Bristol Ivy
This young designer has won fans around the world thanks to her sculptural patterns
AMERICAN DESIGNER Bristol Ivy loves to blend innovative techniques with classic tailoring, and her knitting patterns are always elegantly beautiful yet strikingly modern. She is kept busy designing and teaching, and is also well known for her creative work for yarn company Brooklyn Tweed. Do you have a favourite artist, writer, poet or musician who inspires you? “I love looking at the work of innovative fashion designers like Issey Miyake and Junya Watanabe, as well as ready-to-wear designers like Rick Owens and classic fashion movements like Dior’s New Look. I have a lot of fun seeing if I can combine elements of their work together in a wearable and knittable form.
“I am also a total nerd for British modern folk music like Laura Marling, Jim Moray, Olivia Chaney, and Johnny Flynn. I like the restraint in their music, and like to see if I can bring that aesthetic to my work.” Which knitwear designer has most inspired you, and why? “Oof, that’s a hard one! I love watching what people like Olga Buraya-Kefelian and Martina Behm do, as they’re constantly pushing the bounds of what can be done with knitted fabric and shapes. And I so appreciate and admire what people like Kate Davies and Karie Westermann do to share the historical implications of knitting and making with the community.” Tell us about the colours, landscapes or architecture that inspire your work. “I live on the coast of Maine in the United States, and the rocky shoreline, spare landscape, and brick-filled architecture are daily sources of joy for me. I also love the landscapes of northern Europe; the intertwining of centuries of history against a wild landscape gets me every time.” What fibres do you love to work with? “Right now I’m really into wool and linen combined, which creates such a soft and wearable fabric. I love to play with drape and proportion in my work, and this combo is great for that. I’m also loving all of the breed-specific, location-specific, small-batch yarns out there right now. I’m looking forward to people using them and seeing that there’s so much more variety to wool than we have previously known.” Which design from your portfolio are you most proud of, or is most special to you? “The ones that have been the result of me saying ‘what if?’ and not being worried about what the exact product may be. I think we get so caught up sometimes in making sure what we create will be perfect that we don’t give nd ourselves room to experiment and make mistakes. I have worked on multiple projects where I haven’t been able to predict how they’ll look once they come off the needles— ’Fallowed’, ‘Thorn’, ‘Winnowing’, and ‘Florence’ spring to mind—and those are the ones that I’ve been most proud of.
“At the end of the day, knitting is two sticks and a piece of string, and sometimes those come together in a project that works, and sometimes they don’t. But you can always unravel it and have the same materials you started with, plus new knowledge and understanding of how the structure of knitted fabric works.” Are there any styles of knitting you’d like to explore further? “I feel like I’ve barely touched the surface! There’s so much I have yet to explore - Shetland and Orenburg lace, Latvian and Estonian colourwork, Cowichan sweaters. I can’t wait to see if I can figure out the mechanics of each of these fabrics, so I can develop a better understanding of how knitting can work. Knitting is a folk art, and as such isn’t standardised -there’s no One Right Way to do anything. That leads to such endless possibilities, and such opportunity to learn and grow from how different communities and traditions of knitting do things. I can’t wait!” See all of Bristol’s knitting designs at www.ravelry.com/designers/bristol-ivy