October 2026 - Vincent Williams aka Visuvio's Crafts
Welcome to October, Beanie Brigaders!
As the days grow shorter and the air turns crisp, October invites us to slow down, settle in, and savor the cozy rituals of the season. This month's Beanie Brigade is all about rich texture, timeless cables, and a project that feels right at home alongside a warm drink and a flickering candle.
Our featured designer this month is Vincent Williams of Visuvio Crafts, and members will receive an exclusive discount code for his stunning Zaniah Hat pattern. Inspired by the winter night sky, the Zaniah Hat features bold, intertwining cables that come together to create beautiful star-like motifs across the fabric. The design takes its name from Zaniah, a bright star. While creating the pattern for a night-sky-themed collaboration, Vincent set out to design cables that echoed the shape and beauty of the stars above. After searching through countless celestial names, he discovered Zaniah, a name that felt as elegant and ethereal as the design itself.
To accompany this month's featured pattern, you'll receive a skein of our exclusive Beanie Brigade colorway, Midnight Hour, dyed on a luxurious 100% Non-Superwash Merino 4-Ply base. With 218 yards per 100g skein, this yarn offers exceptional stitch definition, allowing every twist and turn of the cables to shine. The rich crimson red colorway feels perfectly suited for autumn, bringing to mind changing leaves, cozy evenings, and the magic of the season.
Whether you're casting on the Zaniah Hat or another magical pattern, we hope this month's Beanie Brigade skein inspires you to embrace a little autumn magic and enjoy every stitch along the way.
Vincent Williams ~ Beanie Brigade Blog Interview Q's
Q1. For Beanie Brigade members meeting you for the first time, what's the story behind Visuvio’s Crafts and how did you become a designer?
A1. The name Visuvio’s Crafts came about as a reclamation of my power/sense of self. Some classmates would pick on me for being taller than the other students, calling me things like “the mountain,” “the giant,” and “Mount Vesuvius.” It really bothered me as a kid, and they wouldn’t stop even when the “joke” got old very quickly. So a family member said, “I’m gonna call you Visuvio until you realize that you are the only person that can and won’t give them the power to make you feel bad over words… words that aren’t even good mean jokes. And why would they try to mess with someone they call Mount Vesuvius, the volcano that erupted and destroyed Pompeii?!” That changed everything, and the tall jokes all but disappeared by the end of that week.
When it came time to select a name for my brand, I wanted something that would sound interesting, carries a story, but also has the potential to be a conversation starter. À la “Who are you wearing on the red carpet?” “This is a Visuvio’s original!”
I was technically designing from the beginning of my crochet and knitting journey because I wrote down my ideas, dimensions, and instructions to make the same scarf, wrap, or hat so I could make those same projects again for friends or family who wanted one. Of course, I used non-maker vocabulary words for the stitches, and I drew my own stitch symbols, but little did I know that stitch symbol diagrams and charts were a real thing that I’d discover many years later. When I made finished objects for sale, I even made to-scale paper cutouts with hand-drawn stitch symbols arranged in the appropriate geometry to make bralettes and crop tops for my festival vending phase. Maybe my brain was instinctively mimicking something close to using paper sewing patterns even though I had zero experience with that world.
Q2. The Zaniah Hat is named after a star. What drew you to that name, and what made it the perfect fit for this design?
A2. This hat was one of my two designs for the 12 Days of Madelinetosh 2022 kit. The theme for the entire advent was “night sky in winter,” and it came in a really cool star-shaped box! I didn’t even know about the shape of the advent box until after I submitted my design proposal. That was a fun packaging detail to learn about as ChiWei and I delved deeper into our respective designs for the collaboration. With the theme in mind, I immediately knew a cable design that creates a star shape would be a fun challenge, so I searched for star names that sounded beautiful. Many of the stars have names that didn’t fit the ethereal feel I wanted to evoke. For example, Sirius is a cool star name, but it will probably make me think of werewolves and the Harry Potter character Sirius Black for the rest of my life. So that was a no-go. This process of elimination went on until I found Zaniah, which I had never heard of, but it rolls off the tongue beautifully and is a bright star in the triple-star system in the constellation Virgo.
Q3. You started creating because you couldn't find accessories that matched your style. What's one thing in the knitwear world you're still searching for that nobody has designed quite right yet?
A3. There is a garment idea that I’ll have to keep secret until the design comes together right, but aside from that idea, I was searching for years for a hat that can hold all of my locs and still stay in place on my head without the weight of my hair pulling it off/sliding the hat back constantly. I’m not a major hat wearer because I tend to run hot, but that hat would be a great one to finally find. I didn’t want to rely on sewing in an elastic band because I didn't want the hat to end up looking more like a bonnet/loc sock, so I kept going back to the drawing board while searching for hat patterns.
