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I can see a little universe in a swatch. I can spend hours on a swatch.

Chris Hartlov

For example, although all parts of her design process are important, it is upon the theme of swatching that Deborah waxes most philo-sophical: “Swatching works for me because it’s my way in,” she says. “Its for morę than gauge. [Swatching] allows me to test linę, edging,

fabric, draping. Everything 1 need to know about a sweater 1 can test before it comes to life. I can see a little universe in a swatch. I can spend hours on a swatch. And many times 1 don’t get it on the First try and have to move on to something else.” Per-haps it’s movement itself that keeps her work fresh.

Given that themes sometimes repeat from pattem to pattem, Deborah makes surę that any

Left: Classic Slant Cardigan, Knits Fali

2004.    Below Left: Galway Guy, Knits Spring

2005.    Below: Tweedy Waistcoat, Knits Fali 2008.

previously used ideas get new life breathed into them. “Say you take the concept of snowflake and you say, ‘Okay, I want to knit a winter sweater with a snowflake. But I cant knock off something I’ve done before; 1 have to do something new.’ You start out with a couple of yarns that might work. Sometimes you commit to a yarn and say you’re going to make it work—that’s often easiest for me,” she says.

Just as she puts a new spin on an existing idea, Dehorah enjoys taking a yarn in an unexpected direction. “Sometimes you want to break a rule and do the opposite of what you expect from the yarn,” she says. A big part of being a successful designer: Present in unex-pected ways. “I ask myself how I can use a yarn in a way I haven’t before. If a yarn might traditionally he used for Fair Isle or a certain motif, I ask myself, ‘Howcan I make that fresh?’ Im always looking for something I haven’t seen hefore in my own work.”

Next, she sketches her design. Deborah is a skilled illustrator and also works with a graphed schematic. “This is when I try to imagine how the design will look in a photograph, as well as mak-ing surę 1 feel it is something people might like to wear and knit. Because I’m not just creating a sweater people want to make—I’m also creating something that needs to engage knitters through a photograph,” she says.

Once Deborah has a elear vision of a design, she presents the idea to editors. “After the design is commissioned, I send yarn to the knitters and ask them to swatch in the patterns. And my instructions will be based on the knitters gauge, not minę,” she explains.

Knitters trust that Deborahs instructions will be as elear and detailed as she can make them, because she knits the entire sweater in her head before actually writing down the pattem. “Clarity makes

life easier,” Deborah says. “I cant just give the swatch to a knitter and say, ‘1 sort of want it to look like this but not quite as long as the last one.’ I have to be absolutely elear about the yarn, the swatch, and the garment, so instructions are of ultimate impor-tance. Minę tend to be less spare than some. I like to include edge stitches, what a knitter might see at a certain point, where a neckline will end. And I never let decreases hap-pen in a random area.”

Deborah keeps in regular contact with her knitters—a dedicated lot spread across the country—exchang-ing e-mails with them at least every other day. Shell ask about gauge and about how a piece looks. “I don’t feel like l’m assigning work. I feel like I’m sharing it,” she says. “Every knitter has her own skills. Some knitters prefer colorwork, some prefer only

Summer 2009 INTERWEAVE KNITS 23