An Interview with Designer Loraine Birchall

The annual Gift A Long is underway, and I have the opportunity to feature one of the designers, Loraine Birchall.

Hope you enjoy it!

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1. Introduction. Tell us about yourself. 

I'm Loraine Birchall and I design for Woolly Madly Deeply which is my own brand.  The name comes from the movie Truly Madly Deeply with Alan Rickman (see it if you can!).   I'm a Mum to a 19 year old son, Jake. We have two Chocolate Labradors who love to watch while I knit and play with yarn.  We live in Cumbria, not far from the English Lake District and I am lucky to work from home.  I build websites and do some business consultanting. And I do my design work (knitting and some crochet).  I trained a few years ago in Colour Analysis, which I must say changed my life.  

I walk a lot with my dogs - the fresh air gives me chance to think and to clear my head each day.  

2.  How did you get started as a designer? What were some of the steps on your "knitting journey"?

I'm an accidental designer; as a young woman I was stick thin but with broad hips, and nothing fit.  I learned to sew to make clothes to fit my body.  I picked up knitting and crochet as a child from my Great Aunt and my Granny Reid when I was about four years old.  

Fed up with struggling to find things to fit, I started to knit for myself, then for friends' babies, and gradually learned a lot more.   I now have a larger "pear-shaped" body and still struggle to find off-the-rack clothes to fit, so when Anna Elliott suggested it, I submitted some designs to Knit Now Magazine.  I published 17 patterns in my first year and now have over 50 patterns with another 6 in the pipeline.  I am fascinated by construction, how things work, how to make them fit me and that's helped a lot with my garment knitting and design. I'm also pretty fearless, I'll try anything once, what's the worst that can happen, right?

3.  Do you have a process that you follow in developing a new design?

Usually I will either play with the yarn and ask it what it wants to be, then I either dream about it that night, or come back to it in a few days with a clear idea in mind.  This was how the Festive Hoodie Cozies pattern evolved, an idea in my sleep and waking up with an intense desire to make them right away.  

I had the same thing a few weeks ago with the Santa Tea Cozies in 3 sizes, it's not something I would normally make, I'm not really big on home wares but the ideas keep coming.  

For garments, it's usually a practical matter of not being able to find what I want to fit me the exact way I want it.  Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say.  I swatch for small things.  For garments I will use a sleeve for the swatch if it's seamed and just start knitting if it's seamless.  I like to see how the fabric behaves with a larger piece and if I have a lot of that yarn, I might make a cowl and hat first, then do the sweater or garment when I understand the yarn.

4.   What do you think makes a successful design?

I love to see a beautiful design, something that makes me gasp at the clever use of colour, texture or pattern, but also I am so fixed on form and function.   Don't make me a cardigan that falls off the shoulders or the sleeves are so wide I get caught on the door handles.  I need to be able to move quickly and easily, so it has to fit well.   

For accessories, I love to play with cables and when you get a yarn that shows off the stitch pattern and the two work together in harmony, you can't beat that feeling that it just works so well.  Sometimes simple is best.

5.    Do you see any new trends in the knitting world these days? Last year it was all about the "fade"..

In the shops in the UK this year there have been lots of oversize sweaters and a ton of cabled/bobbled knits.   There are lots of warm colours and as an Autumn, I am loving the colours in the stores this year -- it's a long time since I've been able to find just what I want.   Accessories wise, there is a lot of black, beaded, daimante and a great deal of leopard/animal prints in both knitwear and fabrics.  

I saw a lot of scarves today using six or seven strands of similar but different colours to create a lovely marled effect. This was striped with a neutral and worked really well.   I'm not a big fan of oversize sweaters and boxy coats, there's a lot of those this year both knitted and sewn.  Being a pear shape my sweaters need to fit really well at the shoulders and waist, so boxy doesn't do it for me.  It's a trend I won't miss at all.

6.    Favorite yarns to design with?

I love a crunchy wool, or a good superwash yarn, even if they lie when you swatch (they're sneaky little beggars!).   I do use acrylics and blends for blankets and some gifts.  My Mum bless her, could felt a rock and has shrunk so many pure wool hats that I now only give her acrylics.  I'm not as keen on silky smooth yarns, I prefer texture, maybe because I'm a bit abrasive too?   

I bought some Merino/Silk/Yak at Yarndale to knit a shawl and that's fabulous, I do love it, so maybe that'll convert me?

7.       What are you looking forward to in 2020 (knitting wise or other)?

In my day job I published another book and I'm hoping to promote that and do some talks/lectures in the Spring.  

I'll be launching a membership site for the Colour Analysis business which is called Transform My Style and I've already planned out my design work for 2020.  There is an ornament collection planned for September, a seasonal ebook of accessories with a pattern every other month. I am itching to design a cardigan using Barbara Walker's Top Down Set In Sleeves method which I've used before for a T Shirt and totally loved.

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Some of Loraine's favorite designs.

A very popular pattern is the Modular Cardigan, the original in dusty blue is mine.  Which makes me smile as it's the one garment I designed that doesn't suit my shape, but everyone else loves it!

Last year's big seller was the Santa Tea Cozies  as shown above.

I love the Wheatsheaf Hat, I had a great time working on the crown shaping and love how the cables worked out, funny how the process is sometimes the best fun!

Thanks for doing the interview, Loraine!