Mia Hobbs: Hello and welcome back to series two of the Why I
Knit podcast. My name is Dr Mia Hobbs and I'm a clinical
psychologist who's passionate about knitting and its benefits
for our mental wellbeing. Each episode I interview a different
knitter about why they knit and how it benefits their mental
health. This week on the podcast, I'm joined by Clare
Mountain-Manipon, also known as Sister Mountain. Clare is a
pattern designer who has developed her own Sweater Design
School where she is a mentor for other people embarking on their
journey as knitting pattern designers.
Hi Clare, welcome to the podcast.
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Hello! Thank you for having me.
Mia Hobbs: You're very welcome. It's really nice to see you
again! Because we met... I was trying to think how many years
ago we met at the Loop Knit Night.
Clare Mountain-Manipon: I would say maybe four... five years
ago. It was a while ago, I think!
Mia Hobbs: It was a while ago. Yeah, I think my kids were quite
small.
Clare Mountain-Manipon: I know. And now I have my own kid!
[Laughs]
Mia Hobbs: Yes! How many months is he?
Clare Mountain-Manipon: He is nearly nine months. He'll be
nine months next week. He's growing at an alarming rate.
Mia Hobbs: And how has he affected your ability to do any
knitting?
Clare Mountain-Manipon: I would say it is significantly reduced,
sadly. But obviously worth it. I would say I'm lucky if I get
half an hour in the evening, if that. There are some days when I
am so absolutely exhausted and all I have energy for is just to
flop on the couch. But I do try, because I know how much it makes
me feel good when I knit. I do try to make time for it every
evening.
Mia Hobbs: Yeah, okay. So I usually start with asking where
your story with knitting began. So where did yours start, Clare?
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Well, I learnt to knit when I was a
really young child. It was kind of that typical story. My
grandma knits. She taught me to knit. I knit little teddy bear
scarves and things like that. And then there was one Christmas
or New Year that my family was going on a hiking holiday, and I
was at that age where I was like, "I don't want to go on a
hiking holiday. I'm going to go stay with my grandma." I was in
my early teens, probably like 13 at the time or something. And I
went to stay with her for about a week, and she knit a jumper
with me. So I chose the yarn, and it was like a chunky yarn,
and it had intarsia on the front. Now, I had absolutely no
idea how to do intarsia. I'm one of those knitters (I've always
been that type, I think) where I'm just like, "Yeah, I'll just
figure it out." I've never been afraid of skill levels. I
decided to knit this intarsia jumper. It was absolutely not
intarsia, in that I did it completely incorrectly. I think
I kind of did standard colourwork in a very strange
fashion on there. Not even like traditional. I think I was
wrapping it behind every stitch. I don't even know. But either
way, I ended up with a jumper, and then the love affair just
blossomed and I was knitting every day all throughout my
teens. I ended up studying fashion knitwear design at
university and went to work in the professional knitwear
industry. And now I work entirely in the handknitting
industry, as an indie designer but also as a knitting pattern
design teacher. So it's been a long journey.
Mia Hobbs: Yeah! And you kept going basically from when you
were 13 and you made that amazing jumper?
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I just
couldn't stop once I started. So I think was about 13 when I
knitted that jumper, and I remember even in my English
class, we had to do a sort of presentation about any topic of
our choice, and I decided I was going to do a presentation about
knitting to all of my class members. I'm not sure entirely
whether they enjoyed it or not, but yeah, I just loved knitting.
And I've knitted almost daily ever since.
Mia Hobbs: Can you remember what your classmates thought of you?
Because I was always the only person knitting, for example,
during my doctorate, but by that point I was 25 and over so I was
kind of okay with it. But I don't know whether I would have
had the confidence at the age of 15, for example.
Clare Mountain-Manipon: I think I was a bit of a strange kid
anyway. I didn't have a great time in school. I was bullied
quite badly. And so I think it got to the point where I was
just a bit like, "Meh". So I think there were some people who
were interested in it, and some people who just thought it was a
little bit lame, maybe, or a bit stupid. But I don't know... I
didn't get any more trouble than I normally would from it, to be
honest. And I think, as well, there were some people who I was
friends with who were very creative, and I think they quite
liked the idea that I made my own clothes, even if it was
maybe through a format... I think perhaps if I was like
really into sewing, maybe it would have been a bit cooler in
their eyes. I think just generally, the fact that I could
make my own clothes was considered quite interesting to
those people who were creative.
