Louisa Harding Louisa's grandmother taught her to knit aged 6, but like many children she didn't have the attention span to take it any further than learning the basics of knit and purl. When Louisa earned a degree in 'Textiles for Fashion' at Brighton, she initially thought she would be a printed textile designer, but quickly fell in love with the creativity of hand knitting where every knitted stitch can control the shape of the garment. She still loves to explore how stitch combinations can change the shape of the fabric. She is a designer who uses the medium of hand knitting to create designs for fashion garments; or better said: she's a designer first, then a knitter.

Some thoughts for spring
posted February 7, 2008

I can't say that I have a favourite technique. It is usually a combination of three factors that determine the stitches I use. Inspiration, Yarn and who the design is for. In my publications I always work to a central inspiration theme.

This season the book 'Dauphine' was inspired by Sophia Ford Coppola's beautiful and feminine film 'Marie Antoinette'. I wanted to reflect the mood and feel of this collection in the yarns and designs, soft colours and stitch structures, so I used a lot of lace patterns and fitted garments which enhance this feminine inspiration.

When I was given the opportunity to put together my own yarn range I thought it important to select yarns that really inspired me, yarns that were different from many of those already available. I like to embrace the new yarn developments, to experiment with fibre blends and yarn construction.

For example the Thalia yarn featured in ‘Dauphine’ was developed because I wanted a softer ribbon yarn which is knitted on big needles (8 mm) but as a woman with curves traditionally if yarn is knitted on this size needle it has a very round construction which is heavy and adds bulk when worn. The ribbon yarn when knitted lies flat and is incredibly light, the average sweater takes about 400 grams (8 hanks). The colour palette for the yarn ranges are also designed from a women's perspective, very like how we put together clothes in our wardrobes, so that the shades all coordinate as I often use more than one different type of yarn in each design. The yarns do affect my designs as I chose yarns with women in mind and design for real women. My hope is my yarns and designs appeal to an attitude of mind not a specific age group.

I work on two yarn and design collections a year. These are launched in February for Spring Summer and August for Autumn Winter. The yarns that I use for each collection are seasonal with the cotton based yarns used for Spring Summer and wool based yarns for Autumn Winter. This is traditionally how the fashion and yarn industries have worked. However, many of my yarns cross over the seasons such as the Sari Ribbon, Impression and the new silk yarn launched this season called Mulberry and featured in Summer Classics, which I am also using in the new up coming Autumn Winter collection, a year round fibre.

If you were to ask me who I would love to design for and have knit my garments I would choose Elizabeth Bennett from Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice', reason - I see her as such a positive female role model. She is strong minded, independent and practical, she is creative and appreciates others who are also creative. She has confidence in her own choices and still has a romantic heart. Although Elizabeth Bennett is fictional this is the woman I design for, I see her in myself, my mother, my daughter and my nieces and many other women who embrace their creativity and take pride in their skills as knitters and garment makers.