Test Knitter of the Month - November
Each month I’ll like to feature a test knitter from one 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.
Golden Horizon sweater
Brush of Color tank
Test Knitter of the Month - November Feature: Mari
How do you identify? she/her, misplaced midwesterner
How many years have you been knitting? What’s your knitting origin story? I've been seriously knitting since 2008. I originally taught myself back in college, circa 2001, but never graduated beyond scarves and fun fur. After I finished grad school in 2008, I moved to the NC mountains to work on a farm and found myself without much in the way of a community. The nearby town had an awesome little yarn shop though, and a quick wander through to look at the colors and pet the wool soon turned into weekly trips to their knitting group to relearn and start expanding my skills. Knitting gave me something to do during a very uncertain and lonely time in my life. And then later, I convinced a few acquaintances who admired my knitting on a group trip to let me teach them; those women became very close friends, even though none of them really stuck with knitting. So knitting has always had an important component of community and connection for me, even though I enjoy it because it's something I largely do by myself.
Which pattern did you test knit? What size, if garment, and yarns did you use? I test knit the Golden Horizon sweater and Brush of Color tank, both in a size 8. Golden Horizon was knit with Nerdy Bird Yarn Erlenmeyer and Brush of Color was knit with Seismic Yarn Pima DK.
What is your favorite thing about test knitting or why do you test knit? I love test knitting for a designer like Tina, who has actively championed size inclusivity. Her responsiveness to feedback and openness to the experiences and opinions of fat knitters make me feel like my test knitting is making a difference, both in the quality of the pattern and the inclusivity of the knitting community. I've knit for other designers who offer their pattern in my size, but aren't always willing to listen when their designs don't meet the needs of bodies that fall outside of a standard size chart. These contrasting experiences make it pretty clear who's designing for every body because they think accessibility is important and who is doing so because they felt pressured. I test knit because it's the best way to support designers who are willing to support fat bodies. One of the biggest excuses I used to hear for limited size ranges was that no one was volunteering to knit the larger sizes and straight size designers didn't feel comfortable grading beyond what they knew. I've got the time, resources, knitting experience, and willingness to sharing my opinions - so I feel it's my responsibility to give that to my community in order to make it a more welcoming place for every knitter, regardless of their shape, size, race, gender, or any other conceivable difference.
What other making superpowers do you have? My family has a long history of making and tinkering, so I think I come by it honestly. I can sew a bit, but mostly stick to things that require a (semi) straight line. I also like to dabble in felt floral making. I made all of the flowers for my wedding several years ago, and got onto a kick of making felt floral arrangements for a few years - I lost my knitting mojo, but it was still a great way to work with color and use my hands. I've also been learning graphic design, which lead me to start Bad Betty Knits as a side thing. I enjoy designing knitting oriented tags and paper goods with a bit of snark.
Where can readers find your makes? I'm on instagram as @badbettyknits and ravelry as @thebadbetty. For those folks who can't use ravelry, I've begun posting my test knits on my website at badbettyknits.com as well.
What other aspects of life are you passionate about besides making? Like most people, the pandemic has put a damper on some of my plans. But I'm really excited to start planning ways to expand my shop at Bad Betty Knits - I like thinking about tools and swag that can help knitters in a practical way while offering a bit of humor. With the holidays coming up, it's a good time to stock up on gift care tags for those non-knitters who are about to become recipients of your hard work.
I also care about making size inclusivity the norm in the knitting community. We've seen a lot of positive change in the last year and a half, in terms of designers expanding their standard size ranges and grading up older patterns. But there are still plenty of people who think we're asking too much to be included. That needs to change. And that movement needs to support other calls for inclusivity in the knitting community. Size inclusivity has probably made the biggest strides in changing the knitting industry out of all the pushes for accessibility, because it's championed by white women and there are some concrete ways to show progress. We need to make sure that we're supporting and not overshadowing calls for the knitting community to be anti-racist, gender neutral, and anti-ablist.