Interview with Stephanie Dosen

Welcome to the second podcast of Lattes with Dr. Llama. We’re proud to welcome Stephanie Dosen, author of “Woodland Knits” and creator of Tiny Owl Knits, as a guest on the show today. Hit the play button below and join us for the interview.

For those of you, sneaking this read at work, here are the highlights!

Stephanie Dosen is a unicorn-loving fiber artist living in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Her first collection of knitting patterns entitled “Woodland Knits” was chosen by the editors of Amazon.com as the best craft book of 2013. Stephanie spends the other half of her time writing forest songs with her band Snowbird (with Simon Raymonde/Cocteau Twins). They just released their debut album “Moon” featuring members of Radiohead. You can find her website here or on twitter here.

To get us started off, where do you find your design inspiration?

Well I think I find it almost everywhere I look. Every time I see something I think, “can I knit that?” I see someone riding a bicycle and that bicycle is beautiful I think “I could knit one.” Everything I see, I want to knit them. And the squirrel outside in my tree right now, I really want to knit it.

What is your design process like?

I guess it starts with the idea. I carry around a little sketchbook and just put every idea I have in there. Sometimes it takes almost a year for something to actually come into fruition. The process takes a long time and sometimes if I have the right wool at the right time, then I can start. But for me the trouble really seems to be the finding the perfect wool for the idea. So once I find the yarn, then I’m ready to go, but the idea definitely comes first. Then I knit it. And then I rip it out. Then I knit it. And then I rip it out…

Ha ha, I have no idea what that’s like.

I think gauging is on of the most important thing in knitting. I state this officially on the record. But, I just tend to go “Oh, I think 100 stitches would be about right” and I start knitting. It’s my own fault. 

I made a pair of socks recently that I wound up tearing out eight times before I finally caved and checked the gauge.

Terrible! Why do we do it? Because we’re like, I got this. I can do this.

Every time I’m convinced that this is the time I know exactly how many stitches are in a sock with this wool with these needles.

How could you be wrong, you’ve done it so many times before? It’ll surprise you.

I have a complete obsession with your “Wear the Wild Things Are” Jumper. It’s one of those pieces that the first time I saw it I had this weird rage reaction, because I was so mad at myself for not thinking of it first. I love it so much.

Oh my gosh, thank you so much. It’s so fun to wear. I wear it over everything, because it’s so long that it goes over leggings. It’s one of my uniforms. I mean, I don’t wear it with the crown all the time, obviously. But, I wear the sweater all the time.

If you weren’t able to listen to the podcast now, bookmark it for later to catch the things you missed like Stephanie and I discussing a yarn made in Narnia, whether Stephanie is a Tinker Bell girl or more of an Oberon girl, which yarn she would need with her on a desert island, and her favorite piece she ever designed.

Thank you for joining us, Stephanie!

~ Megan-Anne
Let the wild rumpus begin!