Katie Rempe: Today I'm thrilled to welcome Hannah Mann, the designer behind Dear Ingenue Knitting Patterns. Hannah was self taught to knit in 2023
Hannah: 20 13, 23
Katie Rempe: What did I say? 2013. Yes.
Hannah: I was like, wow, I've made a lot
of progress of time.
Katie Rempe: Yeah. In just two years plus 10 years, she's done a lot. And one day I'll learn to read, but today is not that day. And so what began as a hobby about 12 years ago now has blossomed into a passion and she's creating beautiful and bold designs ever since. If you're familiar with her designs, you might be picturing one of her amazing skull patterns, which May become convenient because that is the topic today.
Knitting with skulls. Welcome, Hannah, to Knit A Spell!
Hannah: Woo. Thank you. It's so good to be here.
Katie Rempe: Light from Lantern presents Knit a Spell. I'm your host, Katie Rempe, designer, knit witch, and your companion in this magical making podcast. Together, let's explore the enchanted world where knitting meets the magic of the craft.
Hannah: Long time listener!
Katie Rempe: Hannah and I worked at the same distributor, and that is how we met. I feel very lucky to have met such a talented person in the midst of, the knitting universe.
Hannah: I definitely feel the same. I'm always stoked like this is my friend, this is her podcast, and I knew her.
Hannah's Designer Origin
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Katie Rempe: You still know me, so that's cool. So I'm curious, you learned to knit, you were around all of us knitters at The Yarn Place. What enticed you? What about knitting was like, yeah, I gotta turn this from being just a hobby into more like a design situation.
Hannah: I've thought about that a lot right when the inkling began. Originally, I started an Etsy store because I just had some kind of motivation and drive to start an income from it, even if it's minimal just to see if I could do that and if that would be possible, because why not?
You have the skill. I did that and it was not very successful. I hadn't really Found my niche or my skill with photography. Really didn't know exactly what my aesthetic was going to be. And it was mish mashed, but it was a good learning experience.
And I did have fun doing it. And I even did a day at our local farmer's market, which was really fun. And then from there I obviously discovered Ravelry when I worked at the same place that you did. And once you have the skill for knitting, and if there's that, little tick in some people's brains that is turned on, the switch is turned on, we're like, Oh, I could make that.
I could design that. You just run with that. I had already come up with my own little designs that I had knitted to sell. So I put those on Ravelry. And they didn't do all that well either, which is fine.
But then I came out with one particular pattern that just took off. It was my first sweater design, witching hour.
And that was when I really found Oh, if I make something that like is really meaningful to me and not just something I think people might want, then that could actually reach like the right audience. Patch of people who. Also think that's really cool. And that's what I did. Then from then on once I had achieved sweater knitting skills, like, why stop there?
Once you have that motivation and like the dopamine reward of Oh, that's so cool. I can't wait to knit it. Like, how can you stop?
Katie Rempe: I think this is a road that many of us designers go down initially where we're like, oh yes, a stitch pattern, a square, this is my design now, or whatever basic thing, and what you said is very good for everyone to keep in mind. When you design for everyone, it's enticing to no one.
Hannah: Some people it works, but it didn't work for me.
Katie Rempe: That's true. But generally I think when you invest in something that's a little more unique, especially that excites you, that always seems to just resonate with more people. And it's usually the ones you never expect it to.
Hannah: Yeah. Very
Katie Rempe: helps you design that little eye for the future.
Hannah: turns out a lot of people also think bird skulls are really cool.
Katie Rempe: That is helpful.
Crafting with Bones
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Katie Rempe: So we have talked about knitting with bones in a past episode. We had on a local actually in Seattle,Aunt Sindy Todo, who's a professional bone thrower.
Hannah: I remember that episode.
I'm wearing a bone today.
Katie Rempe: That goes perfect into this question, which is Other than knitting things that have bones in the shape of them, like your skulls, have you ever used bones in your crafting or witchcrafting outside of just the design?
Hannah: I guess now that I think about it, I have unintentionally for a really long time. This is a weird story that not many people know. When I was in high school or junior high, I used to walk home from school a lot down these up and down hills and with a pretty busy road that I would pass by, and every once in a while I would come across a deceased crow on the side of the road that was hit by a car, and it wasn't like mangled or anything, it would just be like intact, and I've always just had an affinity for crows and thought they were just really beautiful, intelligent animals, and if I had an extra piece of fabric or like something in my backpack, I would pick it up, And take it home and I would bury it in a very specific spot down the street.
