Spotlight On: Knitting Style

When I sit down to knit, I often listen to a book on Audible or stream a mystery series. In the last few months, I have added a video podcast to my must-watch list, Wool Needles Hands, hosted by Tayler Earl.

Tayler lives outside of Las Vegas and is the owner/dyer of Fiber for the People, and has a knack for creating engaging videos weekly. The episodes are well-planned and edited, and I always walk away with a nugget of knowledge or inspiration for future knitting projects. She highlights all types of yarn, her line, big box craft stores, and LYS offerings. Her show always has a theme: one-skein knitting patterns, knitter's good advice, textured sweater patterns, etc. And her craft room, where she films, is a feast for the eyes. I always have a pad and paper ready to jot down any tips and pattern inspo!

One recent episode she released, 7 Steps to Finding My Knitting Style, really captured my attention and led me down a fun path of creative musing. She talks about looking at things that inspire you: colors, textures, nature, things you have in your wardrobe that you especially love. It can be anything. Then, you take that inspiration, put a name on it, and create a mood board. 

Her 7 steps are as follows:

1. Define the Vision
2. Label the Vision (Give it a name!)
3. Gather Inspiration
4. Develop a Color Palette
5. Develop a Texture Profile
6. Consider the Yarn
7. Synthesize it all into a knitting aesthetic mood board!

I don't want to go over these points in this blog post because she explains them perfectly in her video. But let me tell you about my process.

I am traditional when it comes to my clothes.  I love jeans, sweaters, and loafers or ballet flats.  I grew up wearing a uniform and am very comfortable in a narrow set of parameters. I like natural colors with a bit of pink and red thrown in here and there. 

I collected photos on Pinterest and made a mood board for my fall/winter knitting style. Cables, jeans, browns, greens, dark academia interiors, books, coffee, and my dog. Then, I uploaded everything to Canva and used one of their mood board templates to create my Fall/Winter Knitting Style board.  

Now that I have my inspiration board, I plan to translate that to my knitting. In fact, the Moby Slipover that I am knitting right now fits in perfectly! 

I have a lot of autumnal colors in this mood board; however, when I go to create my spring/summer mood board (which I will do for you all at the start of spring), some number of the photos will remain. I will change the background color to something a bit lighter, change the flower arrangements and the autumn leaves to something more coastal, and add a bit more rosy colors. But that color palette on the left, the photo of jeans and loafers, the shot of the library/coffee shop, and Bash, of course, are my staples. 

This project was so much fun, and I hope I have inspired you to create your knitting-style board. If you are so inclined, email yours to us at hello@monarchknitting.com.  We might share it in our Instagram stories.