This week we're turning the Spotlight to our talented 2024 Designers! Join us each day as we get to know a different 2024 Pattern Designer and learn what inspired their design!
Ouisi (“weezy”) Hamilton is co-president of the Chattanooga Yarncrafters stitching group. Their stitching journey started in 2003 (after Knitty was founded but before YouTube, during the great eyelash yarn plague). They began with knitting, but the craft creep is real: in addition to learning to crochet, they do a little yarn dyeing and have recently taken up handspinning with spindles and a wheel. Their current passion is designing original stranded colorwork motifs depicting Appalachian wildlife and culture. You can connect with them by joining the CY Meetup group and attending a stitch-in, or by reaching out to OuisiH on Ravelry. See what they’re up to by following their Instagram or Threads account, TheNotoriousWIP.
Behind the Design:
Murrell’s Row began as a refusal to frog a hat knit too narrow to fit. Ouisi steeked the hat and inserted a colorwork panel to make up the width. That motif was a spider from Andrea Rangel’s AlterKnit Stitch Dictionary, and the hat was immediately claimed by a preschooler who thought a spider pirate hat was just the coolest.
A Wikipedia rabbit trail introduced Ouisi to John Murrell, and they created an original pirate king applique to replace the spider insert. The project languished in a spreadsheet of Appalachia-themed designs-in-progress until the GTYT call for pattern submissions went out. Realizing this design was ideal for customization with any quantity of yarn colors, and that a Tunisian crochet applique would be more stable than a knitted one, Ouisi converted the hat into crochet and began banging out samples, which will be visited upon unsuspecting cousins this holiday season.
Connect with Ouisi:
Ravelry: OuisiH
Instagram: @thenotioriuswip
Meetup: Chattanooga Yarncrafters
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