This month, I am really excited to get to interview the amazing Ambah O’Brien! Ambah lives and works in Australia where she designs beautiful knitwear patterns. I will also be including some info about some new patterns she has coming out in the next week or so as well as a coupon code for Purple Lamb readers down at the bottom.
As many of you already know, I am including Ambah’s Adventurous Scarf and Wrap pattern as part of my own Advent Yarn Calendars this year. Here is a photo of that fabulous pattern:
As usual, I’ll be asking questions in black, and Ambah’s responses will be in purple. Also, most of the photos are links to Ambah’s patterns on Ravelry.
Q: Welcome, Ambah! You are the first Australian designer I’ve gotten to interview.
A: Thank you for inviting me.
Q: Can you tell us how you got started in fiber arts? How did you first learn to knit?
A: My mum taught me garter stitch at around 6 years of age. I would get her to cast on and off and made some very wonky blankets for my toys. Purl stitch was a great mystery to me. Over the years I watched my mother and grandmother create stunning garments but didn’t pursue it further.
Years later I was resigned to the fact that I would never become a knitter although I always loved and appreciated hand-knits. In 2011 a friend of mine opened her LYS with stunning hand-dyed yarns that were a revelation to me. I purchased some and admired them for awhile. She told me about Ravelry and I joined as a very rudimentary crocheter.
A year later in 2012, my son was attending a Waldorf School and had learnt to knit among other crafts, and I asked him to show me how. He was nine and made an excellent teacher, regularly inspecting my work and making me rip it out if there were any mistakes. I discovered the wonderful Baktus scarf pattern and made four in quick succession, using the gorgeous yarn I had purchased a year earlier. That was it. I was obsessed and started to make myself garments and scarves and a fast rate!
Q: You are the first person I have interviewed whose son taught her to knit! I love that so much! Thank your son for all of us, would you?
Q: Did you do what most people do and start with acrylic yarn and then move onto more luxurious yarn?
A: Hehe, as per above it was the beautiful luxurious yarn that inspired me to knit. However, I used cheaper yarns for my first garments. I prefer to wear natural fibres so I haven’t actually worked with acrylic yet.
Q: Now, you have a background in painting. How does that inform your work as a knitwear designer, and does your knitwear inspire your painting as well?
A: As a painter I am very excited by the palette of colours available in yarns, especially the gorgeous hand-dyed yarns. I used to work as a face and body painter, so there was a 3D element to that. I’d also paint garments on the models and make headpieces and accessories for them to wear too. I can see the crossover in my colour sense and style between my painting and knitting creations and find much inspiration in my paintings and the artwork of others for my knit design.
Q: When you’re looking for inspiration for a new pattern, where do you find it?
A: Either from the yarn itself–choosing some colours then working out a design–or an idea of something that I would like to make for myself, a particular garment or shawl that I know I want to wear. Sometimes I find myself exploring ideas and each new design inspires me to make some kind of variation and explore the shape/colours/ stitch pattern further. I’ve also found inspiration when walking in the bush, looking at fashion, and most often when I’m in bed somewhere between sleep and awake.
Q: I saw that you were at Vogue Knitting in New York this year. That’s exciting! Do you do a lot of traveling?
A: I was at VKL NY in January and am thinking how best to incorporate travel as a designer. I travelled internationally and interstate a lot as a body painter for both work and to teach techniques. I got burnt out from the amount of travel I was doing, and that is another reason I took up knitting. It was very therapeutic for me, so I am cautious about taking on too much travel this time, especially as the distances from Australia are so great. That said, I love meeting and connecting with other knitters and will certainly be making more trips in the future.
Q: I certainly get that dilemma! I have the same problem with doing fiber festivals. I plan to do more when my youngest children get to be a little older.
Q: What’s your favorite yarn weight to work with?
A: Since our climate is warmer, I do tend to favour fingering and lace-weight yarns. It’s always fun to use a heavier weight yarn too – it knits up so fast!
Q: Do you have a favorite type of wool or other fiber you like to use?
A: Not really. I love to mix it up and try new fibres out, although I do have a preference for natural fibres.
Q: Me too! What is your own personal favorite design that you have made so far?
A: Oh wow, that is so hard to answer! It’s impossible I’m afraid.
Q: Well, I couldn’t pick just one either, but here’s one that will probably be familiar to most of my readers–your Hale-Bopp Shawl:
Q: Where is the best place to buy your patterns?
A: https://www.ravelry.com/designers/ambah-obrien
Q: Where else can we find you online?
A: I have a website at www.ambah.co, and I also have an Etsy store where I have a range of “knit bling” shawl pins, stitch markers, enamel pins, and more. The link is https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/AMBAH. I’m also @ambahobrien on instagram.
Q: I understand you have plans for a new Advent yarn calendar pattern and knit-along for 2019. Can you tell us about that?
A: For the past 2 years I have designed a wrap pattern with a Yarn Advent Calendar in mind to make the most of daily mini skein gifts that appear. Then each December I host a knit along in my Ravelry group. Each day during Advent participants will unwrap their gorgeous Advent calendars and share pictures and knit each day’s yarn into the project. During the Advent period there are daily prizes from our wonderful sponsors. Participants have until January (mid-Feb for this year’s Advent) to finish up and share their projects in the final FO prize thread. Each year more and more yarn dyers get involved, so there is an amazing array of beautiful kits available. Participants are also invited to use their stash, leftovers, and swap and share with fibre friends.
There is a lot of chat in the group. My intention is to create a loving and generous space to retreat to from what can be a busy and sometimes difficult time of year for many. The past two years have blown my mind. The spirit of the group is really wonderful and loving.
This year I have decided to include the three Advent patterns from the last two years plus I have created three new designs (two wraps and a cowl) for this year to choose from, and I will be extending the KAL period to mid February.
I’ll be revealing this year’s patterns in October. For more information, please visit the KAL thread here. https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/ambah/3918427/1-25#1
Q: How exciting! What other plans do you have for the near future?
A: We (myself, my honey, and our son) have decided to move to coast at the end of 2019 from central Victoria. We are all excited about the change in our lives, and I am looking forward to seeing how my new inspiration will translate into my future knitting patterns. It is a very cold and rugged coast, so I am looking forward to some chunkier projects. Aside from that I have two shawls planned for release in October that I am really looking forward to sharing and then the big KAL event that makes my Decembers amazing!
As we were finishing up, Ambah told me that she has a new pattern coming out within the next week or so. It’s the Pop Crop Sweater. Here’s a sneak peak:
Q: Ambah, you have A LOT going on! Thank you so much for taking the time to be with us today!
Ambah is offering the hat pattern free as a swatch sample for the sweater. Isn’t that brilliant? A swatch that you actually get to use?
Also, she generously offered all of us a coupon code for 30% off her patterns on both Ravelry and Etsy. The code is PURPLELAMB, and it can be used anytime between now and the end of September.
I hope you all enjoyed hearing from Ambah as much as I did! Have you used some of her patterns? Which ones? Whether you have or not, what’s your favorite pattern of hers? I’m going to leave you with one photo. This is Ambah’s Big Heart Shawl. Isn’t that just amazing?
I wanted to tell you one more thing before you go. I’ll be using Renoir’s “Vase of Roses” as the inspiration for the October yarn and fiber clubs. I’ve had several months in a row with portraits of various sorts, so a still-life will make a nice change, don’t you think? Here it is:
I’m looking forward to playing with some of the subtle colors in this one.
Happy fiber artistry!