Meet the artist: Haley McCarter
Haley is the twenty-something one-woman show behind the brand Wandered Goods. Wandered Goods is a Portland-based fiber and textile studio focused on creating heart-crafted home goods and accessories. Exploring a wide range of organic materials and natural dyes, Haley combines her unique creative vision with a dedication to sustainability and slow crafting. Wandered Goods is for those with a wild heart and a love for handmade, heart-crafted wares.
Haley came into my life when our family photographer shared some of her work on Instagram. I fell in love with a pair of her Wayward Hoop earrings, smashed buy, and have been a huge fan ever since!
Working together on Herbalist
So here's the scoop with Herbalist. Ever since the Early Sowing release in early 2020, knitters have been pleading for an adult version. But I didn't quite know what it wanted to be when it grew up! I'd been sitting on it for a few months when I found myself at House of A La Mode, with a fistful of speckly, squishy, skeins.
Heather from House of A La Mode (ever the enabler, and always right!) gave me some great advice about using speckles in cables - stop thinking of the yarn and the stitch pattern as being in competition with each other; look instead at what they create together. It blew my mind, but that's one of the reasons I admire her work so much! I bought what seemed intuitively like a reasonable amount of yarn, and went home and started crunching the numbers.
It wasn't a reasonable amount of yarn. Cables use a lot more yarn than stockinette, and it turned out I didn't have enough yarn to make my sample in my size. But, I did have enough to make a small sweater. A Haley-sized sweater. And Haley's vibe? PERFECT for this project. I already knew I'd want to commission some jewelry for the shoot - would she be willing to model?
We had SO MUCH fun working on this together! Haley's ideas for the jewelry were exactly right, and she captured the mood perfectly. She worked with Three Fifteen Design for photography - Rayvn is a branding expert, a photographer, and a knitter - so she expertly captured all the shots knitters want!