Here's a little bit about me..
I spend my days in my sunny studio with my Siamese cat for company and surrounded by colourful yarn, whilst my hands are busy clicking the knitting needles or sketching new ideas.
My sketch book is always full of new toy and doll characters waiting to be created in yarn, I love bringing them to life with my knitting needles!
I create dolls and toys to celebrate the seasons and important times in people’s lives, Christmas and Easter- New babies and snuggly tired toddlers.
In brief I guess you could say that I'm a knitting designer, a pattern writing, chocolate and sun loving, yarn addicted- Siamese cat companion.
and here's a little more....
My very first experience of knitting was with my Mum, I must have been about 4 and she had endless patience, starting each row for me as I got in a pickle turning the work! I had short pink plastic needles and I remember trying to make my teddy a scarf, I don’t think it ever got finished.
I did not really learn to knit until I was in my late twenties. I was at home expecting my daughter, (she’s an adult now!) as the weeks wore on, I turned to knitting, I had some health problems, so it was as ideal craft to keep me sitting still!
I used magazines and books to learn, and the first thing I knitted was a Jean Greenhowe clown. I never did knit my baby girl any clothes, I had so many beautiful hand knitted gifts from family and friends.
I always said to myself that I would not be a true knitter until I could knit like my Mum, I wanted to be able to knit and read at the same time! I remember my Mums needles clicking away as she read a magazine and that seemed like magic to me.
My daughter was home schooled, and I taught her to knit when she was 4, at that time knitting took a back seat for a few years. It was when Emma reached her teens and went to college that I had some time on my hands. It was then I discovered knit and felt. I had so much fun with that technique swiftly progressing from following patterns to creating my own felted bag collection.
I spent a very happy few years making and selling my bags at Art and Craft and fairs. Eventually it occurred to me that folk may want to knit their own bags- and that was where my design career started.
Over the next few years I discovered that I love seasonal fun things, animals and doll characters, I like to create things which make me smile!
Designing is a passion for me it’s both a process and a challenge which keeps me interested and motivated to stretch myself and my creativity. Designing allows me to visit knitting shows and reference libraries; it keeps my sketch book by my side and excuses me gazing out the window and thinking for whole afternoons!
I enjoy knitting; I love to sit in the sun or a cosy chair, letting the yarn slip over my needles as the hours slide past. For me knitting can be relaxation verging on meditation. It can also be a blissful time clicking the needles as I devour a new book! (Thanks Mum!)
I have a very relaxed working life, I work from home so I don’t work strict hours- if the sun is shining I’ll knit in the garden taking breaks to weed the vegetable patch or potter about the borders, and every evening will find me with my Siamese cat on my lap and my knitting needles in my hands. So much of my designing happens in the thinking and imagining stage; I can be “working” whilst washing up!
I enjoy the freedom my work gives me, to create things which make me smile. and I am so pleased other folk want to make them too!