With the release of Issue 2 knocking on the door, we're proud to present the talented designers who contributed to Moorit's first Spring/Summer issue. It's a truly lovely bunch, each with their own distinct style, but all with the same eye for beautifully modern crochet.
They hail, not just from the UK, but also the US, Canada, Ireland, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Latvia and Chile. Moorit is also honoured to be launching designs by a few first-time published designers in this issue! But you will also recognise some well-established designers in the line-up, even some familiar faces from Issue 1.
And if you're reading through these designer profiles thinking you'd love to be in their company... have a look at our open call for submissions to submit a proposal for a future issue of Moorit.
Michelle Boucher is a Canadian crocheter based in Ottawa with her spouse, Kellen. She has been crocheting since 2018 after several failed forays into knitting, and Mareé Basse is her first garment design. Michelle loves cool colours and rich jewel-toned palettes, and incorporating different textures of stitches into their makes, especially in big shawls and cozy tops for the winter weather. If it can be layered or accessorised, it’s a definite win! When not crocheting or brainstorming design ideas inspired by travels and memories, Michelle is either writing, spinning, biking, or wrangling her latest project from under Kestrel, the supervising cat.
@asaintmalo | Design: Mareé Basse
Jeanette Bøgelund Bentzen is a Danish crochet designer with a design background in both industrial and digital design. She is based in the southern part of Fyn, Denmark.
Jeanette’s mission is to take crochet to the next level. She is trying to revive this old craft and make it more modern. She constantly sees new possibilities and finds new ways to combine stitches to make all kinds of new expressions. Jeanette describes it like being on a treasure hunt, diving into experiments, and yes still there are so many possibilities and uncharted territory to discover.
Jeanette is doing all I can to move crochet away from being something heavy and making it more light and airy. She finds a lot of inspiration in the Scandinavian design tradition and also from the Japanese style, which she finds has a lot in common with the Nordic aesthetic.
@AirCrochet | Air Crochet | Design: Kahena
Yessabett Bueno Fernández describes herself as a Chilean, a mother, a wife, and the passionate crocheter behind Creaciones Ananda. She has been crocheting since since she was 11-years-old. Yessabett’s mother taught her the basic stitches and Yessabett hasn’t stopped crocheting since. And she has always learned in a very self-taught way: crocheting, frogging, trying, making mistakes.
As a lover of textures and colours, Yessabett also sold her handwoven fabrics at fairs and boutiques before turning to designing. For the last 4 years she has been selling her own patterns and growing Creaciones Ananda.
Discovering all the goodness that crochet can offer motivates Yessabett to experiment and create from the not-so-conventional. “Crochet is diversity. I invite you to crochet from my perspective! I'm sure you'll have a great time!”
@Creaciones.Ananda | Creaciones Ananda | Design: Low Tide
Stephan Burse has found crochet to be a place of solace and an avenue of creative expression. He has been designing unofficially for 20 plus years, and over the last two years he has been pursuing designing more seriously. He is currently based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Stephan describes his design aesthetic as nature influenced with elegance. He is passionate about showing the world that crochet can be as diverse and beautiful as knitting, so he especially loves creating shawls and other accessories using lace to fingering weight wool yarns.
@TheWoolenHookery | Design: Of Shells and Waves
Fay Dashper-Hughes fell in love with crochet because of its flexibility, speed to work up and endless possibilities it gave for fabric, texture and drape. Her favourite things to design are accessories like bags, shawls and cowls, but she also loves hooking up blanket designs and she is starting to dip her toe into garment designing too.
Although now based in Cheshire, England, Fay grew up in Scotland, which has a huge influence on her creativity and colour choices. Many of Fay’s designs are inspired by earthy tones and Scotland's nature palette married with the textures of things like beaches after a storm and stands of trees. Fay’s designs are also functional, with a lot of her creative thinking going beyond the aesthetics and looking at how something will be worn or used, and how it can be useful and durable.