And I never really thought about that being like a ritualistic sort of thing till now. Maybe it was. Not a lot of people knew about it and I've never really talked about it. But it just felt I need to complete your journey somehow or, give you a final resting place and have a ritual for you that maybe you wouldn't have otherwise.
And my mom certainly fosters an appreciation of nature and skulls and just a circle of life. And whenever we would find stuff like that together, we would take them home or, treat them respectfully and sometimes turn them into art or jewelry. I don't find a lot of stuff like that now, but I did find a teeny tiny jawbone recently.
I think it was from a mole. So I took that inside. It's in our curio cabinet right there.
Katie Rempe: oh, so cute.
Hannah: But other than that, I would really be interested in starting more rituals from that and being more intentional about how I interact with these natural artifacts and things, but I haven't reached that spot yet.
I have concepts of a plan of doing this.
Katie Rempe: step at a time.
Hannah: Actually you and your podcast and Jim have like really inspired me to collect more tarot decks and just make more room in
my life for that. It's like still gelling, but it's just, it's harder now. Being a mom and finding space to carve out for that. I thought I didn't have time to do it before, but. I didn't know. I didn't know the reality. So it's all still there. The love and like the appreciation and the wonder for the magic of everything that's life and death is still there.
I have intentions of working more with it, but I'm still working on that.
Katie Rempe: Right now
you're very focused on bringing in life.
Hannah: that's very true. lot of
life.
Katie Rempe: Oh, very interesting. So where I live currently, although not where I am currently We have three barn cats that play outside and murder everything. And so I too have become the servant of laying to rest the animals that are in the yard.
And so I feel you. if you ever miss it too much, just come on down and you can help us.
Hannah: here's
the pile.
Katie Rempe: a ritual and a altar.
Skull Pattern Collection
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Katie Rempe: You have a collection of patterns called skulls, and it's all bold colorwork imagery. Why did you choose bird skulls to focus on? Like, why birds?
Hannah: I think part of it was when I was burying these crows, I was coming of age like early high school, a really formative time in a person's life. And so that sort of became part of my mythology. I was also really obsessed with this movie, this Canadian horror movie about werewolf called Gingersnap.
And it's about these two teenage girls, and the older one is bitten by a vampire and slowly becomes a vampire, and the other one is like Trying to help her really campy but really good. And it's so influential young person. And I like totally adopted how they dress and everything. But they wore these bird skull necklaces.
And I was just like, I need one. So I had one growing up and I always associated with how I felt and what I was. Like to represent, and it really is an interesting juxtapositional symbol, like birds are usually in flight. And so alive and have so much movement and sound and to see like the remnants of one is just totally on the flip side of the coin of that.
And it's interesting to me. And plus it makes a really great shape for a yoke sweater. So that was another selling point for me.
Katie Rempe: Sometimes the practicality is influential too.
Hannah: Absolutely.
Skull Symbolgy
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Katie Rempe: Skulls can represent many things, protection, strength, transformation. What do they symbolize personally for you?
Hannah: I think those are all really accurate adjectives I would also use. And they also they're so tied to like my adolescence. I dealt with some depression as a young person and just like really struggled with what it meant to be alive. And, you have so many hormones like coursing through you at that time of life.
it really felt transformative to be able to come out of that era, and to carry that symbology with me into this scary it was scary for me venture of becoming a knitting pattern designer. Yeah. And really putting yourself out there, putting your face out there and your name and like I hope people like this thing that I toiled over and I wrote that pattern on paper.
I didn't know how to use Excel at the time. And it took ages to grade a pattern on paper. And it was like such a labor of love. And yeah, like having that symbol on the pattern for me it really felt like this is me. This is like the inner me. Birds have always just been, such an incredibly interesting feature of living on earth.
They're so unique compared to so many of the other entities that have inhabited this place.
Katie Rempe: Who among us haven't wished we could fly, right?
Hannah: exactly. Yeah. And we humans just have, winged things so prominently in like our history and our fantasy and our mythology and everything. Yeah. they're just magical.
Katie Rempe: Most of us grow up with a big bird, if you recall, so it seems like a good connection that we've made.
Hannah: That's true too.
Skull Collection Pattterns
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Katie Rempe: So your skull collection is actually four designs now. The sacramental hat, the Megan mitts? The witching hour poncho, which you were just showing us, and the dead of night sweater.
How did you approach the challenge of incorporating these intricate motifs across all these garments that have all these graded sizes? Because grading a pattern is so easy!
Hannah: The easiest thing ever.
Katie Rempe: and if you missed my rant on pattern grading, look at last week's episode, which I will link right here.
