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| Sproinger (copyright Alex Tinsley, used by permission) |
But she does more than hats; for example, I really like her Chevzam cowl, Myrta Mitts, and Northern Line short-sleeved sweater. She's also the mastermind behind the very popular Howlcat, a convertible hat/cowl design.
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| Chevzam cowl (copyright Alex Tinsley, used by permission) |
Karen: Hello, Alex! It's great to have you on my blog. To start off, let's talk a little about your own start--how and why did you decide to begin designing knitting patterns?
Alex: I started knitting regularly during college as an attempt to keep myself awake during early lecture classes (success rate: mediocre.) Etsy had just blown up at that point, so I started selling off a lot of my creations on there to make a little extra moola. Soon I noticed that some folks were selling knitting patterns there (this was before Ravelry) and thought, hey, I could do that! So I started selling them alongside the finished objects, and eventually transitioned completely to patterns.
Karen: You've had designs published in several third-party publications, but you also do a lot of self-publishing. Do you prefer one over the other and why?
Alex: I'm horribly impatient. Self-publishing has the benefit of allowing me to crank a pattern out, get it tested/edited quickly, and get it out into the world while I'm still excited about it. Publishing for magazines involves a much longer timeline and a lot more patience. Still, few things compare to the thrill of walking into a bookstore and picking up a magazine with your design in it!
Karen: I hope to someday have that bookstore experience myself, but I agree with you about self-publishing. What influences your designs? How do you come up with new ideas?
Alex: Oh geez, always a tough question... a lot of times I'm riffing off a particular silhouette or structure or stitch pattern that I'm currently interested in. My advanced-beginner/ "relaxing tv knitting" level patterns sell best, which is nice because it allows me to explore one or two interesting design elements at a time--an interesting brim, an idea for a cable--without feeling like I need to combine a ton of them all at once. I also love poking around fashion photos on Pinterest, so sometimes I'll borrow, say, a cuff from a Helmut Lang sweater and see how I can tweak it to serve an accessory.
Karen: Anyone looking at your design portfolio would obviously notice you like hats. But you do have plenty of designs for other items. What makes you decide to work on something that's not a hat?
Alex: Sometimes you just need a change of pace ;-) Occasionally an idea pops into my head fully formed that isn't a hat, so I go with it. Lately I'm more and more interested in garments (though very few have been published yet) at least partially because, well, I want to wear them! And then sometimes I have an idea for a stitch or something that will work better on something flat, or I'm asked to be a part of a shawl club. The one thing I really don't ever design is socks--I love to wear handknit socks but I'm very slow when I'm knitting them and I get a bit bored.
Karen: Do you have a favorite design of yours?
Alex: Hmm... well I have a hat called "Fave" because it's my favorite to wear ;-) I'm also quite fond of Corone, and A Most Bespeckled Hat (which I've worn to raggedness. I'm one of those naughty designers who wears her samples, eep.)
Karen: I like all of those, but Corone is definitely one I'll have to put in my queue! Looking at your website, I see that you are a full-time designer. What did you do before full-time designing? How long did it take you after you started designing to be able to do it full time? Was the transition difficult?
Alex: During college, I started working at an LYS (Twisted in Portland, OR) and after I graduated, I stayed on there for a little over a year, designing part time as well. Eventually me and my now-husband decided to move back to our home state of Michigan, and I took the opportunity to switch to designing full time (so that would've been 2010.) Money was a bit tight there at first (especially when we accidentally moved into an apartment that couldn't get internet access. Um, bad decision!) but we were used to living like broke college students anyway, so it worked out alright. On one hand, working at home can be very isolating...but I'm a bit of a hermit anyway, so it suits me.
Karen: An apartment with no internet access!? Yikes! What can you tell us about your upcoming designs?
Alex: At the moment I'm working through a bit of a backlog - I'll give you a hint, there are some hats ;-) I'm also toying with a new larger "themed" project, but I haven't yet decided if it's going to be a book, or something else.
Karen: I'll be sure to keep an eye out for your upcoming designs. Do you have a favorite yarn that you like to work with?
Alex: Malabrigo and Madelinetosh tend to be my go-tos. I love soft wools with subtle colorings--semisolids and "glazed" dyes especially. There are tons of gorgeous indie dyed stuff out there that fits that category too, I tend to hoard one skein here or there, especially when I'm travelling.
Karen: Those are my two favorite yarns as well! Speaking of Malabrigo, you work as a design coordinator for Malabrigo. How did you land this gig?
Alex: I had worked with Malabrigo yarn quite a bit with my "Go Go Malabrigo" ebooks, and I saw that their coordinator was leaving, so I jumped on it and sent them an email basically yelling "OMG PICK ME PICK ME!!!" And they were kind enough to give me a shot! They are a lot of fun to work with, though sometimes I wish I was in Uruguay handling the yarn itself ;-)
Karen: It sounds like a great experience, or at least as great as can be without getting to roll around in the yarn all day. You seem to be open to sharing about yourself on social media, but I'm sure there are plenty of things about you that people don't know. What's one thing about yourself that people don't generally know or that might surprise people?
Alex: If you follow me on twitter you've probably seen me babble about everything under the sun, heh. Ummm... people might not know that I have a semi-secret witchy-fashion blog (linky- http://stregamoda.tumblr.com/)
Thanks so much for joining me on my blog today, Alex! You can find Alex online at the following places:
Website/Blog: Dull Roar
Ravelry: alextinsley
Twitter: @alex_tinsley
Instagram: bombasinedoll
This was a really fun and entertaining post!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Brenda. I had a lot of fun doing it.
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