PROFILE: SUSAN MARIA WALSH
From a beach childhood to veterinary college to crochet awards, it’s been a busy ride for Susan Walsh of Peppergoose Design...
Growing up in Western Australia, Susan Maria Walsh lived in a number of small country towns with her mother, father and sisters, spending her childhood camping, fishing and playing on the beach. While these are treasured memories, it’s the hours spent crafting with her mother and grandmother that are at the forefront.
These days, Susan lives in Perth with her husband, Damien, their dog Bruce and cat Subi. She qualified as a Veterinary Surgeon in 1996, entering into a very full-on role – but this soon took its toll on Susan.
“I lost the use of my left arm with nerve pain through overuse and stress. It took a year to rehabilitate my arm,” she tells us. “I took this as a wake-up call and quit my full-time job, deciding to work part-time as a vet. I turned to the many creative pursuits I enjoyed as a child for stress relief, and when I inherited my grandmother’s crochet pattern books after her passing in 2011, I decided to make a little coat for a friend’s baby. I felt close to Grandma as I crocheted, and I think it helped me grieve. For me, it was obsessive crocheting from that point onwards!”
THE NEXT LEVEL
Making the baby coat triggered Susan’s fascination with garment construction. “It totally intrigued me. If knitting can make well-draping, fashionable clothes, then why can’t crochet?” Susan started to experiment by trial and error with her own creations, then heard about Pauline Turner’s International Diploma of Crochet.
“I immediately signed up for Part One and completed it as fast as I could. It helped a lot and opened my eyes to a new world of crochet. This new approach, plus the variety of yarns you could get online, blew my mind – there was no turning back, there were just too many ideas to try out!”
GOOSE LET LOOSE
Crochet soon became Susan’s life, and it wasn’t long before she became a maker and designer, creating her very own crochet business, Peppergoose Design. How did she come up with such a wonderfully playful name? “My husband and I would randomly blurt out two words that made no sense together until ‘Peppergoose’ came up and it just felt right. Immediately, I could see a goose wearing a red scarf!”
In 2018, she launched her own website, curating and managing all of her social media to promote her brand. “When someone downloads one of my patterns it gives me a real boost of encouragement that I am doing something right.”
BREATHING SPACE
A year and a half ago, Susan moved into her newly built home, and has an entire room dedicated to her crochet and textile work.
“I like sitting on my couch by the window to crochet, or at my table with my laptop to swatch, sketch and figure out the relevant maths for a pattern. My slim mannequin ‘Betty’ stands by the door with a couple of curvier headless dressmaker forms (I think of them as ‘the Veronicas’). Betty and the Veronicas have been essential to help me solve design problems, and I can dress them up in my creations so I am surrounded by colourful crochet!”
ACCOLADES AND AWARDS
Happily, it wasn’t long before Susan’s wonderful work started attracting some serious attention, and in 2013, she decided to participate in the CGOA Annual Crochet Design Competition. “I was very much encouraged by earning third place in the Fashion category that year for a laceweight alpaca cardigan.” The following two years saw Susan earning an honourable mention and second place in the Fashion category respectively. Year by year, Susan started to gain more attention for her entries and in 2017, she earned the Grand Prize for her ‘Green Garden Filet Lace Cardigan’. “I am very pleased to say Green Garden is now known as the Olga cardigan, recently published with Scheepjes yarn company in their YARN 6 Bookazine.”
FASHION FIRST
Things continued to soar for Susan and in 2018, her wildest dreams came true. “Scheepjes creative director Simy Somer asked me if I was planning on attending the CGOA conference in Portland, Oregon that year. I hadn’t considered it before, but thought it could be a good time to try to make myself known to more of the industry,” Susan explains.
“I thought for a few solid days about what I should make. I made some sketches, and did a lot of imaginary crocheting in my head before I started!
“I dreamt up a long dress design, inspired by the thought of glamorous eveningwear. It was to be crocheted in a dark navy Scheepjes Maxi Sugar Rush cotton thread, with a split in the skirt, Swarovski crystal embellishment over a dramatic V-shaped insert of spider lace at the neckline, and a row of Swarovski crystal buttons down the back.
“My Spider Lace dress won both First Place and the Grand Prize in Fashion! My effort had paid off, and I was so happy to have my husband there by my side to experience it with me. Other similarly crochet-obsessed conference attendees were so kind to give me their congratulations. A couple even wanted their picture taken with me – surreal! The entire conference was a very positive experience and I left with a number of contacts, further crochet knowledge, and opportunities. It was totally worth it!” For Susan, the future is looking as equally bright as her dazzling past achievements, with plans for future garment designs to be made in collaboration with Scheepjes, as well as working on publishing more patterns on her own Peppergoose Designs website.
“I will also apply for Perth Up-Markets for 2019, and will be making crocheted handbags, accessories and jewellery for the stall. That will certainly keep me busy for now. I’ll have to leave some room in my schedule for my day job – not forgetting including some time to relax!”
“WHEN SOMEONE DOWNLOADS A PATTERN, IT GIVES ME A REAL BOOST OF ENCOURAGEMENT”