The WildWood Collection

The WildWood Collection

There is something rather exciting about seeing an idea that once existed only in my imagination slowly beginning to take shape.

The WildWood Collection is my first planned collection of handmade crochet cardigans for Woven Witch. Five cardigans, each made in the same light and comfortable style, but each with its own colour palette, personality and name inspired by the natural world.

The collection will consist of Foxglove, Dryad, Bluebell, Heatherbell and Clear Sky.

I wanted the names to feel as though they belonged together without being identical. Some are inspired by wildflowers, some by the woodland, and one by the open sky above it. Together, they create the little world that became WildWood.

Foxglove is where the collection begins. Filled with beautiful warm pinks, oranges, purples and softer natural shades, it has a wonderful wildflower quality to it. At the time of writing this, Foxglove is already well underway, with the body completed and the cardigan gradually coming to life.

Dryad will bring the greens of the woodland into the collection, with shades that remind me of leaves, moss and the changing colours found beneath a forest canopy.

Bluebell introduces beautiful blue, turquoise and green tones—a brighter woodland colourway inspired by those flashes of colour that appear amongst the greenery.

Heatherbell will be the softer and more romantic member of the collection, with delicate shades of pink, blush and mauve.

Finally, Clear Sky will bring together blue and white, providing a fresh, airy contrast to the more floral and woodland shades of the other cardigans.

Although they will share the same basic design, the changing yarn means that no two cardigans will ever feel quite the same. One of my favourite things about working with colour-changing yarn is that I don't have complete control over exactly where every colour will appear. I can follow the same stitches and the same pattern, but the yarn has a little say in the finished piece too.

That unpredictability is part of their charm.

Making five cardigans by hand is going to take time. Crochet cannot be rushed, and I don't want it to be. Every cardigan will be created one stitch and one row at a time until eventually all five are hanging together.

I'm particularly looking forward to that moment.

I already have plans to photograph each finished cardigan individually, showing its shape, stitches and colours, but I also want one photograph of the entire WildWood Collection hanging side by side. I think seeing all five together will make the amount of work behind the collection suddenly feel very real.

For now, however, there are many stitches still ahead of me.

The WildWood Collection is still a work in progress, and I rather like documenting it at this stage. This journal isn't only intended to show finished products. I want it to record the ideas, experiments and many hours of making that happen before something ever reaches the Woven Witch shop.

One day I hope to return to this entry with all five cardigans completed and remember when WildWood was still simply a plan, a collection of beautiful yarns and a great many rows waiting to be crocheted.

And when that day arrives, there will be another chapter to write:

The WildWood Collection is complete.

But first, I have some crocheting to do.

Five colours. Five cardigans. One little enchanted woodland, made by hand.