An Interview with designer Aleks Byrd
This week we are chatting with Aleks Byrd about her design work, background and collaborating with us on a Yarnadelic special.
Tell us a bit about your journey into knitting and your background?
I’m proud to be American, Canadian and Estonian. I grew up in the United States in the Washington D.C. area with an American father and Estonian-Canadian mom. I have always been a very creative person – painting, drawing, sewing, quilting, knitting and more. I learned to knit around the age of 9 from my mom. My Estonian grandmother was a very avid knitter who taught my mom to knit about the same age that my mom then taught me. Like most newbie knitters I made a wonky garter stitch scarf out of chenille which is not the easiest yarn to work with. What can I say, if you let a 9 year old girl pick out yarn for a project, the attraction to something shiny and soft is very strong! I had a pause in knitting after that wonky scarf, as most of my friends at that age didn’t knit. I didn’t pick up my needles again until I was a teenager when I joined the afterschool knitting club in high school. That club was the first time meeting other knitters and realizing you could make friends through knitting. It wasn’t until I was in university studying illustration that I dabbled into knitwear design. The patterns I’ve been attracted to over my many knitting years have inspired, and pushed, me to try new or new-to-me knitting techniques, which is probably why I consider myself a technique knitter. I learned how to do stranded colourwork because I wanted to knit an Estonian colourwork fox hand puppet pattern written by famous Estonian textile artist and family friend Anu Raud. I think if you find a pattern you love, it can motivate you to learn something new – at least that is what works for me. I never follow knitting patterns exactly as written, often changing the yarn and colours and sometimes even the length of a project. I would say that is the creative soul in me wanting to make something my own.
How did that path lead you into designing?
Since I don’t always follow a pattern to the letter that was the start of the slippery slope into designing. What I consider my first pattern, the Vaip cowl, began from that exact thought process. I was on a knitting retreat which consisted of knitting a colourwork cowl. I wasn’t super keen on the stitch patterns used in the cowl and thought I could make something better. Creating colourwork patterns for the cowl opened up the flood gates of translating patterns I’d sketched for illustrations into knitting patterns. I chose to study illustration at university because I wanted to make art that had a purpose and could be used or worn. The simple act of making charts starting with the Vaip cowl showed me how to translate my ideas that might have been used just for illustration into something wearable with yarn.
Where do you find your inspiration?
Most of my patterns are inspired by my Estonian background and heritage. I’m a technique lover which is one of the things I enjoy most about knitting. There is always something new to learn and try! Estonian knitting has so many interesting and unique techniques that are largely unknown in the wider knitting community. My Estonian family are very creative and we like to collect, possibly one could say hoard, books. I grew up with a lot of books on various topics including textiles and knitting and I have continued to expand the collection. Many of these books are from the early 20thcentury. I enjoy the puzzle of reading the minimal details about a technique and then trying to figure out how it works and how it can be knitted in a modern style – it’s the best kind of puzzle! I use my collection of books as well as my curiosity about old and traditional textiles as inspiration. My patterns are often a blend or collage of different elements, from a new favourite technique, museum archives of traditional knitwear to photos or sketches of small details from architecture.
What do you like to get up to in your time that you’re not working?
I’ve recently gotten back into reading. I enjoy reading a few chapters before going to bed each night to escape and let my mind wander. Living in Bath, I’m spoiled with a lot of amazing independent bookshops. I love a good mystery novel with twists and turns to keep me guessing. I’m also a very keen traveller. I like to say that I live on an island (the UK) in between all my family and friends based largely in Europe as well as USA and Canada. While travelling, I enjoy sketching, mostly of architecture I find interesting. I got into this when one of my professors introduced me to reportage illustration – creating illustrations on location of events and places. I had a few memorable trips with that professor during my degree, including illustrating the various parades at each Disney World park in real time. Fortunately, there is a Bath Urban Sketchers group which meet to sketch places around Bath that I try to attend when I can to keep up this practice.
