Designer Spotlight: Teresa Gregorio

Today's designer spotlight designer is Teresa Gregorio. Teresa is a knitwear designer from Ontario, Canada. Her love of fashion, art, and history combine in her designs, which are feminine, young, and wearable. She focuses mainly on garments and accessories for women. You can find her work published in the online publications Knotions and Holla Knits, the book Brave New Knits, Knit Picks, Knitscene, and a number of self-published patterns and collections.

KP: How long have you been knitting, and how did you get started designing? 
TG: I’ve been knitting for about ten years now. I taught myself from the first Stitch n’ Bitch and immediately glommed on to the online knitting community. I was always so inspired by the work people created, many of them without a pattern. Since I’ve always loved to make things, and push the boundaries of my making, jumping to design was really rather quick. A bit too quick, maybe.

Paridae by Teresa Gregorio

KP: Where do you get inspiration? Can you tell us about your design process? 
TG: Fashion, art, and history are my main sources of inspiration. I’ve always been a sucker for costume dramas, window shopping, and style that’s overtly baroque and luscious. My design process starts with a bunch of sketching, a bit of research (I like to test out fun and sometimes challenging techniques) and a generous amount of flipping through stitch dictionaries. I always ask myself if I could see myself wearing the piece; sometimes if I’m feeling really on top of things I’ll fantasize about the romance text, which sort of helps to clarify my ideas.

KP: Of all your designs, which is your favorite? 
TG: Right now it’s Paridae. And I think that’s in large part due to the beautiful Zen Yarn Garden in Serenity Worsted that I was able to use for the sample. It just shines! It makes the waist decreases at the small of the back look lovely and give the voluminous hood some weight and dramatic flair. Plus, I love me some seed stitch.

Teresa's workspace

That one is followed closely by Lucania, which I’m quite pleased with because I think I was able to conquer the bobble-monster and create a design that uses them successfully.

KP: Do you have any knitting horror stories/mishaps? 
TG: My first and worst was also my inaugural design. I wanted a sweater, and didn’t really realize that I had almost no business trying to design a sweater. Especially seeing as I’d never even knit one from a pattern before. It turned out too snug, particularly around the arms. I don’t know where it is now; I likely hurled it halfway around the globe, powered by disappointment, shame, and the realization that I spent so much lovely yarn, time, and effort on this one failed piece.

You can learn more about Teresa on her website, find her designs on Ravelry, and follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

You can see more of our designer spotlight posts here.

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