Knitwear Designer and Author Andrea Jurgrau
Knitwear Designer and Author Andrea Jurgrau was today’s guest on the Yarn Thing podcast with Marly Bird.
Andrea was taught to knit by family, Grandmother and great-aunts were all knitters. They didn’t use patterns so for a long time, neither did she until she had a copy of an Elizabeth Zimmerman book. She became serious about knitting when in college during lecture hall at about the time she got that EZ book, where she learned patterns were always ok but not necessary.
When a friend started a yarn company, she supported her friend by creating patterns using the yarn, and that was the beginning of her design career. She also wrote a blog and shared designs through there. She still has a blog: https://badcatdesigns.blogspot.com/ The name Bad Cat was inspired by a kitty they owned named Lucy Fur who lived up to her name!
Writing patterns made her realize ‘how imprecise’ the language of patterns can be, and using charts and tech editors has been an adventure. She knits for her own pleasure any type of projects, from socks to sweaters, and loves to knit lace. When designing, she shares her love of knittin glace and in her new book New Vintage Lace, many of her designs are beautiful shawls, scarves, doilies and hats. They were inspired by Andrea’s collection of vintage patterns, many of doilies, some of which came without written instructions. The challenge was recreating these patterns to lie flat, fix mistakes in the stitch counts and to work-up in a modern way. The patterns are set up in the book that a beginner could start at the beginning and work through.
SIDE NOTE from Tammy: Recently, Andrea’s design made the cover of the special edition magazine Enchanted Knits (both the magazine and the book are from Interweave). The design shown in red is one of a pair in the magazine inspired of Snow White and Rose Red, and there is a Udine Shawlette inspired by mermaids and a Giant Slayer Vine Scarf in the magazine.
Find Andrea Jurgrau in Ravelry too: https://www.ravelry.com/designers/andrea-jurgrau
Categories: Podcast, Uncategorized
I love lace. I have always done it in crochet but you have got me interested in knitting it. I enjoyed your cats name of Lucy Fur, very funny thinking…
I am inspired to conquer lace after looking over the patterns in New Vintage Lace. I will have to keep my own canine version of Lucy Fur away from the finished projects!
Your creativity extends beyond pet names like Lucy Fur (lol) but extends into the serious work of designing lace. Great interview.
I loved this episode. I will have to check out your patterns- I love lace. Wearing a knit lace shawl such and easy way to impress passers-by! And the name “Lucy-fur” is genius. I love it.
Love the creative name of Lucy Fur. I love my kitty but he has such an obvious name of Lucky, as we rescued and saved his life. I adore lace so thanks for some new inspiration.
This book of lace knitting sounds wonderful. Just listening to the description of the shawls makes me want to dig in and knit one. I can relate to having a wonderful cat companion, such as Lucy Fur, and I’m sorry for her loss.
Lace is my favorite knitting project, no matter what the item is. Your book has many tempting project to choose from. I have my own kitty version of your Lucy Fur, named Isabella, who is a yarn bandit if I leave a skein unattended. lol
I have known many cats , some nice and some not so much. However the name Lucy Fur is a great cat name, conjuring up images of how independent and naughty cats can sometimes be.
Excited to look at Andrea’s book. Andrea and LucyFur have inspired me to start designing!
I love knitting with my own furry companion by my side, I can only imagine how much you must miss Lucy Fur- it is such a great name.
When I got married (in 1982!) I wanted a lace bit for my head (with a floral wreath to hold it in place, of course). I hadn’t really knit any lace back then, but I found a lovely doily (small tablecloth maybe?) in a Sridhar pattern book and just decided I could knit half of it and purl back, rather than knit the whole round thing. It worked perfectly!
Great podcast – it was fun to hear the founder of BadCat Designs speak (I’ve followed you for a while now). And hearing about Lucy Fur was a bonus – I laughed out loud. Fortunately I was alone in the walk in dairy cooler at work so no one heard me.
Lucy Fur has got to be the best cat name I’ve heard! Andrea’s interview was super interesting and I am amazed at her skill and ability to convert doily patterns into shawls and other accessories. Thanks for another great podcast!
Lucy Fur what a clever name for a cat. Never would have thought about putting doily patterns into shawls, clever.
Thanks for another great show! This books seems really great. I loved hearing about Lucy Fur. I had a cat growing up and he loved to chase my yarn balls. It always kept things entertaining. Can’t wait for next weeks show!
What a great show! Lace knitting is on my to do list but I’ve always been intimidated. Hopefully Lucy Fur and Bad Cat Designs can help me overcome that with the beautiful designs.
I love hearing how all your guests got started! It’s awesome that Andrea named her company after her cat Lucy-Fur.
lace is amazing and I have been buying lace but have not cast on yet.. I need this book
Would love to meet Lucy-fur! Lace is beautiful!
Interesting to learn about BadCat designs, which really brings home what Lucy-fur’s name can really entail (pun intended, ha!). My cat passed away recently, too, and so I do miss the interesting swats and pats taken at my skeins while knitting. Fun show!