PROFILE: SUSAN PINNER
Designer Susan Pinner’s experimental approach uncovers the beautiful yarn combinations that result in stunning projects we adore.
Susan Pinner caught our eye with her rainbow-fusion granny square explosion blankets, shawls and wraps. While her vibrant colour palette thrills our aesthetic sensibilities, Susan’s canny use of remnants appeals to our eco-conscious side, and her overall passion for the craft speaks to our crochet-obsessed core.
“I’m crocheting in bed right now,” she tells us over the phone. “That’s how I work best, surrounded by balls of yarn in all kinds of colours and hooking up sample after sample to find the most attractive combinations.” Yes, we’ll confess, we’re jealous right now.
After being taught to crochet by a friend’s grandma when she was eight, Susan made her first granny square blanket when she was 14, around 1966. “Someone had given me a huge bag of rug wool, and if you’ve ever worked with that you’ll know you get sore fingers very quickly. It’s really rough,” she says, meaning it took another few years for Susan’s dedication to crochet to take hold.
“I rediscovered crochet in 2008,” she says. “This time I was back with a vengeance.
I did a degree in fashion textiles, and have designed bridalwear, hats, ecclesiastical embroidery, illustration… you name it, I’ve done it!” she says.
“After getting divorced in 2006, I suddenly had a lot more time on my hands. Once I’d finished renovating the house, I was ready to think about trying something crafty. The first thing I did was take a T-shirt and turn it into strips, which I crocheted into a little bag,” she says. “Then I went to my local yarn shop in Little Wenlock, Shropshire, and bought a dozen bright balls of yarn.”
YARNY TREASURES
Before long Susan was ready to launch her blog as a place to share the patterns she was creating, and she also has a Facebook group with an impressive 11,000 members. After she’d been blogging for just two years, GMC got in touch inviting Susan to write her first crochet book. “At first I couldn’t believe it was a real offer, but they reassured me that it was true.” Susan’s first two books swiftly became prizewinning bestsellers. “I have dozens of books in me, but the work involved is huge. I’d rather keep that time for crochet and other projects.”
These other projects include Susan’s pattern club, which she resurrected in 2017 to great acclaim. “People pay £20 to receive 12 original patterns in a year,” she explains. “I was in shock at how successful it was! New people were still signing up in December. It’s strange for me to be making money from this, after giving my patterns away for free for so many years.”
COLOURFUL CALS
What are free, are Susan’s CALs (crochetalongs) on her blog, including the recent Scrap Granny Ripple, Spinning Top and Chunky Monkey CALs. “I do one or two mini CALs every year , such as the Daisy Ripple one that finished in February. I don’t plan them, but often I create a pattern that I realise would work well broken down into several sections.”
The highlight, she says, is seeing others’ interpretations of her designs. “The pattern in mine, but the colour choices mean there are hundreds of versions.”
Colour has always been a driving force for Susan’s crochet creativity, thanks to an encounter when studying at Shrewsbury College in the 1960s. “My lecturer called my colour choices diabolical. That memory has made me spend the whole of my life studying colour. It means a lot to me when someone says they like my colours,” she explains. She has a particular interest in experimenting with unusual mixes. “In my opinion all colours go together, but you need the right shades. You need the right pink with the right blue with the right yellow and the right green.”
Susan devotes many hours to crocheting and playing to suss out new colour and texture combinations. “I’m lucky that I have a large craft room, with a conservatory roof, so the light is fantastic. “I often work with up to 20 colours at a time, so there’s yarn simply everywhere. I always say that if you have a tidy work space, you’re not working hard enough.”
Inspirations tend to be vibrantly colourful too, as well as crafters including Susan Carlson (www.feltedbutton.com), Daniela Cerri (www.danielacerri.blogspot.com), and French designer Sophie Digard. “I look at a lot of tapestry weaves, mosaics, Mexican designs, colourful periods of history. Architecture, too, inspires me. I work from grid patterns of hexagons and crosses, changing colours every row or every other row.”
YARNY TREASURES
Susan is happiest when devising new ways to use up the yarn scraps from larger projects. “I love to crochet my leftover yarns into flowers, stars and triangles,” she says. “I’m not a traditionalist, but I do like the concept of granny squares. I’ve got a pamphlet dating from the 1800s which shows the first granny squares. That book is my pride and joy.”
This activity taps into Susan’s desire to try as many different crochet options as possible, including mastering techniques such as an old vintage stitch called Ancient Pineapple . “I love to mix up colours, textures and yarn weights,” she says. “For instance, if you use a large hook and 4ply yarn you get a lovely lacy look. I challenge myself to learn all the time.”
Susan relishes the chance to share her hard-won crochet wisdom with others by getting together with big groups of crocheters through her Facebook page, which you can join at www.facebook.com/groups/ 415936375263228. “I’ll just announce that we’re off somewhere in our camper van and invite people to join us. They book themselves onto the site and everyone brings their work.
“I don’t teach workshops as such, but I’ll help people with their crochet if I can,” she says. “My most recent one was at Wool@J13 in the middle of last May, which combined the show and my crochet retreat.” Keep an eye on her Facebook page for announcements of news and CALs.
With so much going on, Susan says that the biggest distraction is the constant flow of design concepts. “If I have an idea, I want to have a play with it and see how it will look. I’m always putting projects aside to try something new,” Susan admits. “There are so many possibilities with crochet that I can’t help but go off on tangents. That’s the best part. I could do that all day!”
Written by Judy Darley
Find out more about Susan’s future plans at www.shropshirescrappersuz.blogspot.co.uk
“MY LECTURER CALLED MY COLOUR CHOICES DIABOLICAL. IT MADE ME SPEND MY LIFE STUDYING COLOUR”