Improv knitting: What I learned about life from Sara Ottosson
“When an interview becomes a deep dive into culture’s current state of affairs” is how I would describe my first meeting with Sara Ottosson. The Swedish knitwear designer is known for her colourful style and cozy patterns. Over a virtual coffee, we connected over creativity, freelance life, mental health struggles, and the immeasurability of authentic human connection.
Things you can’t buy
As a trained prop maker, Sara makes “stuff you can’t buy” and this feeds into her knitting style as well. She is fond of lots of colours and scrap yarn: “I don’t have a big stash because I get sad if the yarn isn’t used.” Whether she is making intarsia gradient wall hangings or drafts scrap yarn patterns, Sara comes up with colourful pieces that don’t follow any convention other than her own.
Knitting didn’t become the focus of her professional life until about five years ago. During a period with depression and anxiety, Sara turned to knitting to keep her hands busy: “At the time, my mind couldn’t really process pattern instructions anyway, so I just made up my own. That is also when I got into intarsia, because I could focus on learning something new.”
Swedish knitwear designer Sara Ottosson loves intarsia, colours and scrap yarn knitting.
Now, she has published patterns not only individually on Ravelry, but also in known publications such as various Laine books and the Making Stories magazine. Currently, she is designing her sixth collection for the Swedish yarn company Svarta Fåret, coming in autumn 2026.
Letting go of control
In our conversation, we realise quickly that our knitting approaches are very different. While I am an almost stoic follower of instructions and rarely go off-piste, Sara says: “I just cannot knit the same thing twice. Even with my own patterns, I usually change something. But as a designer, I love knitters who simply stick to the pattern!”
For her, knitting and designing are about play, which contains an element of letting go of control. Sara usually asks herself: “What if…? What if I make the opposite and see what that gives me? For example, instead of using a smooth merino, what does it look like in a fluffy, brushed alpaca?” She also challenges herself to work with yarns, colours and techniques she doesn’t like: “That is how I ended up liking garter stitch now!”
“But as a designer, I love knitters who simply stick to the pattern!”
Improvisation for life
A big part of Sara’s design process is improvisation: “You don’t have to plan it – just decide what you will start with.” If that isn’t the perfect analogy for life, then I don’t know what is!
Because as soon as she says this, I think of my leap into self-employment at the beginning of this year. It was a scary thing to do and I still don’t know how it will end, but I did it anyway – I just started.
While I might take such risks in my (professional) life, the idea of improvising in my knitting makes me slightly anxious. Together, Sara and I wonder if it is simple: the less stability I have in life, the more control I crave in creativity. I don’t have the energy and mental capacity to craft something ‘unknown’ – adding more uncertainty to my life.
Sara’s latest project was this scrappy scarf which she describes making in the audio on just getting started.
Immeasurability of human connection
Sara and my chat left me inspired to learn intarsia and make a linen stitch wall hanging. It also left me energised to continue freelancing when Sara reminded me what we gain (freedom, creativity and fun) on this path. And it left me feeling truly seen and understood.
In unstable times, where, according to Sara, “we can’t separate us from the politics of the world”, creating authentic connections like this is rare. However, we need to turn to community, creativity and colour to both find solace but also advocate for another way of living. A softer, kinder and more empathic world.
Where success isn’t measured by salary scales or algorithms, but through happiness within ourselves and our (local) community. Authenticity requires people to be attuned to their own as well as others’ needs and no social media algorithm, AI tool or tech bro can replicate this.
And so, Sara and my conversation on a random Wednesday morning, felt like a bright, honest and authentic antidote to the bleakness. And how do you put value on that?