The
Occitan Kits have proved incredibly popular and have generated lots of interest in both Beth and TUT yarns. It is the first in a series of collaborartions that I am very excited about. Beth is a wonderful designer whose accessories are stylish and a joy to knit. I invited Beth to answer some questions for the blog so that you can get to know her a little better. Here's what she had to say:
The stage is yours, tell us a little about yourself!
I grew up in a suburb of Chicago and from early on, developed an abiding love for reading, writing and dance,
which led to my getting my BA with a double major in English with a
Creative Writing Focus and Dance Choreography/Performance.
Neither of these particularly helped me in my first real job out of
college: Assistant Production Manager of the local newspaper’s
advertising department, which required me to do graphic design and ad
layout. I’m still not sure what made them think I was a good candidate
for the job, but I’m grateful that they did, because I loved that job,
and now I can’t imagine not knowing about and paying attention to good
graphic design. Ever since, all of my jobs have involved graphic design to varying
degrees, though most have also had a liberal dose of writing thrown in
for good measure. However, I make a lousy office drone. Corporate America is not for me.
Fluorescent lights and corp-speak buzzwords (synergy, anyone?) make me
twitchy. Which could explain why I now work from home…for a yarn
company.
Next month (July) I will have been married for 12 years. I met my
husband when we worked in the same coffee shop over the summer after my
junior year of college. The story goes that I won him over by asking him
if he’d like to split a piece of chocolate cake with me after our
shift.
Also, I have an unreasonable affection for garlic.
I also have an unreasonable affection for red wine, and for finding
good ones that taste like they ought to cost more than they do.
I think my affection for our two retired racing greyhounds Ronan and Quinn is perfectly reasonable.
Oh and also, my name is Beth, and I’m a yarn-a-holic (see comments about Ravelry and Etsy, below).
What’s your knitting journey so far?
My mom tried to teach me knit when I was about 7, and I recall I
produced some pretty unwearable, 3-foot-long, “sampler” style scarves,
but knitting didn’t really stick until much later, because 7 year olds
are not particularly good at sitting still. I picked it back up again after college, when I was looking for
gifts to give that were inexpensive (little did I know), but still
handmade.
I discovered Knitty and then I discovered Ravelry..... Ravelry led me to Etsy and indie yarn dyers. And lo, an addiction was born.
How did you start designing and what is your favourite part of the process?
My first official design was for Dream in Color’s February 2011
Dream Club – that was the
Pleiades Shawlette, and I did it because they
asked. But, I’d say I was already leaning in that direction, because for years, I’d been modifying
existing patterns and designs to adjust them to my personal style and
aesthetic.
Was there a particular inspiration for Occitan?
Ce and I knew we wanted something that would be both appealing from
a design perspective, and approachable from a knitting perspective. A
shawl with a stockinette body and lace edging seemed to fit the bill. I
wanted to play with increase methods that were a bit unusual (for a
shawl, anyhow), which led to the swirly increases in the body of the
shawl and working to find a way to make those increases flow organically
into the lace.
What drew you to working with TUT yarns and a collaboration?
TUT was one of the first indie dyers I knew of to start using what
I’ve been referring to as “the new luxury bases.” MCN blends had been
around for a while, and don’t get me wrong, I still use a lot of
MCN blend yarns, but Ce was (and still is) dyeing up these stunning,
subtly-variegated colors on other bases too. Bases that had blends like
alpaca-silk-cashmere. Divine. Truly. So, in short: beautiful, useable,
wearable colors on unique bases is what sold me on the yarn. And Ce is
such a warm, genuine, easy-to-work with person, that the whole
collaboration was just a natural fit [edit: thanks Beth].
What else can we look forward to from you in the future?
I have a couple of hat patterns waiting in the wings that should be
published sometime late this month, or early next month, and another
shawl design on the needles as well. But what I’d really like to do
sometime in the next year is venture onto sweater design. It feels very
big and scary to me right now, but I have too many ideas brewing for
sweaters not to give it a go.
A huge thank you to Beth for supplying such great answers, so full of her character. If you would like to purchase your own Occitan Kits, you will find them listed on my
Etsy shop or check out the
Ravelry Group News thread for regular update news.
Next is Stringygirl's take on Veera Valimaki's 'Line Break' pattern: a beautiful swirl of a shawl.When I asked if I could share this FO, Stephanie admitted that she's obsessed with this FO and wears it almost every day. She also admitted that she already has another shawl planned in
this base! It's always so nice to hear such a positive reaction to my yarns, thank you Stephanie. The yarn is the Heavenly Fingering which is a smooth, plied and incredibly soft mix of Alpaca, Silk and Cashmere. The colour used here is called 'After the Rain' and is ideal for such a solid wrap. 
Daily knit this wonderful sweater using the heavier weight Lush base, Lush Worsted, another MCN base with great stitch definition and a smooth ply. The pattern is called 'Shellseeker' and is designed by Heidi Kirrmaier. Daily worked her version up in the 'Teasmoked' colourway, a dusky pink, along with a darker Madelinetosh Vintage yarn to create strong stripes. Daily clearly loves the teasmoked colourway as her pattern notes include a great description of her 'prettiest yarn in the world' and it looks great with her colour choice for contrasting stripes. 
