May 2025 - Thea Colman
May’s Beanie Brigade features Spinsters Daughter Worsted, a unique collaboration between Farmer’s Daughter Fibers and Spincycle Yarns. This soft, bouncy worsted-weight yarn is spun by Spincycle and hand-dyed by FDF in a stunning palette of 31 tonal shades. Made from 100% Superwashed American wool, each 200-yard skein is rich in color, easy to care for, and beautiful when stitched up. Available exclusively through FDF and Spincycle, it’s a yarn that’s truly one of a kind.
The featured color for this month, Lavender Stars, a soft, dusky purple inspired by early summer evenings when the sky fades into lavender just before nightfall. Its calming hue is the perfect complement to the Milk Punch Hat by Thea Colman; making the textures of the design to stand out beautifully, it's an ideal choice for this month’s Beanie Brigade.
If you’re a lover of cables, lace, and unique stitch textures, the May Beanie Brigade featured designer needs no introduction. Thea Colman first began her blog Baby Cocktails in 2007 after leaving her corporate marketing job to be at home with her daughter. What began as her need to constantly modify and change knitting patterns quickly spiraled into an almost 2-decade career in knitwear design with over 300 patterns published to date. We are thrilled to talk with Thea about her design process, inspiration, and her life beyond the needles.
May Designer: Thea Colman
Q: Your patterns are often very textural; leaning towards cables and all-over textured stitches. Can you give us some insight into your design process? Where do you find your inspiration? After 340 patterns on Ravelry, how do you continually find new textures and inspirations that you haven’t explored?
A: I’d say my design process varies from project to project. Sometimes a yarn will be the start of something, other times a pattern or motif will get me excited. Sometimes it’s a detail I’ll find in a shop somewhere that gets into my head and I want to use it! The one consistent part of my process is that there is always this one moment in each design where I know it’s either going to click, or it’s going back to sit in the office for a while. After 340 designs, keeping things new is my biggest struggle. I want to be sure that my work doesn’t look like something I’ve seen before or is too basic to seem special. I can’t say how often I begin something only to have it fade as I realize it’s not unique. Luckily, I have sketched many ideas in my notebooks over the years and collected or stickied many stitch patterns in my files, so I often have to just frog and move on.
Q: Many of your patterns such as the featured The Milk Punch Hat include a recipe for the drink that the pattern is named after. If you had to name a signature cocktail inspired by your work as a designer what would you name it? What might be in it?
A: Hmmm. This question is hard!! I think it has to be easier to make than it looks, and it has to have a few deep flavors involved. Left to my own devices here at home, I’m always playing with different versions of the Gin and Tonic. It’s such an easy drink, and when you add different bitters or a splash of another juice or a bit of an additional liquor, it can take on a whole different personality. I guess that could be it, as it’s quite simple and all about playing with little tweaks, new ideas.
But what would I call it? I’ve typed about 4 answers to this, but I keep looking at my bulletin board, which has a Boarding Pass tucked into the corner, and the words “Boarding Pass” are now stuck in my mind. So that’s it, a Boarding Pass. Like you’re taking your G&T somewhere new maybe?
Q: You’ve talked a lot about the travel you’ve done - as a designer but also in your previous time in marketing. What is one of the most interesting places you’ve been?
A: Appropriate question after my last answer. The most interesting place I’ve been was Tallinn Estonia; this was years ago so it may be different now, but it felt like the town hadn’t changed since the Middle Ages, and it was somewhat empty when we were there. The culture in Estonia is a mix of Russian, Eastern European, and Scandinavian influences. There was a lot of textile history and gorgeous embroidery and other work in the windows. Tons of knitting and lace books in the used bookstores, a bunch of weird little local museums (always my favorite kind), and a gorgeous mix of architecture. We stayed in a quirky apartment that had been lived in since the 1400s, down a back alley and up a flight of circular stone steps. It smelled like 800 years of cigarettes so we couldn’t shut the windows ever.
Q: You’ve been designing since almost 2007, and in almost 2 decades you’ve seen a lot of change in the knitwear industry. What is a recent change/development that you love about the industry? What is something from your earlier days in the industry that you wish you could bring back?
A: Post-covid, I feel like there has been a resurgence of connection between people in the industry and I’m loving that. Besides the usual American contacts I often speak and work with I’ve been knitting in Portuguese yarn, Scottish yarn, and Canadian yarn so far this year, while having conversations with the folks behind those fibers. I had a collaboration with an Irish company last spring, and I’ve been talking to a small British mill about designing with their yarn. The connections in this industry are really special and a reason I love my job. I feel like this is a rare industry where most of us support each other and raise up our peers instead of competing with them. I miss paper knitting magazines. I loved getting mine in the mail and flipping through each time one arrived. I wish that the model was still financially viable and that we could have more of them. I know we have books, but magazines were cheap and satisfying and always changing.
Q: We’ve been loving all the adorable photos of your pup Reggie on Instagram! Who interrupted your design time more, your daughters when they were growing up or your pup now?
A: Reggie. They would stay busy longer when I needed them to. He whines at my feet.
Q: Your love of thrifting is clear on your Instagram, has a thrifted item ever inspired your knitwear designs?
A: Absolutely. Sometimes I buy sweaters just to try and deconstruct the pattern in them. When they are only a few dollars, it’s easy enough to justify, even when the yarn or colors in the original are awful. Sometimes there is a pile of them on my leather chair here in the office. More often than not, the inspiration I took from them is hard to find in the final sweater, but the initial push may have come from a nugget in the garment that I loved. I also go to the vintage shop when I’m stuck, sometimes just flipping through old sweaters gets me going again.
Sometimes, I’ll purchase an item because I want to knit the thing to wear with it. Right now I have a double-collared silk blouse from the 80s that is begging for a delicate vest. The two little collars are perfectly rounded, the pattern on the fabric is ivory and rust with a raised thread in there, and it has the sweetest little puffed sleeves.
Q: Previously you’ve mentioned using your needles as a voice for small businesses and charities. What drives you towards volunteer work and do you have any specific causes that you would like to take a moment to talk about? What cause is the most near and dear to your heart?
A: I was taught young that if you could, you volunteered weekly, so I’ve done that my whole life, often choosing charities that focus on families. I’m specifically interested in helping women and children, and I spend one a day a week working at an organization called Cradles to Crayons that provides at risk kids with books, toys, hygiene items, and clothing so that they can succeed in and out of school. It’s a charity I really love because it takes the the simple task of sharing and makes a tangible difference in someone’s life. My work has given me a platform with over 50,000 followers and I think the responsibility I was taught as a kid compels me to use any voice I have on a more public scale if it can help. I’m not afraid to be political when I think it’s needed, and I find action is the best way to deal with feelings of anger or helplessness. Silence makes me uncomfortable.
Since 2016, I’ve used my business to support somewhere between 20 and 30 different charities, some more than once. There is a partial list of these on my website. My most recent donation in February was $5000 to the ACLU, because it’s not just women at risk right now.
On a less political note, yes, I love many of the small businesses run by women in our fiber community and use my work often to bring eyes to them. I prefer to put my efforts into elevating companies where I know who’s in charge, I appreciate what they do and who they are, and know my work makes a difference to them. I guess that overall, I’m very aware of any influence I have and try to be intentional in using that as best I can.
Thea's Socials
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