Mia Hobbs: And I'm interested in the idea that the first thing
you made was an intarsia jumper, which is quite high-level!
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Yeah! I quite like this for other
knitters as well. It depends on your personality type, but when
you're learning to knit it can be very tempting to just do a
very plain scarf, because it's just simple. You don't have to
deal with any shaping. But people often get bored because
they don't necessarily love how it looks. It's quite a long
project. I suppose a jumper is as well, but I really loved how
it looked. So that was kind of the motivation for me, that I
really wanted to wear it and therefore I was going to do
whatever it took to do the project, not necessarily
expertly! [Laughs] It was definitely a bit rough around
the edges, but I was so proud of it and I wore it a ton. I think
that can be a really lovely way to approach knitting, in a way,
choosing what you want to wear and then learning the skills
involved to do it.
Mia Hobbs: Yeah, I think your motivation will be greater,
won't it?
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Yeah, exactly.
Mia Hobbs: I think a lot of people give up because they
start knitting a scarf, and actually a scarf is just too
big. I would struggle to knit a whole scarf because I'd lose my
mojo halfway through. It'd have to be a really interesting scarf
for me.
Clare Mountain-Manipon: There's no differing instructions to
keep you going. It's all just "Do the same thing for a..."
Mia Hobbs: Or a milestone, like a sleeve separation or
something.
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Yeah, exactly. I kind of need those
milestones to keep me, you know, "Just one more row, just one
more row."
Mia Hobbs: Yeah, and I think sometimes, I've certainly heard
about and I think this is true for me, that people at the
beginning, because they didn't quite know the scale of the
challenge they were taking on, just kind of thought, "Oh, yeah,
I'll do that" where they needed something without a pattern.
That's something I've heard about. Or knitted quite a
challenging pattern because they didn't quite realise how
challenging it was, and maybe now as a more experienced
knitter wouldn't dive in, in the same way, which in a way is a
shame!
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Yeah, I completely agree. I think you're
totally right. Often as a beginner, you don't necessarily
realise quite how complex things can be. I was doing loads of
cables and fully charted lace stuff, just because I didn't
realise that it was considered complex. And as well, this was
before Ravelry, even. I think Ravelry was like 2007. This was,
you know, years before Ravelry, so I'd had nothing to compare it
to. I didn't know any knitters other than my Nana who was a
great knitter and she didn't ever discourage me from doing
things that were complex.
Mia Hobbs: Yeah, she must have done a good job by saying,
"Yeah, go for it with your intarsia sweater!"
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Yeah, it's so funny to think about
really, in hindsight. She never made me feel like it wasn't
doable. I just sat on the couch with her and knitted! [Laughs].
It was lovely. Yeah, very nice.
Mia Hobbs: So that was a good choice to miss that hiking
holiday, as it turns out!
Clare Mountain-Manipon: It totally was! I mean, even to
this day, I think I'd rather sit in a cosy pub and knit than go
on a hike. Is that bad?
Mia Hobbs: No. It's fine. You found your zone. [Laughs] I
suppose I'm interested in why you knit now and how you feel it
benefits your mental well being.
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Okay, so I think the primary reason why I
knit in general is I love clothes. I love having an idea
of what I want to wear and coming up with an outfit. And
then also, I'm very particular about what I like to wear, hence
why I like making my own clothes because you have so much more
control over the materials that you use, the colours, the shape,
all of that. And I think design obviously plays into that
because I do get so much control over it. But I get a lot of joy,
I suppose, from expressing myself through clothes. And even
looking back to when I was in my late teens, I remember that when
I finished school I moved on to college, and like I said, school
was not a great chapter for me. But moving on to college, I felt
like it was a fresh start, and I remember when I went there I
felt like I could dress however I wanted because I didn't feel
like I had to fit into this idea of what the people at school
thought about me. I could just be this new person. I could
dress the way I wanted. And even to this day, it feels good to
express myself through clothing. I definitely am a product
knitter as well as a process knitter. Even simply the process
of knitting is just so satisfying to me. I think I can
be a bit of an anxious person and worry about, like, "Am I
doing enough?", feeling like I've got this endless to do list
and feeling like I never quite feel finished or never feel like
I'm making progress. And with knitting, you can knit and you
can see your progress. You're spending time and you get
something out of it. Even with long projects, you still see
that you're making progress all the time, and for me that's just
a lovely feeling. It's reassuring, in a way.
