Louisa Harding was taught to knit by her grandmother at age six, 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.

AUTUMN WINTER 2009-10
posted September 24, 2009

The inspiration for the new collections started as usual with seeing a strange and interesting thing………….. Near where I live is a road called ‘Little Cake’. Every time I pass that road I wonder what could possibly be at the end of it, is it a big cake? Is it a house made out of cake? Could it be the lane to the old village bakery? With this curious question began the ideas for this Autumn Winter’s collections.

Taking my lead from Lewis Carrols’ ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ and the beautiful landscape around where I live I have combined the idea of childhood fantasy and storytelling with introducing beautiful new yarns, colours and designs. Muted mélange shades in the softest yarns made from natural animal fibers make up the two new yarns. Thistle, which is not thistle like at all but the softest Baby Suri Alpaca and Merino mix ever felt and Willow Tweed, a Merino and Alpaca mix yarn with undyed natural silk slubs.  

‘Little Cake’ centers on the two new yarns for this season, Thistle and Willow Tweed. The twenty designs in this book take their inspiration from the hills and moors around where I live, the heathers on the hillsides. The story told is eccentric and there is an air of Alice’s early adventures in Wonderland where Alice drank from a bottle which made her shrink, spied a ‘little cake’ saying ‘eat me’, and visited the ‘Mad Hatter’ who was in the middle of a tea party. The designs in ‘Little Cake’ are for very feminine garments and accessories, as always the attention to detail is very important, not only the choice of the knitted stitch but also the fit and the soft pastle colour palette chosen which enhances the silhouette of these pieces.

‘Queen of hearts’ is inspired by the the meeting of Alice and ‘The Queen of Hearts’ who is insisting her Naves paint all the white roses red. All twenty projects in this book have some sort of heart motif, not always obvious, and not always knitted, embroidery and embellishment are key elements in this collection. The feel is quirky English Glamour fit for the ‘Queen of Hearts’ with modern eclectic and contemporary styling. The yarns used in the collection are Grace Hand Dyed, Grace, Mulberry, La Salute, Hulda, Sari Ribbon, Kashmir Baby, Kashmir DK and Kashmir Aran. The designs mix the yarns and the shades in wonderful tone on tone, texture on texture patterns, cables, lace and fairisles. 

I had great fun putting these collections together, I hope you enjoy the designs and the stories,

Louisa X

Quick Spring Hello!
posted June 23, 2009

This is a great time in a designer’s year for reflection – if only for a few moments.

The Spring Summer 09 collections are in the Stores and the Fall Winter collections are being ‘put to bed’, the final ‘tweeks’ being made before sending the books to the printers…..prior to embarking on the Spring Summer 2010 collection…lots of ideas swirling around in my head.

I have just returned from the US where I was showcasing the new fall collection of books and yarns to retailers, a great opportunity for me to talk to those working with my collections day by day, giving me feedback and passing on customer comments.

Designers work in isolation for most of the time so all comments are greatly appreciated. Now looking forward to Summer 2010 I have many ideas buzzing and fluttering around that it is like sitting in the garden watching the bees and butterfly’s, I just need to catch them and get them down on paper before the summer rushes past too fast.

Now, back to ‘tweeking’ the fall books, I had so much fun working with the new yarns, the designs and photography, enjoy the summer and watch this space….’

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.