How did you find the process of designing your own shade for the Mill Open Weekend?
I loved the process of designing a shade! I’d been on a mill tour at the previous Mill Open Weekend, so had a bit of an idea how the overall spinning process works. What was so eye-opening was doing the test blending by hand with the core fibre colours, but I’m not a spinner, so brushing the fibre with hand carders took a bit of practice. I loved weighing off different tiny amounts of dyed fibre to create a mixture of just 1 gram to blend. The smallest change in percentage of a certain colour makes so much impact on the end result. It was a little like blending colours from my painting days. I made about 10 different colours with two different colour schemes with small variations between all of them.
Tell us a bit more about your shade, what inspired the colours you chose?
I wanted to create a shade that had a lot of different flecks and colours running through it like Yarnadelic’s Black Gold of the Sun. Those complex colours are really enjoyable to knit with as they add so much depth to a project or pattern. I also love complex colours because it feels like you have more than just one colour! Dark Star is like the warmer chocolatey version of Black Gold of the Sun with tones of red, yellow, and bluey purple running through the warm brown. I mostly use multiple colours in a design, so I wanted my shade to be something that could pair nicely with other colours including the rest of the Yarnadelic range. During the process of creating a shade, I had the idea for either a cool colour in the teal /minty teal range or a warmer shade that was more towards a copper. These are the types of colours I usually gravitate towards and happen to complement my hair colour too. Ultimately the final colour choice came from playing with test blending by hand. It started off from an initial coppery, coral colour I made, which I then played with by adding a bit more black to make a moodier version. I immediately fell in love with it once the blend was carded. The colour has so much depth to it and it reminded me of the music my dad loves from the 70s that was played on the long car journeys of my childhood. Songs filled with a warm richness and layered sounds like Dark Star by Crosby, Stills and Nash.
Have you used Yarnadelic before? What do you think of it?
I have used Yarnadelic in my sweater design Vormsi as well as a new sample of my Saar vest using my custom shade Dark Star. Yarnadelic is a great yarn! I love that many of the colours in the range are not fully blended so you have flecks of lots of different colours running through them that gives it a heathered look but the yarn has the squishy softness from the Corriedale. This yarn also has great stitch definition which I have put to the test with twisted stitches, knitted braids and colourwork.
What do you think you would make in your yarn? Which of your patterns do you think would work well in it?
Oh, there are so many things I can think of that it will be tough decision to pick one! I’m definitely thinking a jumper, and maybe another vest with the yarn just on its own or with the tiniest pop of a contrast colour. I’ve finished a version of my Saar vest using Dark Star paired with Pink Moon and fellow designer Ysolda’s custom shade Space Talk. The colours knit up really nicely in this pattern. Dark Star makes for a great base or main colour for any pattern, so I think it would be great for the Seli sweater or cardigan, Saar vest, Veski sweater, Kilp sweater, Sitsijakk cardigan and Tiivad shawl. Editor’s note: at the time of writing, we have kits available for the Saar Vest.
Could you tell us a little bit about the class you did for our Virtual Mill Open Weekend? We’re thrilled you joined our shenanigans! (now/soon on our YouTube channel)
I talked about all things colour for the Virtual Mill Open Weekend class! The presentation is an exploration into colour in knitting – how to choose colours and the different techniques you can try with multiple colours. Most knitters face the task of picking colours for stripes or fair isle / stranded colourwork, but there are so many other colourful techniques to try as well. I shared some of my tips and tricks for picking out colours and testing them before knitting a single stitch to avoid any colour picking indecision/regret.
What are you working on next – what does the rest of 2024 have in store for you?
I’m working on a bunch of new patterns to release later this year, as well as running a KAL for my Lilleke sweater designs using new Appledore Aran, Harvest Hues and Yarnadelic.
Aleks’ Links
Website | Instagram | Facebook
