About — Into The Wool

About Sarah Solomon

Sarah Solomon, Creator

Into the Wool

Sarah Solomon is a knitwear designer, writer and teacher based in New York City. With a background in woven construction and dressmaking, Sarah brings a love of details and fine finishing to her hand knitting designs and enjoys creating and teaching techniques that are simple to master but yield beautiful, long-lasting results. Her interests range from all aspects of traditional hand knitting to re-imagining ready-to-wear and machine-knit details for hand knitters.

Sarah’s patterns and articles have appeared in Interweave Knits, Knitscene, knit.wear, Pom Pom Quarterly, and Vogue Knitting, and in collections by yarn companies large and small. In addition to her self-published work, Sarah has worked as part of the editorial team of Vogue Knitting Magazine and as Director of Knitwear Design for Harrisville Designs, a historic woolen mill in Harrisville, NH.

In her design work, she enjoys creating garments and accessories from exceptional yarns that are knittable, wearable and designed to last. Sarah is also an avid sewer and spinner and loves handwork in many forms.

Design Philosophy

I enjoy creating knits that are felt as much as they are seen, look more difficult than they are, and fuse form with function.

I love textiles. I am fascinated by the process of turning fiber into fabric into clothes. Knitting allows you to make a fabric one stitch at a time and there is something wonderful about the time this takes and what it does to your body and mind.

I think of myself as a fiber interpreter. I try to find the essence of a yarn and let it tell me what it wants to be. If I have a design in mind then I don’t embark on it until I’ve located just the right yarn that will make it sing. I am definitely a garment designer first; I tend to dream in sweaters, but I also enjoy designing hats, gloves, mittens, cowls, and most knitted things.

Through all my designs there is a focus on the usefulness of the piece. I sometimes wish I could design something purely decorative but part of the delight for me is the problem-solving aspect of creating something wearable. The best designs to me marry whimsy and inspiration with exceptional fit and careful thought to use and wearability. I often feel that my process is a bit closer to costume design or applied design than fashion design. End use is vitally important for me and there's almost always an eye to the practical–– a thought to when an item will be worn, or how it will function in someone's wardrobe, as well as the kind of knitting experience it will provide. This is what separates designing for hand knits from other types of clothing design. One needs to consider the experience of making equally with the experience of wearing. And this is really why hand knits are so meaningful to us; they represent the time, effort and pleasure it took to make them as much as the final garment.

In my pattern writing I strive for clarity and a welcoming aspect. I include as many resources as I can including detailed schematics, legible charts and explanations of techniques. My patterns provide extensive support to the knitter while leaving room open for your own taste and modifications. All patterns have been through technical editing and careful testing has gone into the yarn choice, finishing and construction techniques to provide a pleasant experience and a predictable outcome. Happy Knitting.

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