Mia Hobbs: So in a way, it isn't so much about the action. It's
about the feeling of, like, "This is a tangible, visible way
of seeing what I did today, or in the last half an hour."
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Yeah, I think that's exactly it. I love
the process of knitting anyway. I really enjoy making things.
There's something lovely about having an idea, grabbing the
yarn, and then being able to knit it and create something
beautiful. I have always been into things that are kind of
repetitive, meditative. I don't mind, for example, folding
clothes, just having a pile of stuff and just sitting there and
folding it. I kind of like the rhythm of something repetitive
like that. And I think knitting plays into that. I really am
quite happy to do these repetitive tasks. I find it
quite calming. But no, I think for me the primary joy that I
get out of it, and the primary way that it helps, perhaps, with
my mental health, is just seeing this tangible example of what
I'm able to do.
Mia Hobbs: So the sense of achievement of having made it
yourself, and also a demonstration of "This happened
today". And it sounds like the self-expression thing is also
important with the finished object, that it's wearable.
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Yeah, that's exactly it. I've tried
knitting other things. I like making things maybe for the
home, or I've tried doing socks, and I like the practical side of
it, but I must admit I'm really drawn to sweaters and jumpers
because I feel like it's a greater canvas to fit my taste
and my personal style into.
Mia Hobbs: Is that different to it being art, like a wearable
art? Is it more about you showing "This is who I am" or is
it both, maybe?
Clare Mountain-Manipon: I think my pieces never feel like
wearable art to me, because I suppose I tend to err on the
side of practicality as well as something being beautiful. And
sometimes it doesn't feel practical to me if it's too
elaborate, or a lot of design details in there. It can be very
beautiful, but it doesn't feel like me because it doesn't feel
functional in my daily life. I'm trying to think of how I'd
describe it... I am very much into that kind of functional,
beautiful knit, and so I suppose it is more just who I am. It's
about who I am. And so it may even look quite mundane to
someone else, but for me it's something that I've put a lot of
intention into, and thought about how do I want it to look
on me, how do I want it to feel, how comfortable do I want it to
be. I'm not someone who enjoys wearing form-fitting stuff. I
don't like feeling restricted when I'm moving around. I like
kind of oversized billowy stuff. And so that's the kind of thing
that I would knit because it feels like me.
Mia Hobbs: Yeah. So it is very much self-expression.
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Yeah.
Mia Hobbs: And you must get an even enhanced layer of that,
being a designer, and not just a knitter where you're looking at
other people's patterns and that's the pool you get to
choose from to knit.
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Yeah, it's just wonderful because
you're thinking about every element of the design. And I
must admit, I do tend to design with myself in mind. There are
occasions where I'll design to a brief, like for a publication,
and I'll design something that I wouldn't necessarily wear but I
do like. A lot of the time I am thinking about what I want for
my own wardrobe. It's just lovely having control over all
of those different elements, your likes and dislikes, where
you want it to fit. Even selfishly, I'm thinking about my
wardrobe, you know. Yeah, it's so lovely to be able to
essentially dream up whatever I want/desire and be able to turn
it into a reality.
Mia Hobbs: And how much of it is to do with things like the
materials or, for example, things like colour or texture?
Does that fit into that process?
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Yes. So in terms of texture and colour,
yes, they totally play a part, but I tend to find that most of
the time my primary inspiration tends to come from silhouette,
the shape of the garment, but also design detail. So for
example, if you've ever bought something ready-to-wear, and you
see something that maybe not everyone would see when you're
wearing it, like a beautiful lining or a cuff or trim detail,
those are the things that really inspire me when I'm designing.
I'm just looking at my design board now and I can see I've got
very simple silhouettes for most of them, but every single one of
them have got maybe two to three smaller design details in there
that are very unexpected and just feel elegant and
intentional. Sometimes I think as a designer it can be very
tempting to maybe select an all-over stitch and then pop it
on a classic silhouette, and then maybe use a 2x2 rib trim,
because you want to use that particular stitch, maybe you
have a yarn in mind. For me, I like to approach it slightly
differently and think about every single little element. And
sometimes that means that I don't use a very busy stitch on
the garment, because I want to focus on other things. Or if I
were to use a busy stitch, then I would choose a more simple
option. But I do find that it is the shape of the garment and the
design details that really get me excited, and then the texture
and the colour tend to come in afterwards, and I think about
"Okay, what texture of yarn or colour of yarn can I use that
will bring out the beauty in these primary elements that I
want to emphasise?"