@FayDHDesigns | Provenance Craft Co. | Design: Drift
Claudia Dingle first began designing in 2018 because it gave her the freedom to create exactly what she wanted in her wardrobe, for both fit and style. She believes there are no rules when you’re following your heart to create a new design!
She is continually inspired by colours, nature, flowers, architecture and patterns, and she describes her style as colourful, wearable and fun. Her all time favourite design technique is colourwork crochet, and she has designed many intricate colourwork accessories. She even has plans to design a crochet colourwork jumper soon.
Claudia is now based in Cologne, Germany after living for a few years in Cape Town, South Africa.
@SunbirdCrochet | Design: Claigan and Wind Rose
Lori Harrison of Aklori Designs is a Tunisian crochet designer based in Arizona, USA where she lives with her husband, three cats, and a sassy Shiba Inu. She started designing in 2017. She learned to crochet as a young child, but it wasn’t until she came across a Tunisian crochet sample in her LYS in 2016 that her passion blossomed. Crocheting helps her unwind after work and designing nurtures her creative side. She especially enjoys shawl designs because they have very few rules to follow so she can let her creativity run wild. She loves creating designs featuring unique shaping, fun textures and bold color combinations. When she doesn’t have a Tunisian crochet hook in her hand, she enjoys cooking, hiking and nature photography.
@AkloriDesigns | Aklori Designs | Design: Deeside
Emilia Johansson is the Swedish crochet designer behind Coffee & Crocheting, based in Helsinki, Finland. Emilia accidentally started her design journey 3 years ago and found a real passion for designing. Her garment designs embrace minimalism and simplicity, but she isn’t afraid to use colour to make them pop! Emilia’s favourite things to design are sweaters and cardigans.
@CoffeeAndCrocheting | Coffee & Crocheting | Design: Seashell
Ines Rodgers’s first crochet memory dates back to her early school days: it is the phrase every girl in her class dreaded to hear: “Wieder auftrennen!” (German for “open it up again”). But at the end of the lesson most of the students had created a pair of crochet potholders they could proudly present to their parents. Crochet soon became Ines’s favourite hobby, and she graduated from potholders to doilies to bags and garments, making up a few designs along the way.
But it wasn’t until 2020 that Ines released her first pattern. Many of her designs start with a crochet texture or stitch combination that she is drawn to before deciding what type of garment or accessory might suit that particular stitch. Now that she lives in Ireland that decision is often influenced by her surroundings and the Irish climate; which means she’s more likely to design a light sweater than a bikini top for the summer season. Ines now admits she has come to appreciate her teacher’s favourite phrase as an important step to getting a design just right.
@ElderberryFarmCrafts | Design: Aiteall
Linda Skuja is a textile designer from Riga, Latvia. Linda creates stylish crochet patterns using her trademark style of texture and her signature short row and three-dimensional stitches. Textural stitches are important to Linda as a way to channel her ideas into the garment. Her main sources of inspiration are nature and architecture, and everything tactile.
@ElevenHandmade | Linda Skuja | Design: Spenedrift
Michelle White, aka Dora, set up the Dora Does blog in 2017 to share her patterns and record her journey as a crochet designer. Dora Does explores all things crochet, from the fundamentals to the foundations of design. It aims to serve as a resource for adventurous beginners to freestylers and budding designers.
Based from her home in Cambridge, UK, Michelle designs practical, modern garments and accessories, and contemporary homeware patterns. All with an added hint of whimsy, joy, and a splash of colour here and there.
Michelle loves to play with different construction methods, sharing her exploration of different design styles, textures and drape. As a self taught crocheter, she is able to approach crochet without preconceptions. Her mission is to dispel the myth that only advanced crocheters can make their own wardrobe. Crochet wearables are for everyone who wants to try them; Michelle wants to help makers build the confidence to start, and continue on that journey, all the while emphasising the benefits crochet can have on one’s wellbeing and personal growth.
@DoraExplored | Dora Does | Design: Coventina