Designer Interview - Rebekah Evelyn

As part of the Indie Design Gift-A-Long I have had the pleasure of interviewing Rebekah Evelyn, a 16 year-old who has recently emerged on the design scene. I only wish I had started that young!


Where do you get inspiration from for your designs?
This is a question I always find hard to answer. Almost anything can be inspiration for a design-my family, friends, nature and that person wearing knitwear on their errands! I often come up with things in the middle of the night… and hope I remember them when I wake up. :)

What is your favourite type of item to knit and/or design?
Another tough one. :) I find myself drawn to fingerless gloves or mittens a lot, even though I enjoy making a good variety of items.


Diagonal Rib Mitts

Do you have anything you are working up the skills/courage/whatever to create?
Garment design. I think I’ll just have to take a leap of faith. Having a tech editor eases my fears, but I do have to get the pattern together first.

Do you have any big design goals - being published in a particular magazine, writing a book, etc?
I would love to be published in Knitscene-one of my favorite magazines as a knitter. The designs are fun and trendy, with classic elements.

Of your designs, which one is your favourite so far?
I can’t pick a favorite of my designs. I’d risk offending them. :)


Strawberry Patch Handwarmers
I think these are rather cute, I'm a bit of a sucker for strawberries though.

What is your favourite yarn - content, weight, etc?
I would say worsted-it’s a good weight for a lot of different items. Alpaca is my favorite fiber-it’s so soft.

Are there any particular yarns that you haven’t tried but would like to?
I have some Madelinetosh in my stash that I haven’t knitted with yet. I plan on trying it next year.

What is your favourite part of the design process?
Knitting! Seeing my ideas coming to life is a lot of fun.


Braided Possibilities
I think the concept here is fun, I can just imagine how fun it was to experiment and find that it really did work!

And your least favourite?
Marketing. I struggle to find the words that really sell it.

Do you do any other crafty things besides knit and crochet?
I’ve tried a lot of crafty things-sewing, cross-stitch, scrapbooking, and jewelry for example. I do them every once in a while. I love to knit because I can pull it out or put it away whenever I want to.

Thanks for having me! I enjoyed sharing my thoughts with you.

As an aside, if you have anything you've been making for the Indie GAL that you haven't posted in the finished objects thread, head over there ASAP, it's nearly over!

Christmas!

Christmas here was a pretty laid back affair, with tasty tasty wild pork roast for lunch. Diet restrictions changed the menu a bit (no cheese, or cheesecake), but we had a yummy jelly for dessert. (Cooked strawberries and blueberries, then made a jelly with a bit of blackcurrant cordial. Will definitely do that again sometime). It turns out that wheat is okay, so I made a sourdough ciabatta to have with tomato soup. Mmmmm.

I made this little guy for the baby:

(Pattern My Little Blowfish, yarn Ashford Tekapo)

And I failed to finish this year's stocking. Here is how far I got:

Next year there will be two new stockings. (I let this one slide a bit, but the next one is for the baby, so I will be putting a bit more effort into making sure it gets done).

I have ordered the next stocking kit, I wonder whether it will turn up before this one is finished!

Food

Well, for the next little while I am not eating dairy, soy or gluten. I expect to have gluten back in time to eat Christmas baking, but I'm not too optimistic about the other two. After 4 days it seems like things may be starting to improve, so fingers crossed that we've found the problem.

And in other food-related news, I prepared the Christmas roast today. Boneless wild pork shoulder, rolled with a paste made from garlic, rosemary, thyme, sage, apple cider vinegar, oil, salt and pepper. It is now lurking in the freezer, waiting to be slow roasted for Christmas dinner. Yum!

I'm debating making a Christmas cake too, assuming I'm fine for gluten then the only change I need to make to my standard recipe is substituting coconut oil for the butter. Christmas cake makes me happy, so long as I can actually eat it.

Not so fun

My (breastfed) baby is showing signs of food allergies/sensitivities. We have been battling eczema that started at 3 months - his face has cleared up nicely with various moisturisers and emollients, but his legs and neck slowly worsen until hydrocortisone is necessary. His gut is not happy either, and he is very gassy. At first I just thought there might have been teeth on the way, but combining all the little things the picture looks like something food related.

We see the doctor again tomorrow, fingers crossed that we can work out a way to proceed.

My poor wee baby.

Doublet

I love putting woollen singlets on my boys, and I wanted something that would be warm and snuggly and keep their chests warm. I had an idea in my head of what I was looking for, and couldn't find it, so I made it myself.

The first attempt worked pretty well, but I had a few minor things I wanted to tweak. The second incarnation was much better, so I made a third smaller one as well.

The yarn I settled on for the final versions was Skeinz Heritage Merino (167m/50g), which is soft and squooshy, and comes in a nice (albeit small) range of colours.


The two final singlets, in 2 year and 6 month sizes.

The upper half of the singlet is worked flat from a provisional cast on, and then the lower half is worked sideways and grafted closed. The overlapping neckline gives an extra layer over the chest, as well as allowing a smaller neckline to fit over a (proportionally large head).


This was a very obliging model!


I had planned to get some nice quiet playing pictures in the morning, but when I looked on the camera this was the best one from the night before! (Trying on daddy's socks).

It was a long road getting this pattern ready to publish, and I thought about just leaving it as a personal pattern, but I figured that if I wanted to keep making them for my boys then there may be other people out there looking for the same sort of thing!

Available through Ravelry for NZ$7.00 (plus a 20% discount until the end of December 10th NZ time).