Test Knitter of the Month - March
Each month I feature a test knitter from one (or more) of my designs!
My hope for a part of this blog is to feature the knitters who spend their time helping me execute a hand knitting pattern. Test knitting, especially garments, are a critical part of the design process and I wouldn’t be able to do it without their valuable feedback.
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.
Sun and Solace Tee
Test Knitter of the Month - March Feature: Joy
How do you identify? I use she/her pronouns, I identify as white, bi, and I grew up in a small town outside Nashville, TN. I spent the last few years living in New York City, where I moved to work in publishing. Then the pandemic upended everything and I moved to the coast of North Carolina where I have access to beaches and fine weather I very ironically rarely take advantage of.
How many years have you been knitting? What’s your knitting origin story? I'll have been knitting for three years in May! I had just started a job in NYC where I only had one friend and I needed something to do with my time other than mainline Netflix. I bought my first pair of needles on the first hot day of the year, and I became so fixated on the feel of the hobby I couldn't put it down. I can remember being so unaware of how bad I was I took a "scarf" I was knitting to a company training, and I just sat there on breaks with no idea I was increasing stitches the entire time. A coworker kindly offered to invite me to the company knitting club and the rest is history.
Which pattern did you test knit? What size, if garment, and yarns did you use? I tested the Sun and Solace tee (which I continue to try to misspell after a Dragon Age: Inquisition character, oops) and the Brush of Color tank. I believe I made a size 7 in both. I'm only just now realizing my main yarn for both was CatSandwich Fibers, though that does make sense for me. I'd frankly buy a wheelbarrow from her if she sold it. I'm obsessed with her yarn.
What is your favorite thing about test knitting or why do you test knit? It's so fun to help with these patterns people will come to love, and it gives me a chance to work with designers I admire! It's a cool way to support their work. On top of that, I'm a Capricorn and I just really love working on a deadline.
What other making superpowers do you have? I recently discovered I can sew. Apparently all the indoctrination my grandma put me through when I was young stuck. She used to stash me under an embroidery hoop and have me pass the needle back to her, and she would often let me create my own odd little projects out of her scraps. It's been a fun way to reconnect with those memories. I started making my own knitting project bags, because I pick up projects more rapidly than I can manage to buy bags, and because I've discovered so many bag patterns are based on fat quarters, which are extraordinarily satisfying purchases.
I'd say my main crafting superpower is being able to turn any hobby or piece of media I'm enjoying into a project. For example, I recently figured out crochet, which I've completely misused to create a very cursed plushie of a minecraft youtuber.
Where can readers find your makes? Typically I would say Instagram (@joy2thewrldd) but lately I've been posting most frequently about what I knit on Tiktok (@joy2thewrld). I accidentally had a tiktok do really well at the end of last year and I left Instagram in the dust. I'm hoping to get back to it given how integral it is for finding knits to test.
What other aspects of life are you passionate about besides making? I am frankly made up entirely of too many hobbies and too little self-promotion. I'm really into video games and programming, and I hope one day to bring my plan to create a knitting video game to fruition. But I'm also a writer with aspirations of eventually publishing a novel. I try to do NaNoWriMo every year, and this past year I successfully finished both NaNoWriMo and NaKniSweMo. It was an extremely productive November and I feel in some ways like I'm still recovering.