Hannah: It's the worst thing in the world, creating a pattern. It's the worst. I hate it.
Katie Rempe: it's not easy.
Hannah: Especially if you're not mathematically inclined which I am not. It's very challenging. Not fun.
Katie Rempe: So when you're designing them, what kind of tips or tricks do you use to help you make it less Overwhelming of a task.
Hannah: I started off with the Witching Hour, which has a very large color work area, large motif. Luckily a bird skull is not too complex of a shape. Once I wanted to scale it down for the hat or the mittens I think the hat and the mittens and the cowl have a, I pretty much just used the same chart that I had made previously for one of those little mini ones and just edited it, based on how many stitches that we need to be and so forth. And just worked with what's the state of this needed to be and how many repeats and all that.
Katie Rempe: You have any tricks that helps you keep track of things?
Hannah: Yes. It's been a really long time since I've designed a pattern at this point. I've been busy. But I, there's a couple great apps or, stuff on your computer that I've found to be really super handy. And one of them was Stitch Fiddle. And I actually paid for the annual membership a couple of times because it came in real handy to create charts.
And you can just basically have as many charts as you want. It's so easy to use. And I did teach myself how to use Excel to grade patterns. And I'm not perfect at it at all. But Sister Mountain is where I learned that. She has blogs on it. It's very detailed. She's an incredible knittier and a really great designer and that was it's been a huge help.
I'm definitely like, absolutely need to use the tech editor and I get very stuck sometimes. But that's just being able to utilize some of the technology that's available. Can be really helpful and Sometimes it is fun to sketch things out and draw out what you want a pattern to look like.
But as far as grading and stuff that I like, you can write out 20 numbers if you want, or you could just click and drag and Excel will do it for you.
Katie Rempe: Boom,
Hannah: just
use the
technology.
Katie Rempe: harder.
Hannah: That's right.
Katie Rempe: Everyone's afraid of AI, but you just got to learn to use it.
Hannah: Sure, every tool has a use, right? Every tool can be abused.
Yeah, don't be afraid to find the right tool for you.
Katie Rempe: Absolutely.
Textures for Future Designs?
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Katie Rempe: so knitting is a unique medium to showcase symbols. What role do textures play in bringing your motifs to life?
Hannah: I didn't start using a lot of texture in my design at first because I was just really into color work and had that as the focus of each piece that I made. But it's been really inspiring to keep up on Ravelry and see what designs people are coming up with that incorporate both texture and color work.
I think I'd really have a lot of fun designing something that did both like with lace and also color work. I haven't tried that yet, but it looks really cool. Otherwise, a lot of the texture I've used is like structural, like with the cowl that's like double sided to use a curl rig to make the turn.
So it's it's really cool. But against the other side or with the hat, have, has usually have ribbing. So you use it structurally there as a function. Otherwise, there's not too many other designs that I've. explored texture with besides just plain like lace or something without any color work, but it is definitely something I want to dive into in future designs.
I think that would be a lot of fun.
Katie Rempe: imagine doing it all and this is probably not going to look good. I was going to say like reverse stockinette, the color work part and then the other part, but that probably would be
Hannah: It might. I actually,
Katie Rempe: Maybe it would be cool.
Hannah: I had a store bought sweater once, like a cardigan, that did utilize something like that, and it had a really cool effect. The pearl side can be really cool sometimes.
Katie Rempe: It's true. Yeah. All right. Who knows what that will inspire? I guess we'll see, in the future.
Colorwork Tips
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Katie Rempe: What advice would you give knitters who are new to colorwork and anxious to try one of your patterns?
Hannah: Don't be afraid to start. Knitting is always one stitch at a time. And if you're really anxious about it just watch some YouTube videos on how to start doing color work. if you have knitter friends or you're in a knitting community. Don't be afraid to ask people, what are your tips and tricks?
Like what works for you? Like a change in tension can be, I only learned about that a couple of years ago, that switching needle sizes, going up a needle size when you do color work can really even things out compared to your. stockinette. And people incorporate that into their knitting patterns. So I started doing that too.
It seems like a great idea to offer that option to knitters who don't know about that yet. I try to write my patterns. It's as much useful information as I think is necessary. Like that Hey, this needle is optional for this reason just to give people who may not know that an extra tip.
Research your community and if things aren't going well, just rock it. You can start over. It's not a big deal. Put it in timeout. Start a new project.
Katie Rempe: I love that. Put it in timeout. Yarn is great because you can rip it off. But out and make it something else. That is so magical. And one of my favorite parts about knitting, you get more value, the more you reuse that yarn, which is something I used to try to convince the people of when I worked at a yarn store, after they had to rip it out a few times and make them feel less bad.
