She likes knits that are easy to wear and that you would reach for again and again without even knowing it.
Eri’s Walking with Nala shawl is a fun combination of stitches and textures created with two yarns.
Megumi Shinagawa
Megumi Shinagawa lives in the Hyōgo prefecture of Japan and works as a full-time knitwear designer. She is inspired by movies, scenes from her travels, fashion photos from the 1970s and 1990s and the colours of paintings she sees in museums. Megumi describes her design style as “vintage romantic”. She loves traditional clothes and grunge fashion, but especially lace.
For this issue, Megumi designed Aika, a timeless lace pullover worked from the top down.
Karoline Skovgaard Bentsen
Karoline Skovgaard Bentsen — better known on social media as Aegyoknit — lives in Odense, Denmark, and works as a full-time knitwear designer. She gets her inspiration from various sources, such as yarns, textures, silhouettes and modern fashion, as well as garments missing from her own wardrobe. Karoline likes Scandinavian style with little twists and describes her designs as meticulous, feminine and minimalistic.
For this issue, Karoline designed the Hyeja sweater with a deep, textured yoke.
Ayano Tanaka
Ayano Tanaka is based near Tokyo, Japan. Professionally, she has done a bit of everything — from office work to working at a cloisonné studio — but now, she mainly focuses on knitting. Ayano can find inspiration in everything: textiles, pottery, art, nature, architecture... She also loves traditional knitting patterns, such as Estonian gloves, which is reflected in her work.
Aayno’s Morning Mist is a cosy, oversized sweater with soft cable patterns.
Maaike van Geijn
Maaike van Geijn used to work for theatres, festivals and museums, but after a bike accident forced her to slow down, she found a new challenge in knitting: first as a sample and test knitter, and more recently, as a designer. Maaike lives with her family in Schoorl, The Netherlands. Maaike describes her style as graphic. She uses colours and materials to create an interesting fabric with depth or movement.
Maaike’s Grafiet pattern is a warm yet airy sweater with black colourwork details that give it a hand-drawn look.
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