Designer Features

An Interview With: Dianna Walla of Paper Tiger

Dianna Walla, the designer behind Paper Tiger, recently published The Chalet Collection in conjunction with Montréal based yarn shop Espace Tricot. The 5-piece collection features two designs in Kelbourne Woolens Scout: Le Massif Scarf and Stoneham Poncho. In conjunction with the release of the collection and the knit along beginning January 1st, I thought it would be fun to interview her about the collection, her design inspiration, and plans for the future. Enjoy!
Berit from Quince and Co.
Kate: Congrats on the new designs! Looking at your pattern portfolio, you do a lot of colorwork and your aesthetic is very Scandinavian. Can you talk a little bit about why you're so inspired by this specific knitting tradition and style and how it affects your approach to design? Dianna: Thank you! I have always been drawn to the Scandinavian aesthetic, and Norwegian knitwear in particular, in a way that's hard to explain. I just love the look, and I find that type of stranded colorwork very engaging to knit, as well. I've spent enough time studying Norwegian knitting history at this point to be very familiar with some of the most classic and well-known designs, and they certainly influence my work, but I always try to give my designs a stamp of my own too. I've spent a lot of time in Norway now, so the better I get to know the language, the country, and the living knitting community there today, the stronger those ties feel.
Images from Norway by Dianna Walla Kate: You have moved quite a bit in the last few years, from Seattle to Norway to attend graduate school, and now you're in Montreal. Have your tastes and interests changed along with your moves? Dianna: The Scandinavian influence is always a common thread. In Seattle it was easy to find traces of that – I see signs of the Scandinavian immigrant population everywhere I go in Seattle, because I know what to look for. I also found the Pacific Northwest to be a really wool-friendly climate, since the winters were chilly and wet. In Norway I got to spend time getting to know different Norwegian wool yarns, produced in Norway from domestic wool. I felt very close to the roots of Norwegian knitting tradition while living in there. And in Montreal, I'm living with the toughest winter climate I've faced (even tougher than above the Arctic Circle in northern Norway!). It's a place where you have to really embrace winter to make it through those months, and the Quebecois share a love of winter sports and cabin culture with the Norwegians. I like looking for those common threads in a place that's very different from Norway on the surface in so many other ways.