Meet Tanja Osswald
Tanja Osswald has loved crochet ever since she started at six years old. She is well known on Ravelry for her friendliness and her beautiful slip stitch designs. My favorite of her designs are the fingerless mitts that use her innovative horizontal cabling technique. Comet, which is perhaps the most well known of Tanja’s designs, showcases this technique beautifully. Shown on the left below, this design was also the deserving winner of the Flaming Hook of Justice Award for the Best Fingerless Mitts Design of 2015. Besides fingerless mitts, Tanja has several lovely geometric shawl designs that also use slip stitch crochet. Of these, one of my favorites is Igel, shown on the right below. Be sure to check out her designer page on Ravelry here.
The Interview
Q: If your favorite design was a robot, what would it do and how?
A: My favorite robot would wind all my hanks into nice and neat yarn cakes, ready for me to use – and it would work slowly and diligently, a pleasure to watch and meditate. My favorite design is always the next I come up with – so it is hard to imagine a matching robot.
Q: Where is your favorite place to crochet?
A: My favorite place to crochet is anywhere I can sit comfortably. That can be a couch, a seat on the train, in a cafe… good light is a bonus.
Q: Describe your first experience with slip stitch crochet. Was it love at first sight?
A: In 2008 I played around with hotpads and oven gloves (see right). I worked these at a tight gauge, so they are thick and insulating. A friend at the Häkelclub (an internet forum) brought up the idea of making projects just from slip stitches (like in Bosnian crochet) and that got me started. It was interesting to explore different stitch patterns, but I had no idea it would become such a big love for me.
Q: Describe the time you invented horizontal slip stitch cables. Was it intentional? Did it take a while to figure out?
A: That was in the spring of 2010. I wanted to make a pair of fingerless mittens for my mother. They were supposed to be just plain and mindless. Then, work stress kicked in and I just had to be creative to relax a bit. I love cables because they are pretty and mathematical (all those permutation groups) and ancient (the Celts had awesome cable patterns). What more to wish for?
I like to work my mittens sideways so I can use the stretchy back loop only slip stitch rib. I also wanted the cable to run along the whole length of the mitten. Topologically, it should be possible to make a horizontal cable with a continuing thread – so why not make one in real life? My commute was about 45 minutes. On the way to work, I tested the principle of making horizontal cables, and on the way back, I made my first cabled mitten.
Q: What one piece of advice would you give someone trying one of your designs for the first time?
A: Enjoy! 🙂 And just contact me if you need help with anything.
Sneak Peek and Giveaway
As a special bonus, Tanja has shared a special sneak peek of one of her upcoming designs! She has also generously offered to give away a copy of one of her patterns. Enter here and tell Tanja which of her designs is your favorite!
The giveaway ended on July 29th at 23:59 PST.
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Love your patterns, cannot wait to try one 🙂
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I like so many of her patterns; they are quite unique. But the Heart Affairs toy keeps drawing me in
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Wow. I’ve never seen her patterns before. But now I must knit the wanderwellen mits! Beautiful!
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Thanks for the introduction to an amazing designer! I think my favorite of Tanja’s patterns at the moment is the Normalparabel Shawl. What an incredible design! Thanks for the chance at a giveaway for one of her patterns 🙂
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I love Comet or Himbeerwellen
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It’s so hard to choose just one from so many lovely patterns but I love the Comet pattern. I love your use of slip stitches and beautiful cabling!
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I love the sneak peek of the new shawl! What’s it called?
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Thanks, Jos!
That’s a good question about the name – so far, the project is called “swap shawl” but I have not come up with a good name for the pattern yet. Any suggestions?
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I love lots of your patterns, but my 2 favorites are Ammonite and Blinking Peacock. Don’t know which I would pick.
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I think I must echo Tanja: her next design is my favorite. That new blue shawl is really superb.
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Real tough choice ~ narrowing it down to just one pattern. I have narrowed it down to 2 and would be more than happy with any pattern ~ such a talented designer, she is!
Rotweinknoten ~ with second place being Sky Blue Mittens
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I love Sweet Mittens!
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I like all the pattern from Tanja, in the Moment my favorite ist IGEL. I met Tanja twice in Hagen at a Workshop.
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Many lovely designs, and I am having a hard time picking a favorite between the “Blinking Peacock” and “Normalparabel.”
-TempusMori (Ravelry)
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Hohenhof
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Congratulations! You won!
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Thank you ladies ! You’ve made my day.
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Comet and Blinking Peacock are co-favorites!
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Absolutely love the Frechen.
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Also Love the Swap Shawl.
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My favourite is absolutely Blinking Peacock 🙂
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It has to be Mohnteilchen. I have been looking for a knit fingerless mitt pattern and this is definitely the place, and this one, the perfect one.
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It is hard to pick one favorite design, the one that I like most is the Heart scarf. I think that it is so cute !
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I suppose “all of them” doesn’t count as an answer? Sigh. If I had to pick a favorite, maybe Rotweinknoten.
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I love your Frechen design. Thank you for an awesome giveaway.
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Blinking peacock rocks my world. I’m not sure I could do it justice, but I’d love to try.
NanaMamah on Rav
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Reblogged this on and commented:
I LOVE the Comet design. I just met Tanja online but didn’t realize she was that designer!
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