August 2025 - Ysolda Teague
This month’s Beanie Brigade yarn is Highland Worsted, a 100% Highland wool that’s bouncy, soft (but not too soft), and full of character. With 218 yards in each 100g skein, it’s just right for small accessories, which is why we couldn’t resist pairing it with the Cepes Beret by Ysolda Teague. The texture in this pattern really shines with this yarn, making for a sweet little knit that feels so timeless.
We knew this beret needed to be knit in a deep blue, something that captures the feeling of wandering through a foreign city, ducking into cafes, browsing little shops, and seeing all the sights. The spirit of curiosity and thrill inspired the the colorway name On the Edge. It’s a rich, layered, true blue with just the right depth to feel both classic and bold.
We are excited to share with you a wonderful discussion with Ysolda about her inspiration for the Cepes Beret and the wider story behind her designs and creation process.
August Designer: Ysolda Teague
Q: Let’s start with an introduction! For readers who may be discovering you for the first time, how would you introduce yourself and your design philosophy?
A: I’m a knitwear designer living in Edinburgh, Scotland with my spouse, step-kid, our cats Ziggy and Stardust, and Red the spaniel. When I’m not knitting I’m probably in a sweaty sports hall training for Roller Derby; I play primarily as a jammer for Auld Reekie Roller Derby’s C team and I’m having so much fun learning.
Like so many other designers and knitters, I’m late diagnosed AuDHD (autistic and ADHD) and learning more about how my brain works has led to so many “aha” moments including why I design what I do. I tend to design the things that I’d like to knit, and that scratch a different itch in my brain. There are the weird little puzzle projects, the ones where I get obsessed with solving a problem, the stitch patterns with incredibly soothing repeats, and many projects that are simple enough to work on while doing something else (which vastly increases my ability to focus).
If I have a design philosophy it’s that I want other people to share the joy and satisfaction that knitting has brought to my life. All of our brains are different, but I hope that if a project really works for me then it will work for others, and I firmly believe that everyone deserves to experience the confidence boost that comes from wearing something you made with your own hands.
Q: This month’s featured pattern is the Cepes Beret, part of your Knitworthy 6 collection; a series of gift-worthy knits. Gifting knits can be tricky: what, to you,
makes someone truly knitworthy?
A: Firstly let’s get this out of the way, I don’t think that whether someone is knitworthy has anything to do with their innate worth. Or for that matter, how much they mean to you. The hard thing about gifting anything is that it should be focussed on the recipient, not on what you want to do as the giver. You might feel like you knit your love into every stitch, but if the person you’re knitting for never wears hats or mittens, loves throwing all their clothes into the machine together, or has a really particular personal style, they probably aren’t going to feel that love when they receive their gift.
I like to think of Knitworthy as permission to knit only for the people in your life who are
genuinely thrilled to receive something you made just for them. And it’s a gentle nudge to ask ourselves whether we’re knitting gifts because we want to knit, or because our loved ones want those items. The bad feelings on both sides are only going to be worse if you’ve spent the entire project building up your expectations for how much they’re going to love it! Sometimes it’s ok to give a gift card, or buy something from someone’s wish list.
Q: Your website is full of tutorials and thoughtful guides to help knitters learn new techniques. How does being a teacher, through your writing, videos, and
patterns, shape the way you design?
A:Years ago, when I was first getting started as a designer, I worked in an LYS and taught their beginner classes. It was incredibly valuable to observe how knitters of all skill levels interpreted directions, and what was the most universally confusing! I often design projects with the idea that someone could use them to learn something new, and even if I’m not making a full tutorial, I go through the pattern asking questions like “if this was my first colourwork project, would I also know how to or want to learn short rows”.
I also found in teaching that sometimes over-explaining is just as bad as under explaining and can be much harder to get right. I work with my pattern director Bex on making sure that all of the information is clear and easy to find, and that it’s as easy as possible to navigate through the actual pattern document. If I’m finding that the only way I can explain something is with a wall of text, it’s time to go back to the drawing board!
Q: Not every idea makes it to the needles, or the final pattern. Have you ever had a
design that just didn’t work out? What happened, and how do you decide when to
walk away from a project?
A: Oh so many! ADHD is not exactly compatible with finishing things, but I also try to give myself grace with the “fails”. Experimenting is part of the creative process. What I’m working on is recognising when to rip back or walk away from a project completely, earlier in the process. If I’ve got niggling doubts, or it feels like I’m forcing something to work out to match my idea, that’s probably telling me something.
