The Twists and Texture of Seth Richardson’s Knitwear

Looking at one of Seth Richardson’s knitwear designs, I’m immediately struck by the interplay of geometric shapes. Take, for example, the Turnout Shawl, with its cable-knit diagonals that divide textured panels. With a flair for graphic details, his designs are equally suited to men’s and women’s wardrobes.

Though he’s been knitting since the early 2000s, Seth didn’t create his first design until 2021, and he’s been designing eye-catching hats, scarves, shawls, and more ever since. We were curious to find out what inspires Seth now.

Farm & Fiber Knits: The motifs you use highlight natural fibers so well! Are there any knitting patterns, motifs, or techniques that you are really into right now? Are there particular yarns or fibers that make those motifs work best?

Seth Richardson: I absolutely love a textured motif that repeats over and over again, especially over a large piece of fabric. I use a lot of ribbing, lines, and simple texture in my work, partly because I’m usually aiming for a tidy and polished look. I love using cabling to create those traveling lines, so for a long time this technique has been a staple of my design work. Lately, I’ve also been using a lot of twisted rib or columns of twisted stitches that stand out on reverse stockinette—you can see this in both the Turnout Shawl and the Pearls Kerchief.

Worked in naturally dyed, worsted-spun yarn from Wool & Palette, the twisted stitches and crosses of the Pearls Kerchief celebrate the springy Shaniko wool. Photo by Gale Zucker

For yarn choice, I’m usually drawn to very round, springy wool yarns that are worsted spun with multiple plies in solid colors, because they capture my kind of texture the best. But I love the challenge of seeing if I can create texture in more rustic yarns too. Something I love about knitwear design is the chance to experiment, and sometimes yarns I’m not naturally drawn to produce results that surprise me or encourage me to work in new directions.

FFK: Vintage style seems to be a rich source of inspiration for your knitwear designs. Can you tell us a bit about that?

SR: Well, I do really love a certain period of style from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, and maybe that’s because it’s what I saw around me and admired in magazines and on TV when I was growing up. I’m especially interested in menswear from that period, and I have a growing collection of vintage catalogues and magazines that I flip through from time to time. It’s fun to pick out an older motif or style and see if I can update it in some way. For example, I might not knit an oversized, 1980s intarsia sweater, but I would be interested in using the same technique in a more contemporary way with a more modern fit. So much of style is cyclical with an update here and there.

Seth looks to the 1970s for geometric inspiration. For his Fancy Me scarf, Seth used a diamond motif that could be found on wallpaper during that decade and translated it into texture using cabled lines that fold over each other.

I think my goal in terms of my own personal style of dress is to incorporate a few vintage elements—maybe this is in the form of a shirt from the early 80s and some 70s-inspired jewelry—but not so much that it becomes a costume. It’s a bit of looking back while moving forward, I suppose, and that’s what I try to incorporate into my designs. Also, I love that rich browns are having a moment again!

FFK: Are you a knitter who keeps a large stash, or do you purchase for what you plan to knit next?

SR: I actually try to keep my stash as essential as possible. Having too much unassigned yarn feels like a big, stressful “To Do” list because all those skeins won’t knit themselves! I work better when I keep the distractions to a minimum so that I can focus only on the projects in my queue. That means that when I shop for yarn, I almost always have a specific project in mind. But I do have to say that every once in a while, something special pops out that I have to have, even if it lives in the hank for a year or two before I figure out what to do with it. That’s rare, though!

The fine lines of the Turnout Shawl evoke sections of fencing that might surround a barn’s turnout pasture, giving knitters a chance to play with texture and explore the different ways that lines can work within a geometrical shape. Photo by Gale Zucker

FFK: What was your inspiration for the Turnout Shawl?

SR: The design started with me playing around to see if I could combine larger diagonal lines with alternating groups of columns of twisted stitches. It’s a bit of a study in parallel and intersecting lines. The first swatches reminded me of the kind of fencing that you would see around a paddock at an equestrian barn, which is the kind of place where, up until a couple of years ago, I used to spend a lot of time riding horses. It seemed like a good fit for Farm & Fiber Knits!

The Turnout Shawl is a classic triangular shawl that’s worked sideways from point to point.

It was also a fun opportunity for me to play with shaping; instead of the shawl working outward from the center spine, it’s knit by beginning at one point of the wingspan and finishing at the other point. This also meant that I could incorporate a tidy slipped-stitch edge all the way around the piece. So, it came from a combination of experimenting with the relationships of lines along with my love of horses.

Find Seth on the web at sethrichardsonknits.com, on Instagram @sethrichardsonknits, or as SethR on Ravelry.

And find out more about the Turnout Shawl in Seth’s own words.

Subscribers can find Seth’s Turnout Shawl and Pearls Kerchief in the Farm & Fiber Knits Library.