Creativity by numbers with VesterbyCrea
To imagine that Thea Vesterby of VesterbyCrea started knitting only five years ago is incredible. Now, having published over 80 patterns in multiple languages, accumulated more than 40,000 followers on social media and her first book to be published in August 2024, the designer, who is known for her intricate lace patterns, talks about her story and finding balance in her life and knitting business.
Thea Vesterby started knitting five years ago and has since built her knitting business VesterbyCrea.
From digital to crafting
For almost 20 years, Thea worked as a digital consultant for a big corporate company and the switch to independent designer was gradual. After three burnouts, it was her daughters who suggested she should pick up knitting and her mother who taught her the basics. “In the beginning I couldn’t even see the difference between knits and purls! But still, I felt the good energy I got from figuring it out”, Thea says.
As her second project, she chose a lace sweater, which she struggled to make sense of at first. However, when she ‘translated’ the pattern into her own language using an Excel sheet, it suddenly clicked. She had found what her mind needed to understand knitting.
For Thea, this was like a kickstart for her brain. After the burnouts and years in a fast-paced, digital world, where your products are neither long-lasting nor tangible, knitting provides the complete opposite. It is a slow and process-focused craft, where you get to hold a beautiful piece you created with your own hands at the end. “I started to do some work that made me happy and also gave me some inspiration about being creative”, Thea says.
Using the knowledge and language she had previously created, Thea recreated a sweater based on a social media photo her daughter had seen. This would become her very first pattern and start her business. It grew organically when she stepped into the knitting community online and companies began sponsoring yarns for both herself and her test knitters - collaborations she still treasures to this day.
“In the beginning I couldn’t even see the difference between knits and purls! But still, I felt the good energy I got from figuring it out.”
Thea Vesterby’s first book will be published at the end of August 2024, featuring 20 of her famous lace patterns.
It’s a numbers game
Thea seems to traverse easily between the creative and the business side of her work. It struck me that the common denominator is numbers. (She even numbers her patterns!) While she used to count kilometers as part of her running, she now counts stitches: “Of course there is no daily target of knitted stitches nowadays but lace patterns do involve a lot of counting.” To make this easier for her knitters, Thea’s patterns include a table, where you can tick off each finished row as you go along.
Thea shares: “So often, I hear the feedback that my designs or the way I write my patterns is something people have never seen before.” It shows that bringing in your own style - whether that is design-wise or how you write your patterns - pays off. People appreciate it when you are true to yourself.
A journey towards more balance
What’s on VesterbyCrea To-Knit-Lists?
Thea designs what she would like to wear herself, and that is reflected in her current works-in-progress (WIPs):
VesterbyCrea No. 1 in new colours (sweater pattern for women coming in early August)
VesterbyCrea No. 19 (summer tee)
VesterbyCrea No. 20 (cardigan)
Following her last burnout in 2019, Thea realized: “You need to change something anyway. Why not do the thing that makes you happy?” She is learning to dedicate her life to her own happiness. And what makes her happy are new things, like trying out a new yarn or lace pattern she got excited about. “I really have second sleeve syndrome, where I knit a whole sweater but often get stuck after the first sleeve!” she laughs.
Maybe a little bit surprised by her own success, the 50-year-old talks about her knitting business as her ‘last career’. But then stops herself to wonder: “Does it really need to be a career? Or can it just be work?” At the same time, it is external deadlines as well as expectations from others that Thea struggles with most in her working life: “When my following grew, so did the feedback I received - both positive and negative. What I have to learn is finding that balance that is right for me of what to take on and what not.”
While she says she is still figuring things out, Thea has already found multiple ways to balance her (mental health) needs with a knitting enterprise. She combines intricate lace designs effortlessly with her business mind. Her creativity is not stifled by having to deal with numbers, rather it is the opposite: It is enhanced. In the process, she is not only creating a life for herself that feels aligned but also beautiful knit patterns for us all to enjoy.