Mia Hobbs: Okay, so the joy is in the details and the little
surprises, and that's the bit that makes your heart sing.
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Yeah. Honestly, I could talk about it
for ages. I teach a pullover design course and I often talk
about this with my students. And I think it really plays back
into the work that I did as a swatch designer when I worked in
the commercial knitwear industry. We would be coming up
with new designs every day, and knitting up little prototypes of
them, and my boss would always talk about how... you know,
choose maybe two to three design elements and focus on those, on
making them really beautiful, rather than trying to chuck
everything at this one design. And I think the way that I've
always interpreted that is it might even be that you put a
functional element in your design, such as shaping, that
has to be there, and so you might as well make that
beautiful and turn it into a feature that you can then kind
of celebrate as opposed to hide away.
Mia Hobbs: To me that sounds like that's harder to achieve as
a designer than, for example, putting a stitch pattern or a
colourwork motif all over something, and then using a more
standard design where the shaping... I guess you can use a
book that can tell you the maths. But turning the shaping
into a particular design feature probably is harder.
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Yeah, it can be harder but it's very
satisfying at the end. And I tend to find, as well, that
people who've gone through the process of really thinking
through every single element of their design, rather than just
prioritising maybe the stitch or the pattern and then putting it
on almost like a template, there tends to be more satisfaction
with the design because they really have chosen everything
rather than going into automatic pilot and just choosing their
defaults.
Mia Hobbs: That's amazing. In terms of you as a knitter, it
sounds like a lot of your design process is about the end product
rather than the process of knitting it. How about you as a
knitter? Are there particular things you gravitate towards? Do
you prefer the more rhythmical stitch patterns that are more
simple (if that's not a rude term to use)?
Clare Mountain-Manipon: No, that is absolutely what I gravitate
towards. I love a beautiful-feeling yarn. I am
very tactile. I love working with patterns where I get to use
a lovely yarn. I'm not too worried about patterns and
variegated yarns, that kind of thing. It's not necessarily my
vibe. But a really beautiful texture yarn or something in a
really special colour, I'm totally drawn to that. And then
in terms of the actual stitch patterns, I'm much more of a
knit-purl kind of texture person. I do enjoy knitting
cables but it's not my favourite. I really am very
basic. I can do colourwork, I can do cables, but I've realised
that what I enjoy knitting the most, what I find most relaxing,
and in the end what I find more wearable at the end, is the
simple stuff.
Mia Hobbs: Yeah. That's good that they all match together
though. It'd be tricky if you were someone who wanted to spend
time knitting colourwork, but actually it wasn't what you
wanted to wear.
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Yeah, that's so true.
Mia Hobbs: And I think the main thing is that we all figure out
what we need, isn't it? I was writing something about how do
you make knitting more therapeutic for you, and I think
that's the ideal thing, isn't it? That you find that those
rhythmical stitch patterns of knits and purls, that's what
floats your boat and you do that. And maybe I need some
colourwork to engage my brain to stop it freelancing and thinking
about other things. But it's perfect that knitting can give
both of us those things, even though they're different.
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Yeah, that's absolutely the beauty of
knitting is there are so many routes you can take it, so many
options. You can go super, super complex and really just
intricate stuff that is, to be honest, very fun to knit
actually, if you're in the right mood. And for some people that
is their thing. They love doing that. Or you can spend still get
hours of enjoyment from knitting a stockinette sweater. It can
still be equally as enjoyable and therapeutic.
Mia Hobbs: Yeah, and I think a lot of people I've talked to and
certainly something I found for myself is I need a number of
projects on the go. I do need a complicated one, I think, for my
brain, and also actually because I think if I knit something very
easy, I can knit too quickly and get pain, like RSI. I think I
need something that slows me down so that I can engage my
brain in it but not hurt my shoulder. basically. But I also
need (like for yesterday supervising two children
homeschooling!) a plain sock on the go, so that I can see I may
not have had access to my laptop or ticked anything off my to do
list, but I did knit an inch of a sock. A mitten, actually, it
was.
