Meet Chloé Elizabeth Birch

This talented designer loves to play with stitches and shapes to create fresh, contemporary knitwear

AN EXCITING young designer with a growing portfolio of innovative, contemporary knits, Chloé Elizabeth Birch has created patterns for The Knitter and Simply Knitting, along with yarn companies West Yorkshire Spinners and Scheepjes. We caught up with Chloé to find out about her design career and knitting inspirations.

When did you learn to knit?

"My wonderful mum taught me when I was around 17. I was studying my Textiles A-Level at the time, and really wanted to add a knitted piece to my final piece - not that I had ever knitted anything before! I came home from school and asked her to teach me. That evening I learnt the knit stitch, cast-on and cast-off, and I was ready to go. The next day, I came home with a big bag full of bra elastics along with wire and decided these were going to be my yarn! As you can imagine, they were not the easiest to knit with, especially for a one-day-old knitter... But I managed it, somehow, and it worked with my final piece perfectly. Since then I have been hooked, although I do usually stick to knitting with yarn now!"

Can you remember the first original piece of knitwear you ever created?

"My first piece of knitwear I ever designed and made myself was at university. I studied Fashion Design and specialised in knitwear in my final year. For my final collection, I created six outfits inspired by the artworks of Vincent van Gogh. For this, I did a range of both hand- and machine-knitted pieces. I had learnt to spin during the previous summer, and created my own yarn in all the shades of van Gogh's sunflower painting, which I made into a jacket."

How did your career as a knitwear designer evolve?