Lena Skvagerson is the lead designer and visionary behind Annie’s Signature Designs. Lena joined Annie’s in 2014, bringing with her over 25 years in the European design markets. We behind the scenes and what it was like creating the second seasonal Annie’s Signature Designs collection, Autumn Bliss. 

Lena is a passionate designer and co-collaborator. Her energy for patterns, design and the whole creation process is contagious. She’s crazy enough to love each and every part of the process and this comes across in the finished product. Today we chat about all the fun we had working through the collection design process. We wanted to share our thoughts in this exclusive “behind the scenes” interview. You’re going to love this episode!

Episode Highlights:

• Behind the scenes of designing a collection
• What it’s like to continually multitask and change gears to pull it all together
• The favorite part of the collection building process……it’s not as easy to choose as you think
• Find out exactly what is in the Autumn Bliss collection is
• Walk through the collection design planning and process - it’s really when the magic happens
• Merchandising plays a big role in the collection design 
• So many people are involved in the design, production and the actual making of the collection. It’s a fun collaboration!
• Designing “on the needles” is a great way to start, so eventually you can design on paper
• Patterns are designed to fit a size medium model, but the collection covers up to 5 different sizes. The more sizes, the better the collection.
• Pattern writing skills are worthy of spending time to develop - that really is the product!
• Technical editors play an important role in pattern layout.
• The Layout department is what makes everything pretty!
• Technical editing and proof reading the patterns is so critical to the process.
• The photo shoot is an amazing experience and it really is a blast!
• We aren’t above stealing items from our daughter’s and friend’s wardrobes…..hopefully they aren’t listening!
• A variety of models makes for a better presentation of the collection.
• Find out what part of the process made Lena feel like “that crazy lady”!

Contest Info: 

1. Search Annie’s Autumn Bliss on Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/anniescatalog/annies-autumn-bliss-collection/?etslf=7622&eq=annies%20autumn%20bliss 
2. Pin 5 favorites and hashtag #anniesautumnblisscollection and #powerpurlspodcast 
3. Send email kara@powerpurlspodcast.com include 5 links to shares to be eligible (shares can be Pinterest, FB, Instagram, Twitter, etc.)  
4. Name gets entered for a chance to win the Moonstone Poncho knitting pattern and yarn
5. The winner is contacted via a message through Pinterest 
6. Contest ends midnight November 4

Dora Ohrenstein is a designer of fashion crochet, author of 6 books, and a writer specializing in crochet history and international traditions.  Dora’s designs appears in all the major print and digital crochet publications. Given her avid interest in advancing the skills of the crochet community, she includes lots of in-depth technical information in all of her books. She also teaches crochet at Vogue Knitting Live, on Craftsy, and in yarn shops across the country.

Earlier in her life Dora was a well-known soprano who sang contemporary classical music, most notably as the solo voice of the Phillip Glass Ensemble, a position she held for 10 years.  Nowadays in addition to her design career, she is a singing teacher at Wagner College in Staten Island. Dora is a born and raised New Yorker.

Being on the road as a musician gave Dora a love of travel, and today she engages in textile travel, which has brought her to many exotic locations, including the Balkans, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and the Ukraine.  The experience has deepened her understanding of how crochet and knitting fit into the larger world of textiles. 

Episode Highlights:

• Failure is the best teacher and how that can help you learn crochet.
• Find out how each learning style easily lends itself to learning crochet.
• Crochet is easy enough to learn that you can learn complex patterns fairly quickly.
• So many lessons are learned from failure and Dora shares some of the ones she learned when she was new to crochet.
• At the end of the day, it’s just yarn!
• The best designers and crocheters rip. Find out why it’s helpful!
• Discipline cultivated in other creative endeavors can actually help hone your crochet skills.
• If you’re going to be interested in crochet, you better learn to love the process because the outcomes are not going to be fast!
• Have you ever heard crochet mentioned in a rap? Dora’s got a crochet rap for us!
• There are beautiful parallels between Dora’s vocal performance skills and her carefully honed crochet skills, both creatively and mathematically. Who knew?
• There’s something artistic and free about designing your own patterns.
• The beauty of embracing those “magical mistakes” on the hook.
• Learn why Dora finds her magic in the swatching.
• Find out what caused Dora to pick the hook back up after years of not crocheting.
• Dora has a “once in a lifetime” meeting (with crochet royalty) that ushers her right into the crochet “big leagues”.
• Dora shares some really great insights into both the knitting and the crocheting industry, and also shares some of her wishes and hopes for the industry.
• Dora talks about her new book, Top Down Crochet Sweaters, which has just been released. She’s also got a special giveaway for Power Purls listeners! Dora also has patterns for plus sizes too and she has some tips for the right fit. She knows that people aren’t standardized, so patterns can’t be standardized either! 

Don't miss an opportunity to win a copy of Dora's new book, Top Down Crochet Sweaters at www.powerpurlspodcast.com/dora.