Meet the designers for Laine Issue 13
In Laine Magazine 13, we present designs from 10 outstanding designers from around the world. Meet Susan Chin, Susan Crawford, Sidsel Grau Petersen, Midori Hirose, Susanna Kaartinen, Inyoung Kim, Hanna Maciejewska, Mariya Matveeva, Paula Pereira, Maiju Räsänen and Griselda Zárate
SUSAN CHIN
For as long as Susan Chin can remember, she has tinkered with knitting and crochet design out of personal interest, creating shapes and working on stitch techniques. As things evolved over time, it was a natural transition for her to start writing and publishing her own patterns.
Susan lives in Edmonton, Canada. Style-wise, she is drawn to richly textured patterning. As a process-based designer and hand crafter, she likes a little challenge – a change in the making process and the technical aspects of making.
For this issue, Susan designed Barchan: a crescent-shaped shawl crocheted with two strands of lace-weight yarn held together.
SUSAN CRAWFORD
Susan Crawford lives on a small farm in the North Lancashire hills in Northern England. She studied fashion, textiles and hand-knitting, and knitting has been her livelihood for over twenty years – but also her main means of self-expression and the place where she finds peace.
Susan’s inspiration comes from many sources: from nature, film, fashion history and literature; from texture, pattern and colour; and also from function, practicality and need. Her design style is classic with a vintage vibe, and she loves creating designs featuring colourwork, texture or lace with unexpected details and elegant shaping.
For this issue, she designed Hutton: a slightly oversized cardigan using a simple two-colour slipped-stitch pattern.
SIDSEL GRAU PETERSEN
Sidsel Grau Petersen became a designer for a simple reason: there were sweaters she wanted to knit but couldn’t find patterns for. Sidsel lives in Copenhagen, Denmark. She likes to bike everywhere, and sometimes she gets ideas for her designs in the bicycle lane when she sees people wearing nice knits.
Inspiration can also come from vintage clothes that have an interesting texture or a detail, which she then tries to put in a more contemporary context. Sidsel is especially good at numbers and the technical side of knitting – she can look at almost anything and tell how it is made.
For this issue, Sidsel designed Colour Chart: a chequered scarf inspired by the Bauhaus movement.
MIDORI HIROSE
Midori Hirose loves knitting swatches with experimental stitches and construction – like sketches with yarn and needles, instead of pencil and paper. Most of her swatches are just for fun but sometimes one of them becomes a new design.
Midori likes to make lightweight sweaters with soft textures and draped fabrics. She loves wool and mohair as knitting fibres and tends to knit several samples from the same pattern, using different types of yarn. Midori lives and works in Northern Germany.
For this issue, Midori designed Cassis, a vest inspired by the traditional gansey sweaters of fishermen.
SUSANNA KAARTINEN
Almost four years ago, Susanna Kaartinen moved from Finland to Australia, where she now lives in a small town just outside Melbourne. For Susanna, knitting is a connection to her family and traditions – a skill that was taught to her by her grandmothers. It is also therapeutic and an outlet for self-expression.
As a designer Susanna is inspired by nature, architecture, fashion, yarn, other crafts, movies and TV shows… anything and everything. Susanna’s design style is modern but natural. She loves experimenting with different techniques and testing unusual combinations.
For this issue, Susanna designed Viiva. It is a warm, woolly jumper in a classic sweatshirt style.
INYOUNG KIM
Inyoung Kim never thought of becoming a designer when she was young – she imagined herself as an engineer or a science teacher. But in fact she has always loved to do things with her hands, calculate and create something new.
Inyoung is based in Seoul, South Korea, but every summer she spends two months in Girona, Spain. As a designer she is fond of colours, so she does a lot of colour-mixing in her work. She also enjoys modular knitting and geometric structures – she loves their balance and regularity.
For this issue, Inyoung designed the Wider sweater. It is based on a large sweater that both of her parents wore in the 1970s.
HANNA MACIEJEWSKA
Hanna Maciejewska lives in a small village in Poland. She describes her design style as “combinable classics in a smart fit, with an affinity for texture”. Hanna can spend hours browsing Pinterest, Tumblr and similar sites, checking out current fashion trends. Other important sources of inspiration are her big garden and the forest nearby.
Yarn stimulates her a lot, too: its texture, colour and all the possibilities it can offer. If a yarn doesn’t “speak” to her, she tends not to work with it. And Hanna is so picky about finding just the right colours, her husband opened his own dyeing studio in their garage!
For this issue, Hanna designed Kodikas: a top-down pullover with a textured pattern on the front.
MARIYA MATVEEVA
Mariya Matveeva lives in the Russian city of Kaluga, but her family comes from Orenburg. Mariya learned to knit as a child – watching her grandmother dye wool from goats and sheep, spin fine thread by hand and knit weightless Orenburg shawls. Now Mariya herself dyes yarn for bright and unusual projects. She especially likes to design shawls, scarves, berets and hats.
Mariya tries to come up with something new in each of her projects and does not like to repeat knitting in her work.
For this issue, Mariya designed the Simple Dimple shawl, which is inspired by the graphic patterns of the cityscape in her hometown.
PAULA PEREIRA
Knitting fascinates Paula Pereira in many ways – particularly the architectural aspect of how the stitches are chosen, created and positioned. Paula works at her home in São Paulo, Brazil. She always aims for a great fit, smart details and beautiful finishings.
Paula loves to make textures combining simple stitches so that they look beautiful and are accessible to all. She describes knitting as a “mini-laboratory of life”: it is a way for her to be aware of her reactions when things don’t go the way she imagined – how to move forward or take a few steps back.
For this issue, Paula designed Dracena: a comfortable cardigan with contemporary colours and texture.
MAIJU RÄSÄNEN
Maiju Räsänen grew up surrounded by yarn. Her grandmother was a skilled crafter who supported herself with knitting, crocheting and sewing. As an adult Maiju ended up working in art education and art therapy. It was only recently that she realised that designing knitting patterns can combine many of the things she finds important: maintaining a tradition, the joy of creativity, supporting the DIY culture and the positive impact of crafting on the human mind.
Maiju lives in Vaajakoski, Central Finland. She likes to design casual and simple garments with details borrowed from the craft tradition.
For this issue, Maiju designed Juoseppi: a casual, oversized and modern unisex knit with centuries-old symbolism.
GRISELDA ZÁRATE
Griselda Zárate started selling her knitting patterns in 2017, but she had been designing garments and accessories long before that for herself and her loved ones. Griselda lives in Monterrey, Mexico. She is inspired by art, literature, nature and architecture, and aims for comfort and simplicity in her designs.
Knitting has offered Griselda a way to introspect and, in a way, to meditate, as the rhythm of the knitting needles prevents her mind from wandering. It also connects her with happy childhood memories when her mother was teaching her and her sister how to knit and purl.
For this issue, Griselda designed Beloved: a cosy and comfortable cardigan knitted in two-colour half-brioche stitch.