The Process of Creating the Highland Collection
In May, we showed our new Highland Collection at the H+H trade show and we were so gratified by the response. It highlights our new organic cotton yarn colors: Sherbert, Lilac and Maple, as well as the talent of our team of knitters and crocheters.
A special shout out goes to our lead knit designer, the boundlessly creative Rachel Nash Law. It was her original faire isle designs that set the style for the collection.
Rachel starts her design process by swatching, swatching and swatching.
Of course, we had to have the local knitting circle weigh in on the options.
We have been finding knitters love soft neutrals, particularly for baby, so she created these swatches for consideration. We all loved these, yet wanted to incorporate one of our new neutrals: maple and she sent us these samples:
We loved them!
We asked Sue Cahn, a very skilled test knitter, to follow Rachel’s pattern, yet use a pastel colorway featuring the new sherbert and lilac.
Not only is the test knitting vital to getting the pattern right, it also lets us know the yarn usage for the designs so we can provide that information on the pattern and package our kits with enough yarn.
Adding inspired knit designs and patterns to the kit…
Our “bread and butter” are our knit kits and we had never done one with using just small amounts of yarn colors, so we weren’t sure how to package it.
Spinning small amounts of yarn for what was needed for the colorwork in the pullover and beanie was going to be very time consuming, yet putting full balls was going to leave so much extra yarn. Rachel came up with a brilliant idea: offer accompanying patterns that use the colorwork yarn. Her design idea: hand puppets! They are so fun for children and can be used as a wash mitt at bath time. Plus, the knitting techniques used to make a puppet are the same as making socks, so a knitter could add some new skills too.
What kind of puppet. Because of our Scotland inspired theme, we thought of the Loch Ness Monster! In no time, Rachel had created “Nessie”. And then she added a Lamb puppet, that we named “Fergie”. We are in love with these puppets!!!
Our intrepid graphic designer, Abby, suggested that instead of adding the puppet pattern to the Pullover & Beanie pattern, which would have made the pattern book length, knitters who purchased the Highland Kit could access as a download on our site.
The other pattern Rachel designed to use the colorwork yarn is a “Mum” beanie to coordinate with the baby’s pullover and beanie. So charming.
Of course, we have to add baby blankets to the Collection…
Rachel also proposed a “old shale” stitch blanket, which is a stitch pattern associated with Shetland lace and its traditional knitting roots. Many American knitters call the stitch “Feather and Fan”. There are some subtle differences between the two: the “old shale” is slightly easier to knit since all the lace stitches are on the same row, while “feather and lace” uses p2tog or ssk , depending on the version.
We arranged a test knitter that we’ve been working with for years, Kristy Marzsal, to knit a full blanket. Along with seeing how a full blanket looked, test knitting also confirms pre and post gauge. Here are Kristy’s notes on gauge.
Once we saw the full blanket, we knew it was a winner, yet we needed to also show it in the pastel colorway of the Collection. Our super knitter/designer Rachel took it on. Here is the “unboxing” of her pastel sample:
They are a beautiful pair!
Let’s add another baby blanket to the Collection!
At the same time our most prolific baby blanket designer, Linda Gavaldon, approached with a new blanket idea: a sampler of stitches. The Pick-a-Knit blanket that Susan Ernst designed has been one of our most popular blankets. It uses simple knit/purl stitches that are easy for a somewhat new knitter and also makes for an interesting texture. We knew adding a similar blanket to the Highland Collection would be a hit.
We went back and forth and back and forth on which stitch to put where, how big the panels should be, and, of course, what color to use. And since we already had a “Highlander blanket” planned in the Collection, we named this the Moorland blanket. A moor is a tract of open uncultivated upland, which there is a lot of here in Appalachia and in Scotland.
The first test blanket Linda did incorporate a panel of lilac, since that was a contrast shade in the faire isle stitches, yet it didn’t work:
(Sue Cahn did the second version, which was quieter and pretty.)
Here we are trying to decide the colorway of the maple version.
We must add crochet designs to any of our Collections...
So we put our intrepid crocheter, Donna Myles on the assignment. She came up with a lovely coordinated set of crochet pieces: a baby jacket, hat and bib and we are calling it the “Crochet Wee One Set”.
(Note: we added Donna’s crochet bucket hat to the mannequin here.)
We loved it, yet felt it needed a little “pop” detail. In no time, Donna crocheted a sweet kitty that was applied to the bib. This little pocket also serves as a “binky” holder!
Look... here's the binky in the kitty pocket!
When knitwear and crochet designer Edie Eckman saw the collection at the H+H show, she said it needed a crochet version of the Highland blanket…..and she was right. In a matter of weeks, she sent us a lovely sample of a crochet feather and fan blanket. And for good measure, she also designed a crochet beanie!
In one of the last packages we received from Rachel on the Collection, she inserted the sweetest little kitty, (below) inspired by one her grandmother had made.
As she notes, she “tested it with my 3-year old granson. The 1 st thing he did was hug it, the second—twirl it around by the tail!”
Donna, our crochet designer AND Rachel’s cousin, was inspired to do a crochet kitty to join the feline family!
Out of all this craftsmanship, creativity and collaboration, Appalachian Baby Design’s Highland Collection was born.