Q4. Many of your patterns have names that feel poetic, mysterious, or celestial. Where do you find inspiration for naming your designs?
A4. I love to infuse a feeling into my designs and their names even if makers don’t see it in an obvious and on-the-nose way. But I’m so glad you noticed that! I find inspiration for the pattern names by first zoning in on whatever the design inspiration is tied to and then I feel around for granular, conceptual ideas that have a nice ring to them. Once you hear the multiple inspiration sources, the various design elements may often begin to feel more obvious and sometimes like a literal translation of those elements. For example, one could see how I tried to transpose the idea of seeing lots of mountains in a picture into the cable motif of the shawl and then naming it “The Rolling Pastures Shawl”.
Q5. Beanie Brigade knitters are casting on Zaniah this month. What's one thing you'd love them to know, notice, or enjoy while knitting the pattern?
A5. I’d love for the Beanie Brigade knitters to notice and enjoy how I’ve placed the traveling and stationary cables on the body of the hat to mimic the tails of shooting stars. I even brought the cables together to form the shape of a star when viewed from the top. It definitely took a couple of tries, but the cleverly placed decreases knocked it out of the park when the angles and star points finally aligned.
Q6. You work with animals and fiber. Have any furry or four-legged coworkers ever "helped" with a design by stealing yarn, sitting on patterns, or supervising your work?
A6. Hahaha, I’m fortunate that none of my guide dogs have ever stolen yarn, ran into another room with a project, or chewed up a limited-edition festival-specific colorway. But my childhood family dog, Candy, used to loooooove to curl up on blankets that I crocheted as soon as they were long enough to hit the floor OR as soon as I sat it down to grab a snack or potty break.
Q7. What's a knitting or crochet technique you think deserves a comeback?
A7. Ok, my brain’s knee jerk reaction was “NO messy bun beanies! Please don’t make me.” My maker spirit will always sing the song of cables, texture, and colorwork, but two things I haven’t done in a while have come back into my sphere lately: basketweave stitch and broomstick lace. I found one of my early crochet basketweave stitch projects and instantly had the urge to make something with that stitch and some squishy wool yarn. And even though I’m not drawn to wearing lace, I recently saw a really cool broomstick lace round yoke sweater that was very inspiring.
Q8. Your brand feels magical and cozy. If visitors entered the enchanted forest of Visuvio's Crafts, what would they discover first?
A8. Thank you! I think they’d discover cozy hammocks with their own little floating orbs of warm light that are perfect for replacing your knitting/reading neck light, a gentle breeze that rustles through the leaves carrying the subtle scent of a fresh herb garden and seasonal simmer pot somewhere nearby, the most majestic horses freely roaming about, and a berry and fruit tree orchard just a short walk away! And you CAN’T forget that there just has to be a place to get some nice yarn in Visuvio’s Crafts’ enchanted forest.
Q9. Which part of the design process do you enjoy most: dreaming up ideas, swatching, knitting samples, naming the pattern, or seeing other knitters make it?
A9. That’s a tricky question. I enjoy so many parts of the design process. I love dreaming up design ideas and seeing how other knitters add their personality and creative spin to my original vision, but one of the most exciting parts for me is when the sample comes to life exactly like the idea I visualized in my head! Especially after experimenting multiple times with a motif, a chart, or rates of increase and the first iterations not ending up the way you want them to.
Q10. Your creative journey has taken some interesting turns. Is there a past career or life experience that has unexpectedly influenced the way you approach design today?
A10. I think my science brain complements my artist brain very well! Though I pull inspiration from my animal and equestrian experiences, I think my approach to design often draws on my science brain’s instinct to experiment, take notes, save pictures of swatches, gauge and tool-size details, and take time to soak up the element of play and curiosity. I have a design journal and a design photo album that I can use as a reference for shapes or stitch combinations in the future, even when those experiments led me to realize that the current design isn’t meshing well with my initial attempt at combining those elements. It’s been useful to not unravel that swatch and delete the writing instructions from the document for that unsuccessful attempt because it has saved me so much time on more than one account when I have an idea pop in my head and think “WAIT! I might already have a swatch with this stitch or shape in my album. *commence the sprint to my laboratory*.”
Q11. If one of your patterns could be turned into a full knitwear collection, which would you choose and what would the collection be called?
A11. I would love to see my Lyse Shawl be turned into a full knitwear collection! That one is a fun texture design I brought to life for Woolfolk Yarn, and it pulls inspiration from the texture of tree bark and the moss on the sides of trees and rocks. It would be very aptly named Enchant.
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Vincent's Socials