Q: Many have discovered you through your designs, but I first discovered your work through the size-inclusive size chart you developed for designers. Why is size inclusivity important to you, and how have you seen the knitting world change over the years in this area? What work do you think still needs to be done?
A:Thank you for reminding me that updating that size chart to be more size inclusive is on my to-do list! More seriously, it means a lot to know you found it helpful, and I’d direct anyone looking for a more up to date version to the excellent book The Knitting Pattern Writing Handbook.
I find the question of why it’s important to me so hard to answer. Maybe this is the autism, but it would feel so absurd to say that I think my patterns should intentionally exclude people. It honestly never occurred to me not to be size inclusive, and we have Amy Singer and her magazine Knitty.com to thank for that. What “size inclusive” means has shifted in the last 20 years, thanks to the work of many wonderful fat activists, and knitters speaking out about what they needed from patterns, but the sizing standards Knitty encouraged designers to use in 2005 were revolutionary for the time. I’m not sure I realised quite how unusual that was, when even books that purported to be modern and feminist like Stitch N Bitch were written for 3 or 4 sizes. I quickly learned how much it meant to the knitters who were used to being excluded.
I know some designers complain that it’s more work to design size inclusive patterns, or that not all designs will work in all sizes or look “flattering” on all body shapes. As far as I’m concerned that’s the job. It’s my job to update my size range when I learn that people aren’t included in it, to educate myself about how to help more people get the best fit for their body, and to listen to the experiences of knitters with bodies that aren’t like mine. It’s not my job to decide whether a style will look good on you, and the whole concept of “flattering” is such a minefield anyway, but I do pay a lot of attention to things like how details are scaled or how to keep the key elements of a design consistent across the size range.
One area that I think we could, collectively, do more work on, is separating size, shape and gender. I don’t have all the answers but I try to think of “sizes” as a framework to group together a range of traits in a way that makes it easier for someone to follow a pattern, rather than something prescriptive. I’ve been working on including cup sizing and height ranges in my patterns but I’d love to find more ways to make it easier to mix and match bits of different sizes, include things like bust shaping, or adaptations for physical disabilities or sensory needs. It’s really exciting to see more technological developments in this area too.
Q: If your stash could talk, what would it reveal about your personality or design habits?
A: That I get excited about more ideas than I actually have time to work on! I do love having a stash to pull from though when I get a new idea, and it’s surprising to go through really deep stash and find that I still love the colours and fibres I picked years ago.
Q: You’ve been publishing designs for nearly two decades, with over 200 patterns
available on Ravelry. Looking back, what’s something you wish you had known when you first started out?
A: I wish I’d known more about the knowledge and resources that were already out there. It took me way too long to learn about tech editors or that there were experienced designers out there I could learn from. It’s boring but I wish I’d cared more early on about all the other stuff, running a business, project management, marketing etc. At the same time, there’s freedom in not knowing what you don’t know and it was exciting to be figuring all this out in real time as the knitting internet developed. Sometimes I’m jealous of all of the easily accessible resources new designers have now, but I don’t envy the pressure to get everything perfect immediately in an incredibly over-satured market.
Q: You've designed so many beloved hats, especially the Musselburgh Hat, which has over 36,000 Ravelry projects! What is it about hat-making that keeps you inspired? Is there a particular joy or challenge to designing them?
A: Hats are my first love when it comes to design. One of my first projects was a beanie with devil horns that I knit for a friend in high school. Over the next couple of years I took that basic pattern and added stripes, intarsia, changed the gauge to match the yarn I had available, etc. I knit beanies for everyone I knew, and used them as the perfect small canvas for trying out new techniques and ideas.
I always come back to hats when I’m burnt out or struggling with ideas, and every time I
design a new accessory collection I have to force myself to limit the number of hats.
With Musselburgh, and its sibling patterns in my swatchless hat collection, I wanted to make accessible patterns that could be the basic framework for any hat you wanted to knit. I’d love to find out that someone got started as a designer by experimenting with Musselburgh!
Q: Finally, would you share a sneak peek or hint about something you’re working on now that you're excited about? Any new projects, patterns, or directions that readers should keep an eye out for?
A: I’m really excited about Knitworthy 9, which will launch in September. This year we’re doing things a little differently, I don’t want to give away all the details yet, but my goal is that the collection will be like blueprints you can return to again and again. You can expect multi-gauge basics that you easily put your own creative spin on, not unlike Musselburgh. I can’t wait to see what you do with them!
August Beanie Brigade Pre-Order
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