Hannah: It'll keep working with you as long as you want to.
Katie Rempe: Exactly.
Kyle Williams Designs Floating Locking Method
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Katie Rempe: Do you have any float locking tips or techniques that you like to use?
Hannah: yes. I don't know if there's like a specific term for it. I definitely learned some good float locking from Kyle Kunnecke who we also
used to work with. It
was a fabulous. He's an amazing knitter and designer. He has classes online. You can join virtually. I'm sure they might even be in person now.
His designs are so incredibly intricate with their color work. And he has techniques for locking floats like every other stitch, which you can do with this technique, or you can stretch it out a little more, every three or four or five stitches if you want. , I would definitely recommend learning how to do that if you're going to be doing color work, especially some of these designs like this that have such long stretches of one color can really come in handy.
And you don't really want to have puckering and stuff in your final mitt.
Katie Rempe: I hated colorwork until I found Kyle's method. I will link to these amazing demo videos that he has free on his YouTube. But yes, I definitely recommend if he ever has a class or you're interested in learning more from him. Kyle Kunnecke is like the master of colorwork. Thanks, Kyle.
Hannah: We love you.
Alternative Ideas to Colorwork
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Katie Rempe: Let's pretend color work isn't an option. What might be another method you would turn to apply these motifs?
Hannah: Oh Definitely duplicate stitch or like an embroidery for sure.
Katie Rempe: Ooh, do you enjoy doing duplicate stitch?
Hannah: I do And I think it would be really fun to start doing more of it like for personalized kids clothing or something or a cat sweater who knows but for the book that we worked on together for the knitting machine, we did a section on duplicate stitching over machine knitted things. And it was just really fun.
It's cool to pick a yarn and put it over something else. You can create plaid sort of fabrics or lookalike fabrics. You can do cursive if you want. It's just
Mystical Stithes!
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Hannah: So many options and I actually have a really great book I wanted to show you. You probably already know about this book, but it's called Mystical Stitches.
Have you seen it?
Katie Rempe: Not only have I seen it, we interviewed Christy Johnson,
Last season. Yes, she is incredible!
Hannah: amazing. I need to look that one up. But yeah, there's so many amazing options. You can do it. You can use a crochet hook. You could embroider things with a needle. The options are endless. It's
Katie Rempe: She's got a great library of correspondences and things to get your creative juices flowing. She's always doing something on her website, like she's very active.
Hannah: Yeah, it's a really comprehensive book. It's really nice.
Final question for you before we do our color of the week.
Why Finish Projects?
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Katie Rempe: This is a question I have pretty much been asking everyone, because I think it is important for people to think about. Hannah, starting a project is easy and fun, but what motivates you to finish your projects?
Hannah: Where's my needles?
Katie Rempe: Oh! You mean, because they're all on projects right now?
Hannah: Essentially, yeah. Not to say I don't have a humongous collection of needles. But I usually start projects that are around the same gauge, so I'm pretty much always missing the same sizes, unless I finish something. That's one big, pretty big reason, because I want to start a new project, and I need that now.
But also, there, there is a certain satisfaction to finishing a project. It feels like finishing a book that you love. It's disappointing, and sometimes a little anticlimactic, until you block it and wear it. But. You just gotta do it sometimes. You gotta do it. If you're not vibing with that project at all, it's okay to release it back into your stash.
And take that needle back and start something else that you want. But I actually recently started like a big project finishing kick. Since I finished one particular project that took me a really long time. And I finally went into my sad hole of works in progress that I keep them all in. And, it was a pair of socks I'd had finished one and started the other sock. It was like this close from being done for two or three years, so let's start there. Start with something really easy and just keep going. And now I'm on like a really big shawl, like a Stephen West shawl or something.
It's going to take a long time to finish, but it had been in timeout for long enough. I think once you forgive and forget, and you're ready to start maybe frogging a little bit revisiting that pattern it's okay to put things away for a while and come back to them when you're ready. I think it's important even if you don't finish it, just come back to it and resolve it. It relieves something in your brain.
Katie Rempe: Exactly. If you have too many open connections, too many like cracks in the vase, you can't hold any water. Then nothing gets done. And that's a good reminder. Maybe it's time to take some out. Or like you said, go on a finishing spree.
I'm guessing you're not the only one, cause I'm feeling like I've definitely done this on multiple occasions, where you look through your whips and you see you have many. Some are already even finished being knit. You just didn't weave in the ends and block it. There was like four ends I had to weave in.
