DESIGNING BY INTUITION

Crochet garment designer Kristen TenDyke tells us how important it is for her to really ‘feel’ a design to get it just right…

- Hannah Cross

Sometimes it’s easy to just focus on the look or colours of our crochet garments we make, but have you ever planned a project by thinking how it will make you feel when you wear it? Kristen TenDyke approaches her design process by really considering how a piece will not only visually or physically feel, but also how it will impact on your emotions. By tapping into these feelings, she is able to use her technical skills and experience to bring about a magical mixture that creates elegant, wearable and simply stunning designs. I was lucky enough to speak to her all about it.

IT ALL STARTED WITH DESIGN

Kristen’s career with yarn started when she worked for Classic Elite Yarns in 2005 as a graphic designer and technical editor. Her experience there led her to start designing for books, magazines, yarn companies and she self publishes too. Kristen was taught to crochet by her mum as a child but didn’t know patterns existed until she began working in the world of yarn. “My mom instilled the idea that I could create what I imagined. When I learned to write patterns, a new world opened up, where I could share what I imagined with other crafters, so they could make it too.” In 2014 Kristen made the shift from full-time technical editor to full-time designer and is incredibly successful for obvious reasons; her designs cry out to be made, worn and loved.