PetiteKnit was established in 2016 and since then more than 200 patterns of varying difficulty have been released and more are still coming. Besides patterns, PetiteKnit develops and sells products that are almost essential when knitting.
Behind the name PetiteKnit you find Mette Wendelboe Okkels, who develops knitting patterns for both women, men and children of all ages
When and where did you start knitting?
My grandmother taught me to knit when I was 6 years old, and I have knitted ever since. However, it wasn’t until I was on maternity leave with my first daughter, I started developing my own designs and knitting larger pieces for myself as well. I met a group of older women who talked and knitted, and they taught me a lot about techniques and ways to knit.
What has made you work professionally with knitting?
Although it wasn’t they who taught me to knit, I think it was my father and my mother who inspired me to make my creative side my profession. They have both been self-employed all my life, so the idea of working for myself and creating something that was my own has really always been there – even though it took almost 10 years of studying medicine to realize it.
That it is knitting I have chosen to work with, feels both very obvious and as a matter of many coincidences, because maybe it could have been some other creative craft. Knitting has the advantage that you can bring it everywhere. No matter where you are or almost what you are doing or if you only have 5 minutes, you can bring your knitting and knit even just a few rows or stitches. In that way, knitting has become part of who I am, and it feels wrong to leave my house without a project.
I find the process of knitting both inspiring and relaxing, and it is often while holding the needles that I come up with ideas on how to use a technique or how the form should be. I also really enjoy communicating knitting, explaining how to move from one step to another, calculating all the sizes and details and writing it down in a manner that is easy to follow.
Do you have a particular routine for working on new patterns?
When I start a new project it usually starts with an idea, either a vague idea of a color or shape or a more concrete idea of a construction or a technique used in a specific way. Then I start knitting for myself while taking notes along the way – this often entails a lot of unraveling as well since the idea often gets finalized while the stitches are on my needles. I like to challenge myself and the techniques. It is amazing how many different ways there are to make a raglan sweater. The basic construction is the same, but it all comes down to how the techniques are combined or used differently. Yarn can also make all the difference, since the same form looks different when you change up the yarn. The gauge and the structure can change the look of the finished piece.
I often find that construction is more interesting to work with than structure – although I have been fairly interested in structure lately as well.
After finalizing the form comes the work of calculating sizes and putting all my notes in order and into the form of my patterns. Sometimes this is straightforward, but sometimes this step really takes some work to finetune the details in all sizes and parts of the knitwear. This is also a challenging part, but writing the patterns and communicating the pattern in a way that is easy to follow is also a very satisfying part.
What has studying medicine meant for your work as a knitwear designer?
My 10 years of studying medicine have meant a lot for my way of writing patterns. The scientific method of writing an article is in many ways the same as that of writing a pattern. My supervisor at university told me that a methodology section should be written so that anyone else would be able to do the same. The level of information should neither be too high so as to interfere with the meaning, or too low so as not to be adequate. In many ways writing a pattern is exactly the same. I write down each step in a way that anyone with a knowledge of the techniques should be able to arrive at the same result.
This way of thinking about the instructions in a pattern has shaped the way I write patterns and also the way I design. There is no need to complicate steps that could follow each other naturally.
The years of medicine have also taught me to be thorough and to have a focus on all the intermediate calculations. I wouldn’t have been without those years, and I think I utilize many different skills from my studies.
What inspires you?
This is always one of the hardest questions to answer, because inspiration comes from everywhere. It can be a color, a shape, a woman passing me on the street. I try to be very open to impressions.
What is the most important thing to consider when developing new patterns?
A part of my motivation for knitting for myself has always been to knit something of just as high or higher quality than I could have bought. Both in the quality of the yarn I use and in the way the knitwear fits me. For this reason, the first thing I consider when designing a new piece, is that it has to be something I want to wear or use myself or see my family wearing.
When I knit, I like to challenge myself while at the same time keeping the flow of the knitting in mind. The flow is a hard thing to explain, but flow in knitting for me is when each step follows naturally and there are no unnecessary shifts like changing the yarn or having to stitch something together. There are few things more satisfying in terms of flow than knitting a raglan sweater.
I feel – and hope – that if the flow is right, then the pattern will also be easier to follow even if several complicated techniques are used.
What makes knitting so interesting?
Knitting is interesting for several reasons: The act of knitting is in itself akin to meditating and working with your hands and keeping the hands and mind occupied is good for you but knitting has the added benefit of having a product come out of it. This - to me - makes it more interesting than other equally meditative practices such as puzzles. It keeps me motivated while I de-stress. I think this is what drives so many to knit as well, that is, the pleasure of doing something that feels good but at the same time has a purpose.
What is the best thing about being able to knit yourself?
One of the best things about knitting is that the quality can be prioritized, and that you can have the final piece be just like you want it in terms of yarn, color, length and all those other details that you cannot buy the variety of in the stores. Small changes can make a big difference, and when you are knitting the piece yourself, you can make all those changes.
Having knitted something yourself – or having something knitted your you – makes it filled with so much meaning. There are many feelings in the hours it takes to knit.
What is the point that you consider the most important when knitting?
Personally, I think the most important thing when I knit is making an effort. Exactly because the process has a purpose, I want the piece I am knitting to be something I will actually enjoy wearing or using when it is finished. It’s the same reason I would rather unravel an almost finished sweater if I made a mistake earlier on or the fit isn’t exactly as it should be – and because the process is a much a part of the pleasure as the finished knitwear, it is okay to work on it for many hours rather than rush it and not be satisfied with the result.
Besides that, I value quality a lot. When I spend hours knitting, it feels good to use quality yarn and quality equipment.