Hi, I’m Katrina Walser, the face behind Oliphant Kat! Welcome to my little knitting corner.

I’m a knitting designer, teacher and tech editor living in Sydney, and I’m passionate about creating beautiful patterns and helping Australian knitters learn the skills and find the confidence to make them. 

I write my self-published patterns using both Aussie and US terminology, and with yarn that’s easily available in Australia. They also come with helpful tutorials when there’s a tricky technique you may not know. You can see for yourself by grabbing your free copy of my Basketweave Beanie!

My Story

Growing up in Sydney in the pre-YouTube era, knitting wasn’t the easiest hobby to pick up. I started knitting in primary school after my mum taught me the basics, and I was quickly hooked. But if I wanted to learn a new technique I had to teach myself by piecing together info from blogs, books, and other knitters. It didn’t always work - I had some notable early disasters trying to translate American patterns into Australian sizes and trying to substitute yarn I could find locally into patterns written for yarn from the States - but I slowly figured it out. Given all of this, my goal is to teach you what I know so you don’t have to muddle through things like I did.

I moved to Brooklyn, New York in 2016 to work as a software engineer for Etsy. It was so cold and yarn was so easily available that I started knitting up a storm, and later that year I did something that I’d wanted to do for years and opened an Etsy store - and Oliphant Kat was born. I started out selling knitted items but quickly discovered I loved the creative process and technical challenges of designing, and I began self-publishing patterns. I’ve continued self-publishing patterns in my Ravelry and Etsy stores, and in the years since I’ve also published with companies such as Knit Picks, Knit Now and Knit Crate.

After moving back to Sydney in late 2019, I decided to take the plunge and work on Oliphant Kat full time - or as full time as you can with a toddler running around the house. I now spend my days dreaming up designs, tech editing and teaching both in-person and online.

Contact

I’d love to hear from you if you have a question, want to learn something, show me something that you’ve made from one of my patterns, or just say hi. You can shoot me an email at kat@oliphantkat.com, or find me on Instagram or Ravelry as oliphantkat.