Lark Bagger: The black knitting sheep
– I feel a little that I am the one who stands on the side and says: do what you want, have fun, take chances and challenge yourself – even though it may feel difficult and dangerous.
We meet digitally at half past eight on a Wednesday in January. For a little winter pale, morningraised faces on the screen, one in Oslo, one in Copenhagen.
The Danish knitting designer Lærke Bagger (37)’s first book is popping off the shelves of our neighbors. After coming out just five months ago, “Knit” is now sold in eighteenth edition in Denmark and is immediately on its way to Norwegian bookstores.
– Wild funsays Bagger.
– It is touching and feels absolutely fantastic. I am absolutely wildly happy and proud of the book!
Bagger has a master’s degree in textile design with a specialty in hand knitting from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Although during her studies she herself did not think you could make a living by knitting by hand, she does now.
But she thinks knitting patterns are boring, and the very concept of selling has never been preoccupied with.
– I think the process of making and following recipes is recognizable. I make mistakes, forget to look and count, and end up having too many stitches on one side yet the other, she says at last, before continuing engaged:
– For me, it has never interested me to just create something to sell it. I work at the crossroads between art, design and crafts. What I’m interested in is experimenting.
For although Bagger has for several years conveyed her passion for knitting on Instagram, where at the time of writing she is sniffing at 160,000 followers, she has pondered thoroughly and for a long time on how she could actually share the procedure, how big the garments are.
– One of the messages in the book, in my work and in my own life in general, is that it is OK to experiment. And to bring humor into the way you live your life, dress and work. Life hits hard enough, there is a lot that hurts, and it’s not about not taking it in and acknowledging it as part of life, but you also need time to enjoy life and have fun, says Bagger .
Through strikes, she sees an opportunity to communicate both life philosophy and her own values. To make a pattern on a blue sweater and say: “knit it like that”, is uninteresting, according to Bagger. She rather shares tips and techniques, leftover yarn ideas and untraditional methods.
– It’s all about that even though I’m not perfect, I’m good enough. And a sweater is also good enough even if it is not perfect.
Contrasts and challenges
Bagger’s design is colorful and colorful. Every garment she creates is unique.
– I can not do the same thing twice. I have always wanted to convey, but had a hard time figuring out how to convey my ideas and the concept of making a sweater. I do not tell anyone how to beat it, I just give them the framework for how they can work on expressing a personality through the sweater, she says.
Experimenting and creating contrasts in life in general is important to Bagger. She herself experiments in everything from needlework and clothing style to music taste and food.
– Sometimes I want spicy food, other days comfort food – it’s part of what we humans need contrasts to be ourselves and make life interesting.
Bagger shared her first knitting pattern when Denmark closed in March 2020. She and her husband, who is an artist, had a three-month-old baby and a 4-year-old pawing at home. She is known for insecurity, anxiety and the need for something to “grip” – an escape from emotions. It is known as the perfect time to create the recipe that had never been created before, and share it on Instagram.
– We all needed to do something that removed focus from what was happening. Do something positive and immerse ourselves, get the anxiety out of the body with a creative outlet, a challenges. And without a given pattern, you just take a few chances with the knitting project, she says.
Bagger now estimates that between 20 and 40,000 people, probably more, have interpreted #alone together sweater since our 2020. Under the subject tag on Instagram, there are thousands of examples, all of which are completely unique in color composition and expression. Personal results are now emerging from the book.
– It is touching, it is fantastic and life-affirming to see that all sorts of different people interpret the recipes in different ways. The garments take shape after those who make it, Bagger says humbly.
The black sheep
Bagger’s design expression stands out from the knitting industry, but has experienced that people want different and the imperfect welcome.
– I feel like I’m “the dark horse” running on a siding, next to the other knitting designers. We’re in the same industry, but I’m a little on the side. I have been on the knitting wave from the beginning, but I have only started sharing patterns in the last year, says Bagger.
She elaborates:
– I feel a bit that I am the one who stands on the side and says: do what you want, have fun, remember to take chances and challenge yourself with what may be difficult and dangerous. An honest voice, so are the others, but I’m the dark horse.
The black sheep, translated into Norwegian, advises both aspiring and experienced knitters to loosen up a bit, drop expectations for yourself and have fun.
– It is the intention that needlework should be fun, do not look at what others make, and look at what you make yourself. Drop all the rules around that you must not cut, tie knots, or put cotton and wool together, thick and thin needle. You decide, fuck rules, you decide, she says.
Bagger confirms that, although it can be considered unconventional according to the knitting norms, she ties loose threads together so that the knots are visible in the garment. In the same way, she wants to connect people with striking.
– History and tradition are behind, community and unity. In a way, striking has been renewed, but it’s still the same. You are bound together by the creative handiwork. Many make the same clothes, all in their own style. It is also amazing, and good for the climate.
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Takes the needlework back
Bagger has all his life used needlework as a creative outlet, and learned to knit from his mother as an eight-year-old.
– I have been creative since I was very young. I come from a family where you have made a lot with your hands, where you appreciate needlework, she says.
Bagger got the idea to become a clothing designer already as a ten-year-old, but studied fashion design did not suit her. Knitting design, on the other hand.
Still, it did not feel right for her to have hand knitting as a profession when she completed the six-year education in 2015. It was a tradition to be trained to make knitting samples for industry, which was then sent to countries where it was then produced, tells Bagger.
Well, the handicraft is taken back, and back into the living room for people, also partly as a consequence of a more sustainable focus, Bagger believes. Sustainability is a major driving force for knitters.
– Everything I make has a connection to recycled material, up-cycling and sustainability. Everything I make looks different because I work with found material.
As long as possible, encourage and realize the designer to use the material you have on hand when knitting according to her frames.
– I do not judge anyone who buys utility, I also have to from time to time. But we knitters tend to «hoarde». We collect yarn, and it is good to use what we have lying around, also because something happens in the process of putting colors together in an unpredictable way.
The casual, the playful and the unpredictable are an important part of Bagger’s love for strikes.
– My book is also a book for those who have never beaten before. Striking is becoming more and more accessible to everyone. In the past, there has been more focus on hitting nicely, now you have to hit the way you want. It’s liberating, and it’s also about women’s culture and community and that ownership of her own life, she quickly strikes.
Want to read more about striking? VG’s new knitting magazine can be bought in grocery stores across the country now, or you can buy it in our online store.
Love and celebrities
Bagger has sold garments to famous customers such as the Danish artist Mette Lindberg, the actress Tuva Novotny and the American artist Chloe Wise – and even a sweater for Miley Cyrus. Her stylist contacted via. Instagram.
But it is fellow human beings, the ones she sees in the gate, and who contact her directly, Bagger notices the most and appreciates the most. The customers and the followers, who are anywhere from 13-14 to 75 years old.
– That’s what’s so insane, it’s the whole spectrum, girls and boys, someone who has never knitted before and someone who has knitted all their lives and needed something new or felt that they did not fit in a way you knitted on.
The customers who buy finished Lærke garments, like that they get something unique that they can see is made with love for textiles and the needlework behind, Bagger thinks.
– Those who buy the book, buy into the same concept, but then it is up to them to perform it and find the love of the experiment, the color and the importance of spending time with themselves, as the handicraft is, she says, and ends:
– I had never thought I would sell books in eighth edition, and to receive daily messages from people who say that the book has meant a lot to their mental healing or that they now find joy in being with themselves, and have let go of expectations and stress. What I would like to do more of is to inspire smaller climate footprints at the same time as something that strengthens people’s self-esteem and self-confidence. I am open to the future!