Knit & Knag Designs

A whole lot of us indie designers on Ravelry are banding together for an Indie-Gift-A-Long (GAL) running during November and December.  It’s already well under way, and there are lots of lovely projects being knit up and displayed in the Ravelry Group.  If you’re not already there, go check it out.  There are lots of opportunities to win all sorts of prizes, and aside from that, it’s great fun to see what other’s are knitting.

One of the other participating designers is Sarah Ronchetti.  Sarah has a number of lovely designs in her Ravelry store including hats, mitts, socks and sweaters.  I had the chance to ask her a couple of questions about her designs.  I rather like the Waihi Socks.

Why do you like designing socks?

I have always loved knitting socks, I love wearing hand knit socks, and I think they make great gifts for others as well as for personal knitting. I love that they can be fairly fast knits, they are practical and you can combine stitch patterns in ways that you wouldn’t on garments. I also have large(long) feet, and finding well fitting bought socks is not always possible.

I am inspired by lots of different things, often the colour of a particular skein is the jump off point, although my designs do tend to change from imagination to needles.

How do you decide what sizes to offer your patterns in?

It really depends on the stitch pattern I am working with and the sizes are sometimes limited by that. I try and do at least 3 woman’s sizes for a feminine pattern, knowing that the women in my family alone would need those different sizes.

I enjoy the grading process of socks, I’ve recently created a few formulas that are working for me in writing up the patterns and that seems to be saving me some time.

How has your GAL experience been?

I’ve really enjoyed the GAL – My most popular patterns have been Alec and Alec XL, but its been lovely to see my Hutt Valley Hat and Mitts which have been fairly quiet, be knit up and loved!

What’s next for you?

More socks! I have a new sock pattern coming out next week, and a few more lined up for the new year as well!

If you would like to win a copy of one of Sarah’s patterns, please leave a comment on this post with the name of the pattern you would like to win before midnight on Dec 18, 2013.  I will select a winner (by random number generator) on Dec 19.