Nomad Stitches: Designer spotlight

_{All photos copyright Sandra of Nomad Stitches and are reproduced with permission.}

Designing crochet garments that are wearable and stylish is not an easy task. Knitwear designers are so well known and so prolific and the fabric of knitting does sort of lend itself to drape and stretch, unlike crochet.

But new designers are now breaking through to turn around the traditional – dare I say old fashioned – view of crochet sweaters and cardigans.

Yes, you can still find granny square jumpers and very chunky garments but we now have so much more choice. Its certainly possible to buy a pattern for a crochet sweater or cardigan that many people would be hard pushed to recognise as crochet.

For Podcast 108 I set up a Ravelry bundle of patterns that I’ve found for crochet garments. Some are simple using the basic crochet stitches and techniques but other designers go for something a bit more challenging.

A case in point is Nomad Stitches. I mentioned a couple of her crochet colour work sweater patterns in Podcast 108 but her large pattern portfolio is definitely worth a closer look.

In this spotlight, I want to talk more about Sandra Gutierrez, the designer behind the Nomad Stitches brand, who has really impressed me with her skills and imagination.

Find the Nomad Stitches Ravelry store here or click the image below

I found Sandra’s patterns using Ravelry but she also sells all her designs on her own website too, and on LoveCrafts and Etsy, so if you aren’t a Ravelry user, you can access them all from the platform you prefer.

You might also like to follow Sandra on Instagram @nomadstitches or Facebook (search Nomad Stitches). She posts pictures of all her latest designs with advance notice of publication and a bit of background about her life and design process.

About Nomad Stitches

I haven’t corresponded with Sandra but I’m guessing that the name of her brand comes from her travelling adventures. She was born and grew up in Mexico, learning to crochet from her mother but has then lived an international life.

When she started designing she was living in Valencia, Spain and opened her Ravelry store while in Grenada, Spain. Sandra then spent a couple of years in Bulgaria but has recently moved to the Norfolk coast in the UK and now has a little girl. Her latest designs, the KITZBUHEL Cardigan and Pullover were published 15th October 2020.

This photo of the KITZBUHEL cardigan was photographed on the beach at Gorleston-on-Sea, which is a beautiful small coastal village that I’ve visited a few times.

You can watch my vlog, timed on the day the pattern was released here:

Sandra very kindly offered a free copy of the new cardigan and sweater pattern for two of my YouTube viewers (giveaway open 15th October 2020 to 20th October 2020).

Sandra has also recently started podcasting on YouTube! She now has four episodes and also some very useful tutorials. This is definitely now on my watch list and I’ve subscribed to find out more about her work and to keep up with her new patterns.

Sandra also collaborated with Love Crafts in May and you can read their feature on her here.

My top picks of Nomad Stitches patterns

In the podcast I featured two of Sandra’s patterns, the Aztec Sweater and the Taroko sweater but she has others, including the Teotihuacan top, which feature crochet colourwork that looks amazing. These are pictured below in order of mentions.

If crochet colourwork is a new technique for you, or launching straight into a sweater seems a bit daunting,, an ideal starter project might be a pair of Sandra’s Winter Mountain mittens.