20 Details

A cartoonish colour palette meets a passed-down practice in Hope Macaulay’s whimsical cardigan.

Hope Macaulay’s grandma taught her how to knit when she was a child, which is where the idea for her cartoon-coloured cardigan sprang from.

My grandmother taught me how to knit when I was really young, like maybe eight or nine,” recalls designer Hope Macaulay, who is based in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. She later explored the potential of the cozy craft during her time at the University for the Creative Arts in the south of England. “I began experimenting with knitting when I was doing my art and design foundation course,” she says. “I really started developing the skill.”

A truly imaginative soul, Macaulay—who also creates custom prints for her ready-to-wear pieces— has incorporated quirky embellishments into some of her weaves, like tiny ceramic faces attached to a long knit coat. That item was inspired by Rome, as seen through a surrealist lens.

Macaulay’s yarns are sourced from the United Kingdom and are 100 per cent merino or acrylic (for her vegan collection). She starts her ideation process by creating miniature squares to see what colour combinations please her the most. The mix of lime, purple, pink, teal and peach in this cardigan was immediately reminiscent of a much-cherished memory. “I’ve always loved Scooby-Doo,” she says. “As a child, I was obsessed.” And so the Daphne Chunky Knit Cardigan came to be.

The production of a cardigan or its counterpart takes from four to 10 hours to complete, depending on the piece’s length, and this time affords Macaulay and her team of 12 part-time knitters dedicated periods of comfort. “I just love to get in the zone and let my mind run away,” she says of knitting’s therapeutic quality. “It’s my favourite part of what I do.” n