TTK Outfit of the Month - February
Each month I’ll be featuring a knitter from the #ttkoutfit on Instagram!
A part of this blog is to feature the wonderful knitters that spend the time to knit any of my designs. As a knitter first and a designer second, I value the time I spend on the stitches and what my hands create from them. This skill is sometimes underrated and I’ll like to showcase more of what I’m personally proud of being able to do, creating clothes out of yarn. It’s been important for me to connect with knitters, and people in general, on a human level. My hope is that these introductions will help us connect to others that are more than what we see on the surface. It’s heartwarming to see what we can create with our hands and be able to feel great in wearing those creations. It’s a moment of joy and that’s worth celebrating.
TTK Outfit of the Month - February Feature: Verena
How do you identify?
My pronouns are she/her. I was born in Winnipeg to Swiss immigrant parents. I’m mixed race, of Romani ancestry on my dad’s side, Viking/Western Siberian on my mom’s. For simplicity sake, I use the word Romani, although there are many different groups: Sinti, Roma, Kale/Kalo, Gitanx, Romanichal, etc. My dad’s family history is lost (it’s a long story, but a DNA test clarified a lot), so I don’t actually know what Romani group we belonged to. I’ve always had an ethnically ambiguous look: a little too brown to be white, black eyes, very curly hair. My whole life, people have asked me, “What are you?” which, from an early age, made me very aware that I was different. Except for my oldest brother (he and I look like our dad), all my siblings take after our mom. They’re white. No one ever asks them what they are, or follows them around stores to make sure they’re not stealing. They never experienced being looked at with open disdain and called a racial slur by someone speaking our mother’s dialect (by a Swiss woman who never imagined I could understand her!) In some ways, I have had experiences of a marginalized person. But the truth of it is, I was born into a mostly white family, and there is privilege that comes with that, regardless of what I look like. For me, it’s paramount to always be mindful of that, to continually examine and unpack my own unconscious biases and decolonize the way I was programmed to think by the culture I grew up in.
How many years have you been knitting? What’s your knitting origin story?
My mom is an expert knitter that used to give knitting lessons out of our home. She taught me to knit before I learned how to read. So I’ve been knitting for a loooooooong time! I’ve always enjoyed designing my own knitted things, and rarely followed a pattern without modifying it in some way. But it’s only in recent years I’ve started to try and write down my designs into some sort of format that other knitters can follow. I’ve created a few patterns for accessories. But I want to do more. I want to design clothing in all sizes. That was a difficult thing for me to wrap my head around, but I found Tian Connaughton’s (@knitdesignsbytian) book How to Start Designing: Unlock Your Inner Designer, and her blog and podcasts, incredibly helpful in taking my designing to the next level and actually writing down patterns. My biggest roadblock was pattern grading. I know what it takes to make a garment sized for myself because I’ve had years of practice. But I want all my garment designs to include sizing from XS to 5X. All shapes and sizes of knitters (and the people they knit for) matter. Tian gave me some excellent pointers on the math of it all, and I’ll be eternally grateful for her help. I’m happy to say that my first pattern, The Nenya Skirt, will be launched soon: I’m aiming for the spring equinox. As much as I love to design my own things, I’ve also learned that, whenever I follow someone else’s pattern, I learn something new. So I’ve started knitting other people’s designs a lot more in addition to designing my own, and it’s made me a better knitter.
Which TTK pattern are you wearing in your TTK outfit?
I’m wearing the Lunar Revel Shawl, which I absolutely adore! I didn’t make any modifications to this pattern – it’s perfect just as it is!
What yarn did you use?
I used a buttery soft Manos Del Uruguay for the light grey. The dark purple is from Cascade Yarns, found in a sale bin. And that heavenly speckled multi-colored yarn is from Cog Yarns in Regina, Saskatchewan. The colorway is called Rolling Thunder. If I had the budget, I would always buy from BIPOC dyers or their trusted allies, and I do that whenever I’m able. But, my current budget is limited, so out of necessity, I’ll sometimes buy more mass produced yarns, or deals I can find in sale bins or even second hand stores.
What interested you in knitting this pattern?
I was browsing on Ravelry when I just sort of stumbled upon a picture of this shawl and it actually took my breath away! I immediately bought and downloaded the pattern and was delighted to find that it had an all-around i-cord edge, and short rows: two techniques I’m currently obsessed with.
How do you like to wear/style it?
It’s a versatile piece that can be worn in different ways. The shape of it makes it ideal to drape over your shoulders and wear like an open-front cardi on cool autumn days. I also like to wear it as a cozy scarf, wrapped around twice with the ends tucked underneath at the front, and throw a Winnipeg-winter-worthy parka overtop to go play outside in super cold weather (I blame my mom’s ancestry for my irrational love of snow and bitterly cold winters. Lol!) And for an evening-out look, I love draping it over one shoulder over a simple black dress, pinning it to the shoulder with a vintage brooch for some extra glitz. It looks like a glorious butterfly wing and makes me feel so glam!
What other making superpowers do you have?
Creativity is as necessary to my life as breathing air. So, I do all kinds of makey things! I used to draw and paint a lot when I was younger, and still enjoy doing that sometimes. I write a lot, mostly YA fantasy. I love to sew, and have always sewn a lot of my own clothes, whether my own designs from scratch, using a pattern, or upcycling/reinventing an existing garment. And just last year, I finally learned how to crochet, thanks to the video tutorials and gorgeous, beginner-friendly patterns created by Toni Lipsey of @tlyarncrafts. I also love interior decorating, minor home renovations, and furniture refinishing/repurposing. I’m pretty handy with power tools!
Where can readers find your makes?
My makes can be found on Ravelry: username is verenaknitsnstuff, and I also share an Etsy store with my two sisters called Triquetra Sisterhood (it’s named for a tattoo all three of us have on our wrist of a triquetra, an ancient pagan symbol believed to represent the divine feminine). We sell our patterns there, and just recently, I added some of my tiny knitted spell bags for sale in the shop. There’s a link to the shop in my IG, @verenaknitsnstuff, and it can also be accessed through Ravelry.
What other aspects of life are you passionate about besides making?
I’m passionate about reclaiming my lost Romani heritage and raising awareness about the Romani people still battling racism and persecution around the world. I started a new IG account (@verena.talks.to.crows) specifically for posting about being a reclaimed Romani, to connect with and learn from others who’ve had similar experiences (from any cultural background), and for history and education. The vast majority of people know very little about the Romani. I’d like to help change that if I can. I would like people to know that most of the written history of our people is inaccurate, because it was written by white Europeans; the same way the history of the First Nations People of North America, written by white colonizers, is inaccurate. I would like people to understand that Gypsy is a slur. It’s a word with a violent history of forced assimilation, torture, slavery, genocide. Romani people who wish to reclaim the word are the only ones who have any right to use it. I know there are people who say, “You don’t get to claim Romani heritage just because you took a DNA test”, or “You’re not Romani enough.” They’re right about the first one. I have to be very careful about my process of reclaiming my ancestry. I can’t just dive in and call myself an activist like I know what I’m talking about. I had a privileged, white upbringing. I have a lot to learn about my lost ancestry and what it means to be Romani. My heritage was taken away and erased by the violence of white supremacy and forced assimilation. But I intend to take it back to honour my ancestors and the struggles they had. I am Romani enough to do that. I’m not going to start wearing a dikhlo or dancing Flamenco, but I want to spend the rest of my life learning about my ancestors’ ways and honouring them by speaking their truth. Which is also my truth. I want to bring their stories out into the light because it wasn’t safe for them to do it. My dad couldn’t. My grandmother couldn’t. But I can.