I love October. I love the change in the air, the gardens getting a little unruly, the earlier evenings and that feeling that summer has finally loosened its grip. But when I started thinking about an October collection for Big Raven Yoga, I knew pretty quickly what I didn't want.
I didn't want to cover yoga mats in jack-o'-lanterns, orange-and-black stripes, cartoon ghosts and all the other things we're supposed to want the minute the calendar flips to October. I wanted something that felt like October without necessarily being Halloween. Something botanical and beautiful, but also a little strange.
Without really planning it, I found myself pulling from something I've loved for years: old books and old paper.
I make a lot of art from books. I cut them apart, use their pages, save interesting covers and generally have a hard time throwing away a piece of old paper that looks like it might become something. I love the color paper takes on as it ages, the slightly uneven edges, old botanical illustrations, faded printing and pages that have obviously been handled by a lot of people before they ever reached me. There is something about an old book that a brand-new sheet of paper just doesn't have. It already has a story.
Once I started bringing some of that into the designs, Witchy Garden began to make sense.
Instead of thinking about Halloween, I started imagining an old garden that had been there for years. There might be a greenhouse at the back that nobody has cleaned out in a while. Roses have climbed farther than anyone intended. Herbs have been collected, pressed and tucked between the pages of books. There are handwritten notes, old botanical drawings and moths that look perfectly at home resting on yellowed paper.
And somewhere along the way, the garden got a little weird.
That's when I knew I had the collection.
Once I Found the Garden, I Just Kept Wandering Around in It
This is usually how designing works for me. One idea leads to another, which leads to another, and pretty soon I've created an entire place in my head that didn't exist a few weeks earlier.
I started wondering what would actually be growing in this garden. What would someone have collected? What would be sitting on the workbench in the greenhouse? What would you find if you opened one of those old books?
That's where the roses, herbs, moths, water lilies, botanical pages and all the other little details started coming from. Some of the Witchy Garden yoga mats became darker and moodier. Others stayed softer and more botanical. Some look like something that could have been pulled from an old book or tucked into an herbarium years ago.
They're witchy, certainly, but they're not Halloween-costume witchy. They're more forgotten-garden-behind-an-old-wall witchy. At least that's the version of witchy I kept coming back to.
It also became important to me that these weren't yoga mats you'd love in October and feel finished with by November. There's nothing wrong with a great pumpkin. I happen to like pumpkins. But if you're spending money on a yoga mat, I think you should still love looking at it in February.
So I kept coming back to the things I already loved about the collection: old botanical illustrations, aged paper, gardens that aren't perfectly maintained, mossy greens, dusty roses, charcoal and the colors you find outside when summer has faded but winter hasn't quite arrived.
The result feels like October to me, but it doesn't belong only to October.
I Love the Things You Don't Notice Right Away
I think this probably comes from making art with old books too. You start looking closely. You notice the type on the other side of a page, someone's handwriting in the margin, a stain, an illustration you would have completely missed if you hadn't stopped to look.
I wanted some of that same feeling in Witchy Garden.
There are little things hidden throughout the artwork that you may not see the first time you unroll your mat. A greenhouse looks as though someone has actually been working in it. An old botanical page feels like it might have been torn from a book. A workbench has things left behind. Even the steam rising from a cup can hold a little surprise if you look closely enough.
Those details probably matter to me more than they should, but they're also part of what makes designing these mats so much fun. And yoga mats are objects we spend a surprising amount of time looking at from very close range. If I'm going to be staring down at something while holding a plank longer than I would personally prefer, I'd at least like something interesting to look at.
That's really how I've always thought about Big Raven Yoga mats. Yes, they're yoga mats, but they're also six-foot-by-two-foot canvases. That's twelve square feet. We might as well do something interesting with it.
Somewhere Along the Way, the Mats Started Telling Their Own Stories
One of the designs that probably shows my old-paper obsession most clearly is Nocturne. It has so many of the things I already love working with: aged paper, botanical imagery and those little imperfections that make something feel as though it has been around for years. It feels less like something newly designed and more like something you might have found tucked away inside an old book.
I think that's what I was chasing with a lot of this collection. I didn't want all of the artwork to feel shiny and new. I wanted some of it to feel discovered.