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Exactly. I think that's so true. I never
used to be someone who had multiple projects on the go. I
think possibly budget reasons as well, like I'd buy a yarn, I
would knit the project intended for that yarn, and then once I'd
finished that project, I'd buy a new yarn, new project. Now, as
an adult, I have a bit more expendable income and I'm able
to have maybe two/three projects on the go. I do find though
that, interestingly, I tend to favour one project, and the
other two tend to be at the bottom of the pile and I really
almost have to force myself to work on them. So I wonder if I'm
possibly a monogamous knitter that is attempting to branch out
into having multiple projects on the go. But yeah, I do like that
single-tasking thing because, again, perhaps it's the sign of
progress for me. Sometimes I feel like when I'm working on so
many things at once, I don't get as much done on a single
project. I have to wait longer for the final result.
Mia Hobbs: It dilutes it, doesn't it, I suppose.
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Yeah, exactly. So I wonder if that's
maybe why, actually, thinking about it.
Mia Hobbs: Are there times your work forces you into polygamy
with a knitting project?
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Yeah. [Laughs] Totally. Yeah, I'll
have multiple things on the go, and then normally I'll have
maybe a personal project as well, and then now with Nico I
tend to have a little something on the go for him as well. I
think I do find it more relaxing, actually, to just have
a single thing. I think I'm like that in daily life. I like just
doing one single thing. I'm not a big fan of multi-tasking. I
feel a bit overwhelmed by it. And there is a bit of that that
can creep in if I have too many things in my knitting basket. I
do like having a bit more focus.
Mia Hobbs: Do you think you've learnt more about what you need
as a knitter over time, and how you work best?
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Yeah, I definitely do. Probably in the
last five years, I would say, I've really started being very,
very... what's the word... I think through my... I'd be more
impulsive in the past about what I was going to knit. So I'd be
more impulsive with yarn purchasing, but also with
projects that I was casting on. I'd always find a project that I
liked and a yarn that I liked and cast on, which sounds
fantastic, right? But my experience is that sometimes
with the end project, I feel disappointed because it's maybe
not something that I'm going to regularly use. I'm not going to
wear it as much. And I've realised that for myself, I need
to consider all of that. And so it's really only in the last
five years that I've kind of discovered that about myself,
and I find that these days I have much less situations where
I knitted something and I realised, "Oh, this isn't quite
what I wanted it to be." In the past, there'd be a few more
where I'd knit a sweater and I'm like, "Oh, I like it, but it's
not..." I don't use it very often.
Mia Hobbs: So it's more intentional now.
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Yeah, it's more intentional now for
sure.
Mia Hobbs: I was just going to ask about colour - about whether
colour makes a difference in terms of... it sounds like
you're very much a tactile, texture person in terms of the
knitting feeling. I don't know if that's a comfort thing?
That's probably my word, not yours.
Clare Mountain-Manipon: I think it could be a comfort thing,
yeah. When I'm saying it has to feel great, I don't necessarily
mean that it has to be soft as well. I really love a woolly one
as well.
Mia Hobbs: But it's a texture experience for you?
Clare Mountain-Manipon: A texture experience, yeah.
Mia Hobbs: And how about the colour? Does it matter what
colour you're knitting with?
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Yes. I have... I call it my internal
colour palette, because I find that I'm drawn to the same
colours all the time. I went through a stage... So the time I
was talking about when I was in college, and I was exploring
what I wanted to wear, was very colourful and I really enjoyed
playing with colour. And then when I went to fashion school, I
actually found that I pushed that down because I wanted to be
cool [laughs] and I wanted to wear black like all the other
fashion students. And I think I didn't allow myself to have fun
with colour in the way that I should have at the time. And so
it took a little bit of undoing after fashion school, and
leaving the commercial knitwear industry, because again you do
feel maybe that peer pressure to look a certain way or wear what
is considered fashionable. Now, I've tapped into what colours I
really enjoy wearing. I'm just drawn to them. I can literally
just like picture them in front of me, the colours I'm drawn to.
And I suppose I don't tend to veer away from them too much,
because there are times when I've done that: I like a colour,
but then I find that I don't tend to wear it. So I think
colour for me is something I love playing with. I love
exploring it in the home. I love exploring it in art, things like
that. When it comes to my knitwear, whether I'm designing
or whether I'm knitting for myself, it's a bit more boxed in
just because I suppose I'm thinking about that
functionality myself. And also, when you're designing, colour is
a little bit limited by photography as well. You can't
go too dark, because it could be hard to photograph the details
and things like that, so it can be a bit more limited. But no,
certainly with knitwear, I get excited by it but it's within
limits, to a certain extent. It's within these boundaries of
my mind where I'm like, "Okay, this has got to be functional
too. How's it going to fit a certain wardrobe?"
