Let’s walk and talk with Sönna, a knitting teacher and designer whose charming smile is often in my IG feed.
Sönna is teaching you how to knit and encourages you to start and show you how to pick up the craft and improve your skills. I was eager to learn more about her work also because she is a fantastic knit designer too!
I always love the beautiful patterns she creates, easy to follow, well explained, and unique.
Find out more about the knitting classes hosted by Sönna or her patterns at sundaughterknits.com and enjoy learning more about Sönna in my interview.
1. Tell a little about yourself.
I am a super creative person. My grocery lists get full-on works of art doodled on them while I plan this week’s meals. I think perhaps I can process information or think better when my hands are working – be it with needles and yarn, pen and paper, or sticks and stones in the driveway. My spirituality imbues everything I do from the designs I make to the politics I support. I don’t see a spirit as separate from our mundane lives, nor do I see humans as separate from Nature. Also, I tend to go deep quickly! Haha, I’m a queer mama of 3 boys and I homeschooled them for over a decade.
2. What inspired you to start your business as a Knitting Instructor?
I am, at heart, a teacher. I LOVE to learn more about my craft and once I learn it I LOVE to share it. I think working at yarn shops offered me so many opportunities to share what I have learned, I finally realized that having a scope and sequence to how information was presented (like in a class format)would be much more efficient!
3. What is your favorite part about being a teacher?
By far my favorite part of being a teacher is when a student has been struggling with a concept or a technique and then that moment comes where suddenly it makes sense. I find the right words to reach them or their hands learn to manipulate their tool. I have seen that moment move through a person countless times and it brings me such joy.
4. What is your favorite part about being a designer?
I love – LOVE – to see something go from an idea in my head to an object in someone else’s hands. It’s just so amazing how our patterns take on the personality of the maker via yarn choice and photography styles and I’ll not be super excited to watch that transformation take place.
5. What’s your source of inspiration?
My connection with Nature and my spirituality for sure. I also tend to be inspired to highlight a technique, and I’m guessing that is the teacher in me.
6. What makes your work special?
I want my patterns to feel accessible (meaning not too hard to make) but at the same time, I want the finished object to look complicated and fancy af. I love it when I’m just stitching away on something pretty simple but others see it and are like “OH WOW that is crazy complicated!” Haha
7. You have a lot of beautiful patterns. Do you have a favorite?
What a hard question! I think the Plant Lady Cowl is probably my favorite. I had recently moved from rural Fairbanks, Alaska to serious urban Seattle, WA. Having lived my life in a forest and now being in a city, I felt cut off from my plant friends (yes, they are my friends). Over the course of this design, I came to the realization that they are still all around me, they just live in the city with me, rather than in the forest. Learning that there is medicine and magic everywhere was an important part of my own growth and this cowl, for me, embodies that.
8. How do you like to spend your time outside of your work?
I identify as a runner. Right now I’m working my mileage back up, but my goal for the near future is 13mi long runs on the weekend with another 24-30 miles spaced out over the week. I had a break from running so I’m not quite there yet, but I am well on my way and feeling good about that.
9. What’s in store for the next season?
Given my experience as a teacher, I am quite good at reading patterns and seeing ahead to what will trip people up. I’m taking this skill along with my Virgo attention to detail and learning to tech edit! I’m loving it. In the class realm, I have a new Drop Spindle Basics class and am developing an Intuitive Spinning Class. This next season in the design side of my life, I’m teaming up with some dyers and am super excited for the accessory patterns coming your way. I have sweaters in my head and it’s about time to let them out into the world, so I would like to tackle that before the end of the year.
10. Where can we find you?
You can find me at www.sundaughterknits.com, www.instagram.com/sundaughterknits, and www.facebook.com/sundaughterknits
