Profile-Crochet designer Marty Miller

One of the joys of my life it teaching workshops at conferences. One of the delightful bonuses is  meeting other designers and teachers. This is how I met Marty Miller, designer extraordinaire, board member of the Crochet Guild of America, workshop presenter and all round wonderful person.

My questions to Marty are in green, and her responses follow in black type.

photo copyright Marty Miller, copyright, used with permission

1.  Do you have a favorite kind of project to design?

I love designing tote bags and sweaters. And whatever I’m working on at the time.

2. Do you have a favorite stitch or group of stitches that you prefer to design with and for?

I have so many favorites – let me see if I can remember them all.

Stitches: puff stitches, linked stitches, extended stitches, foundation stitches, Tunisian stitches, post stitches.

Stitch Patterns: Granny Squares, Spiderweb pattern, filet patterns, and I love to create my own stitch patterns.

3. What aspect of being a designer is most challenging to you?

For me, the most challenging part of being a designer is creating something that other people would want to make, and would be able to make.

4. What part of being a designer is the most rewarding to you?

For me, the most rewarding part of being a designer is seeing someone wear or carry or use one of my designs. I actually stopped someone in the hallway at TNNA (The National Needlearts Association trade show) because she was wearing a sweater I had designed. I was really thrilled to see her wearing it and had to tell her it looked great on her!

5. How long have you been designing professionally?

I started creating my own designs and selling the products over 30 years ago, when I made puppets and sold them at craft fairs. I started having my designs published about 8 years ago, when I started teaching crochet classes at my local yarn shop. I was asked to have the students use the yarn shop yarns, but there were not many crochet patterns written for them then. So I started designing things that my students wanted, and some of the yarn companies started publishing the patterns.

6. What triggers your creativity?  What is most inspiring to you?

Almost everything! I was in the car one day, with a friend of mine who is also a designer, and in front of us was a truck carrying pipes. The way the pipes were piled on the truck made us both exclaim – copy that pattern! We both thought it would make a great afghan pattern. I look at tile floors, and see designs. I look at the seasonal colors in nature, and get color ideas. Catalogs, magazines, photos – they are all sources of ideas and inspiration.
7.  The life of a designer is full of deadlines, frustration and stress. What do you do to recover from the intensity of meeting deadlines and other stressors?

I usually crochet. Something simple – a washcloth, or another tote. Or I play with stitches and experiment with pattern stitches. I try a new technique. I create a new stitch pattern. Sometimes, I do this on the recumbent bike at my health club. While listening to a podcast. Or I’ll do this in the car, while someone else is driving. Many times, while I’m playing like this, I come up with a new pattern that I want to create.

8. Do you  self publish your  designs?

Yes – I just started to. My friend and I have formed a company, and sell our patterns to yarn shops across the country. You can see our designs on our web site: Emerald Isle Designs (it’s still being worked on, but should be finished soon). We sell our designs through the yarn stores, so if you see something you like, ask your local yarn store to contact us about ordering.

9.  Where else can people buy your designs and patterns?

I’m published in so many books and magazines, and have patterns that can be downloaded from so many different sites, that it’s difficult to list them here. If you’re on Ravelry, I have many of my designs listed on my designs page. Also, I try to post information about the current designs on my blog. I have designs in Interweave Crochet, Crochet! magazine, and Crochet Today. I also have designs in many of the Vogue Crochet On The Go books, DRG books (House of White Birches, Annie’s Attic, American School of Needlework), Lark Publishing, Sterling Publishing. I have patterns published by Plymouth Yarn, Brown Sheep Yarn, Tahki Stacy Charles, and Classic Elite Yarns. My on-line patterns are available from Patternworks, Interweave Crochet, Crochet Today, and e-patterns central.

10.  Do you maintain a blog? If so, what is it’s url?

I have two blogs:not your grannys crochet (This is the one where I try to keep track of where my patterns are, and what’s happening in the crochet world. I also talk about new crochet books that I like. And whatever else, crochet related, that I think is interesting.) The other blog: the crochet doctor is where I answer crochet questions, or talk about how to read patterns, or how to substitute yarns, or what “right side” and “wrong side” mean in various situations, etc.
11. Do you have a crochet community that influences you and is important to you? (online or ‘real life’).  Is it important to you to be in touch with your peers?

I have various crochet communities that influence me. The first one, is my memories of my mother and grandmother. They were crocheters and knitters, and designers in their own rights, and whenever I am crocheting, I think of them. I also have a great crochet community of friends and fellow designers – some who live close by, some who I see only a couple of times a year at the conferences, but we keep in touch by email and phone. We give each other friendship, encouragement, support, and loyalty, and that’s very important.

photo copyright Marty Miller, copyright, used with permission

12. Do you have an all time favorite piece that you designed?

I have a couple of favorite sweaters – ones that I make over and over again in many different yarns. I call them my “Go To Sweaters”. In my pattern line, my Go To Sweaters now number up to 5 different patterns. I don’t want to tell you how many of each I have in my wardrobe. Let’s just say, for Go To Sweater #1, I stopped counting at 15!.

13. Is there a design that you regret selling to a magazine or other publisher?

I don’t think I have any regrets about selling a design.

photo copyright Marty Miller, copyright, used with permission

14. Are you willing t0 share any new designs with the readers of Hankering for Yarn?

I’m attaching a picture of a tote/basket that I designed for my pattern line.

Thank you so much, Marty!

I wish you the greatest of continued successes, and look forward to meeting up with you again at more conferences!