Mia Hobbs: And how would you describe your kind of comfort
palette, your internal palette?
Clare Mountain-Manipon: It is neutrals with pops of more
earthy pinks and clays and turquoise and olives, that kind
of things. I've got plenty of navy and camel and grey,
charcoal, cream, that kind of thing, in my wardrobe. But in
terms of pops of colour, they tend to be more accents, and it
will be blush pinks, clays, turquoises, olives, that kind of
thing. It feels feminine but quite natural.
Mia Hobbs: And it sounds like it feels like it's not a fashion
school hangover. It's you.
Clare Mountain-Manipon: No. It feels very true to myself. And
what's really interesting is now, Nico is nonverbal at the
moment, and I must admit I find myself buying him clothes in my
internal colour palette because it's just what I'm drawn to. But
it's hilarious because often we'll go out and people will
say, "Oh, you're matching today!" I really have such a
formed colour palette.
Mia Hobbs: I wondered whether you're knitting for Nico,
actually thinking, "Oh, I'm going to knit in a bright yellow
because it's not for me and it's different and it's fun." But it
sounds like he's been assimilated into your palette
currently.
Clare Mountain-Manipon: I know, he has. It's quite bad. [Laughs]
I do have certain colours though that I knit for him that I love,
that don't look good on me. I'm very, very pale. Mustard yellow
is not the best colour on me. It can make me look a bit sallow.
But I really love mustard yellow and he looks amazing in it, so I
do knit things or buy him things in mustard yellow because he
just looks great in it. But I put him in loads of pinks and
people are just like, "Oh, it's a girl!" But I'm a strong
believer that colour is colour, and anyone can wear colour. And
yeah, he does tend to wear my internal colour palette.
Mia Hobbs: I'd love for you to tell me about a significant
knitting project, Clare, if you've got one in mind.
Clare Mountain-Manipon: A significant knitting project...
I suppose it would be a design project that I did knit, and I
believe it was my first published project. And it was on
the cover of Laine Magazine. It was years ago, I think 2017. It
was one of the early issues. And I remember the magazine coming
out and I thought, "Oh, I'd like to design something in this
style." It felt quite connected to my own personal style. I
designed in The Fibre Co's Road to China Light. It's actually a
yarn that I picked up just a sample of, to knit my sister
something, not that long beforehand at a little Christmas
market. And I thought it was a beautiful yarn. And when I came
up with this design idea (it's a drop shoulder sweater) it had
this kind of gridded lace pattern that went up the side
panels of the sweater and then kind of draped over the
shoulder. I just wanted something really light but cosy
to knit it in, that would have good drape, because it had a bit
of positive ease in there, and I'd had a feeling that this Road
to China Light would be beautiful for it. And yeah, I
was just shocked, to be honest, that they would even include me
in the magazine as a new designer, but also the fact that
it was eventually on the cover, which just blew my mind. And I
can remember calling my sister saying, "You won't believe
this!" You know, I never would have imagined it because I still
felt very new in the handknitting industry. Yes, I've
got this experience working in the commercial industry, but
no-one knew me. I'm still not a fully-fledged established
designer in the way that a lot of designers are. But to me that
just felt like a huge milestone, and it made me think, "Maybe I
can do this. Maybe I can design things that people will want to
knit."
Mia Hobbs: Did that change things for you, that kind of
belief? Or did being on the cover open doors?
Clare Mountain-Manipon: I think I started taking myself more
seriously. I think I gave myself a bit more trust that I was
capable. In terms of whether other people maybe took me more
seriously, a little bit of that maybe as well. I did get
published again by other people, and maybe they saw that as a bit
of proof that I could do it. But I think the biggest thing that
changed really, from having knitted that... and it was a
lovely knitting experience, and I went on to work for the Fibre
Co as well. So in a way, even just yarn choice was so
significant. They were a lovely company. I no longer work for
them, but they were a lovely company to work for and a really
important part of who I am now, as a person working in the
knitting industry. It just felt significant on a lot of
different levels. I still have that sample under my bed. It's
one of those kind of sweaters that I'll often pull out if I go
to a knitting festival or something, because I have a
happy feeling related to it.
