It’s spring, our trade shows are finished and production for next winter is underway. At this time of year, we start to design our new collection for winter 2025.

Throughout the year new ideas are jotted down on post it notes and stuck to the wall. If you don’t write them down, you forget them! I don’t like sketch books I like to see everything visually all at once on the wall.

We then visit all five knitting mills that we work with to discuss new ideas and techniques with the technicians. We the designers are the dreamers, the technicians are the dream makers, and we could not work without each other. Walking round the knitting mill is hugely inspiring, the smallest knitted swatch lying on the floor or an old hat sitting in the corner can sprig ideas for a whole new collection.

When we have a body of new patterns we create a map of the new collection. What shapes and size of scarves, hats, jumpers, cardigans and gloves do we want? How do we want our knitwear to feel next to the skin, does a certain stitch create a soft fabric? What have our customers been asking for? What colours have our customers been asking for? We think about you the customer a lot because ultimately this is all for you!

Back home from the knitting mills it’s time to develop and research our new patterns. We paint sheets of paper with all our yarn colours and cut them up to create paper collage. This is done in conjunction with research visits to museums, galleries, libraries and spending time with my art books. When it comes to final designs, we work with cut knitted swatch collage of the actual knitted fabric colour so we can see the true relationship of the colours. 

When we have a body of new patterns we create a map of the new collection. What shapes and size of scarves, hats, jumpers, cardigans and gloves do we want? How do we want our knitwear to feel next to the skin, does a certain stitch create a soft fabric? What have our customers been asking for? What colours have our customers been asking for? We think about you the customer a lot because ultimately this is all for you!