I don't have time for that. I just finished knitting it for 40 hours. I don't have two more minutes. Okay, so getting the needles back, that used to be a good motivating factor for me too, until I had endless needles in all the sizes I ever needed.
Hannah: which seems like a
good idea.
Katie Rempe: Having creative constraint and limited resources can usually offer better and more creative results. Oops!
Hannah: Plus project bags go missing at some point. You're going to need one.
Katie Rempe: I have never lacked for having a project bag. I'm a bag lady for sure.
Hannah: Do you have stashes of 1 big project bag with a bunch of smaller project bags on it? Grocery
Katie Rempe: Oh, yeah,
Hannah: yeah,
Katie Rempe: yes, of course. And there's multiple sizes of those these are the small project bags, these are the large project bags. Why do I have these project bags? All of the things. Because we have all different size needs and projects and where are we traveling with them and who am I going to be showing them off to?
Hannah: And does it match my project?
Katie Rempe: Exactly. If I had just been smart, I would have used all clear bags so that they were all be guilting me all the time. but I didn't. So maybe in my next lifetime.
Hannah: Yeah.
Color of the Week!
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Katie Rempe: Before we wrap things up, I do a color of the week, basically. So usually I have a bin of them that I choose from, but I don't have it with me. I chose not to bring it to Florida with me. So instead I am choosing the color that we're going to have because I think it's really fun and I want your reflection on it.
So the color of the week is Citrus pop.
Hannah: I knew it.
I knew it was gonna be.
Katie Rempe: know
Hannah: It's just,
Katie Rempe: that?
Hannah: it's one of your colors.
Katie Rempe: I'm obvious. Oh no.
Hannah: No, you're just, it's just one of your colors. I love that color. I love to look at it and knit with it. I sometimes, I struggle with wearing it, but I love looking at it. And I think you and that color are just It goes so well with you. It's just like you're, the tone you have and it's joyful and playful and, but it's also such a natural color.
Like you see it very easily in nature, especially in the Pacific Northwest, like with all the moss and like fresh growth. At first glance, it's very springtime, but if you're in a place like the Pacific Northwest, where it's pretty much green all year round you're going to see moss that color.
You're going to see growth like that. If you go for a walk in the woods, so it really is a living color.
Katie Rempe: Electric almost.
Yeah,
Ooh. it's going to be of growth and energy.
I have a sweater that I haven't finished. Speaking of,
Hannah: Yeah,
Katie Rempe: right yet, I did decide it was going to be a crop top because I was like, I'm over knitting this. I just want it to be done. So it's going to be a crop top and short sleeves because I'm over it.
Hannah: I can relate to that so much.
Katie Rempe: sometimes you just got to make decisions.
Hannah: We don't hardly ever knit like short sleeved sweaters.
Katie Rempe: That's true.
Follow Hannah!
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Katie Rempe: Now that we have talked all about your amazing patterns how can people follow you, keep up with you, what's your website, your social media, all that stuff?
Hannah: it's all the same. Dear Ingenue. D E A R I N G E N U E. com. I'm Dear Ingenue on Instagram. I am on Facebook, just for funsies. Those are pretty much where you can find me. I know Ravelry, you can look up Durance Renew, or Hannah Mann is my name. And I would love to see everybody there, and come say hi, and let me know that you're happy to be there.
I would love to say hello back
Katie Rempe: And if you have knit one of Hannah's designs, let us know, show us pictures, send us links. If you have yet to knit one, but now you're very excited, now you know where to go, and I'll be sure to drop all of the links and resources in the description so that you can find it easily to cast on your next project.
After Show on Patreon!
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Katie Rempe: Remember folks, All season long, every episode has an after show, so you can join Hannah and I, right after this, for even more fun. Five dollars a month unlocks all of the benefits that we have ever supplied on our Patreon, which you can find at patreon.com/knitaspell
So much for coming on. I hope you come back, perhaps? Bye!
Hannah: of course I will. Yes, ask me whenever you want me back. I'll be ready. Bye
Katie Rempe: Awesome. All right, everyone. Until next time, we'll see you soon. Merry make. Bye.
Hannah: Bye.
Speaker: Thanks for tuning in. If you enjoyed the show, consider sharing it with a friend, leaving a review on iTunes or Spotify, and supporting us on Patreon to enjoy exclusive content. You can also subscribe to the Light From Lantern YouTube channel to receive a notification whenever a new episode of Ninispel is released.
And as always, I'd love to hear your feedback on this episode, so be sure to leave a comment on YouTube or on Patreon. See you next week!