Midnight Notes came from another part of that same imaginary garden. By then, I wasn't really thinking about these as individual designs anymore. I had this whole place in my head, and each new mat felt a little like wandering around to see what else I might find.
That's probably my favorite thing about the Witchy Garden Collection. I started out wanting to make an October collection that wasn't stereotypically Halloween, and somehow ended up building an entire strange little garden instead.
Then the Garden Started Spilling Off the Mats
At some point while I was working on the collection, I started wondering what else would exist in this imaginary place. If you wandered into the greenhouse, what would be hanging there? What would someone be making from the herbs and flowers? What would be tucked into bottles, steeping in a cup or simmering on the stove?
That little detour turned into Rituals & Potions, a new free download we're releasing along with the Witchy Garden Collection.
Despite the name, you won't need a cauldron.
Inside are eight things you can actually make and use at home: Sugar Scrub, Greenhouse Linen Mist, Garden Keeper's Balm, Rose & Oat Bath Soak, Blackberry Lavender Moon Syrup, Quiet Pond Simmer Pot, Botanical Shower Bundle and Garden Tea. We also included a shopping list to make gathering everything easier, and each recipe has a little something to think about while you're making it.
I didn't want to create eight more things for anyone's to-do list. These are things to make because you feel like making something. Something that smells wonderful. Something warm to drink. Something for the bath or shower. Something that makes an ordinary afternoon a little more interesting.
It felt like another way to wander around in Witchy Garden for a while, even when you're nowhere near your yoga mat.
And because we're launching the collection on October 1, we decided we should have a little more fun with it.
We're giving away a free yoga mat from the Witchy Garden Collection.
To enter, visit the Freebies section of the Big Raven Yoga website and sign up to download Rituals & Potions. You'll receive an email asking you to confirm your email address, and you do need to complete that confirmation for your giveaway entry to count.
Once you've confirmed, you're entered. We'll draw the winner on Monday, November 2, 2026, which gives you all of October to look through the collection and figure out which mat you'd choose if your name gets pulled.
That may take a while.
Why Put All of This on a Yoga Mat?
I suppose the easiest answer is because this is the kind of artwork I want to make.
I like old things mixed with new things. I like beautiful things that aren't necessarily perfect. I like flowers after they've started going wild, paper after it has yellowed and softened, and books that have already had a life before I cut them apart and turn them into something else.
That shows up in a lot of the art I make, so it makes sense that it eventually found its way onto a yoga mat.
I've also never understood why yoga mats are so often designed to disappear into the background. When you unroll one of our mats, you're putting twelve square feet of something on the floor. That's a lot of room to work with, and I want to use it.
I want you to notice things. I want you to unroll your mat for the tenth time and see a detail you hadn't noticed before. I want the artwork to be interesting enough that you don't feel like you have to roll it up and hide it the minute you're finished practicing.
Of course, I can get completely carried away with the artwork, but at the end of the day these still have to be really good yoga mats.
Big Raven Yoga mats are six feet long by two feet wide and 6mm thick, with plenty of cushion for your knees while still giving you stability under your hands and wrists. The surface is a soft, brushed microfiber vegan suede made from recycled polyester and nylon, with a 100% natural tree-rubber base. The surface gets grippier as you get warmer, so they're made to be practiced on, sweated on and used over and over again.
That's the part I never want to lose sight of. I may spend far too long fussing over the placement of a moth or deciding exactly how old a piece of paper should look, but eventually that mat needs to leave my computer and become part of somebody's actual life.
And now they finally get to.
The Gate Opens October 1
The entire Witchy Garden Yoga Mat Collection launches Thursday, October 1. Come wander through the collection and see which one catches you first. Then look again, because I wouldn't be surprised if your favorite changes once you start noticing all the little details.
While you're there, visit our Freebies section and download Rituals & Potions. You'll get all eight recipes to keep, and once you've confirmed your email, you'll also be entered for a chance to win a free Witchy Garden yoga mat. We'll draw the winner Monday, November 2.
I started this collection because I wanted to make something for October that wasn't necessarily about Halloween. Somehow that turned into an imaginary overgrown garden, an old greenhouse, botanical pages, strange plants, moths, recipes and a whole lot of old paper.
Which, now that I think about it, is pretty much exactly where I should have ended up.
The Witchy Garden Collection arrives October 1. Come take a look around.