Today we're talking with Inese Sang, a Latvian designer known for her lovely shawl designs.
For Issue 24 she designed Madara, a shawl that catches your eye with a sweet combination of colors and fun variety of stitches like lace, bobbles, and colorwork scallops. Madara is a large shawl, but with so many different textures and stitches it's sure to keep your interest until the end.
amirisu: What challenges did you encounter during the design process?
Inese: I view challenges as a way to learn and find solutions. While working on Madara, the greatest challenge was to accommodate the longer floats of contrast colour yarn between the main colour scallops. Because scallops are worked in purl stitch, it is difficult to trap floats on the wrong side without them being visible on the right side, so I modified the scallop with a section of knitted stitch around it to trap them safely and invisibly. It also ended up adding a subtle raised texture of the scallop, which I love.
amirisu: If you were to knit this design in another color, what would it be?
Inese: I love the low contrast that the currently used colourways provide. If I had to knit it in another colour, I would still choose light grey as the main colour but would love to see faded dusty denim blue as a contrast colour. The shawl would also look beautiful in darker shades of grey as a main colour and red-ish brown as a contrast colour.
amirisu: How did you start your knitting journey?
Inese: I admired my grandmother’s knitted mittens and my mom’s knitted garments, and as a child was fascinated by the idea of wearing something made with our own hands. My mom was my first knitting teacher and we also had knitting classes at school, learning the basics of traditional Latvian mitten and sock knitting. But later in life I didn’t knit much until after the birth of my son. Knitting memories somehow always stayed at the back of my mind and the love for making things returned and eventually evolved into everyday practice.
amirisu: Tell us a little bit about a favorite place of yours in the town or area you grew up in or where you live now.
Inese: I grew up in a small town in Latvia surrounded by water. We lived a walking distance from a river, a few minutes drive from many forest lakes and the sea. So I really love being around water. But my favourite place is the quiet, vast and white sandy shores of the closeby Baltic Sea. It is a place I can truly relax and spend hours walking along the shore, listening to the waves and observing all the colours of the sea and the sky and how they change throughout the seasons.
amirisu: What is one handicraft or traditional art or skill (other than knitting) from your country or region that you like or have an interest in?
Inese: I really love Latvian linen weaving, traditionally used to weave tablecloths, towels and bed covers. It usually uses two low contrast shades of undyed linen for vertical and horizontal thread, so the final pattern is barely noticeable in a direct light but reveals itself in the angled or indirect light conditions. I love studying the weaving patterns which are usually complex but still reflect the traditional Latvian symbols and heritage. I also always have woven linen table runners around my home, they remind me of my roots and inspire me to notice the beauty in the details.
Thank you Inese!