Mia Hobbs: So it sounds like that design was really important
for you in terms of your mindset as well.
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Yeah, 100%. It created self-belief,
really. In the beginning, I was very much figuring out things as
I went along and feeling an amateur, in a way. Even though
it's funny because obviously I had a lot of training. I'm
trained as a knitwear designer, I've done pattern cutting, I can
work with machine-knitting, handknitting. I have this
history of skills that I've learnt over the years, not to
mention the hand-knitting that I'd done for years and years
beforehand. But I still went into it very much feeling unsure
of myself and my capabilities. And I think for me, being able
to go through that process... and it really was so different
to anything I'd done before, because I'd only ever
self-published previous to that, and I wasn't working to
deadlines in the same way. I wasn't working within someone
else's process. I had my own ways of doing things that I had
to adapt. But having come out of it, I realised that I was more
than capable of doing it, and it gave me that self belief to
continue.
Mia Hobbs: And now you have your own design school where you're
teaching other people to design?
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Yeah, I do. So I have a school called
Sweater Design School. In the past, it's opened up once a
year; now I'm doing it twice a year, now that Nico is in
part-time childcare, so I have a bit more bandwidth to offer to
it. I teach beginner designers how to design their first
pullover. And I suppose for me, it echoes back to that
experience with that pullover that I designed for Laine. It
was that thing of learning that I'm capable, and that confidence
that comes from having done it and gone through the process.
What I find with my students is that that first jumper that they
design, there's so much umming and ahhing, feeling uncertain.
It's a very complex process, especially when you're grading
into multiple sizes. There can be a lot of anxiety around
whether you're going to be able to achieve it. But once they
come through the end, and they get to the end of the process
and they've got that final pattern designed, there's so
much confidence that comes from it. And then they go on to do
another one and another one, and it just builds confidence more
and more as they go through it. So I absolutely love doing that
with them.
Mia Hobbs: So it sounds like you get a lot of joy from taking
other people through that process, that you remember was
pivotal for you.
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Yeah. It's so exciting because I'm
there with them from the very beginning. So we are coming up
with mood boards, then turning them into sketches, and then
swatches, and grading it out in a spreadsheet, so you really do
see every part of the process and you can see your students
transform this early idea into a fully fledged garment that they
publish, and then other people knit it! It's such a rewarding
experience, not only for the student, but also for me to
observe it. I feel so delighted for them, because I know how
proud they must feel.
Mia Hobbs: Yeah. I don't think you mentioned the name of your
pullover.
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Oh! The name of my pullover is the Hay
sweater.
Mia Hobbs: Hay sweater. Oh yeah, I do remember seeing it on the
front cover, because I think that was around the time we met
each other.
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Yes, I think it probably was.
Mia Hobbs: But I'll obviously put a link to it in the show
notes. I always end by asking: what's the greatest gift that
knitting has given you for the rest of your life?
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Oh my goodness. I would say the
greatest gift that it has given me is that feeling of being able
to turn my ideas into reality. That is the most wonderful
thing. I love being able to dream something up and then
execute on it. And it's this tangible thing.
Mia Hobbs: So there's a certain magic in that process from idea
to a creation.
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Magical. Yeah.
Mia Hobbs: That's amazing! That's a really interesting and
different answer than I've heard before. Thank you so much for
joining me on the podcast. It's been an absolute pleasure to
hear about all your ideas. And I think you're the first designer
actually, so it's really interesting to hear your
designer perspective.
Clare Mountain-Manipon: Wonderful!
Mia Hobbs: If people want to find out more about you and your
sweater school, how would they do that?
Clare Mountain-Manipon: So all they need to do is head to
www.sistermountain.com and there you'll find my blog. I update it
regularly with tips on knitting pattern design and resources.
And also there is a section all about Sweater Design School. So
if you are interested in hearing more about it when it opens up
again, which should be sort of late August time, then you can
sign up to be notified in that area.
Mia Hobbs: Super. Clare, thank you so much.
Clare Mountain-Manipon: That was wonderful! Thank you.
Mia Hobbs: Thank you so much for listening to the Why I Knit
podcast. If you'd like to find out more about therapeutic
knitting, you can follow me on Instagram @knittingistherapeutic
or at my website www.therapeuticknitting.org. If
you're enjoying the podcast, I would really appreciate it if
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