My journey with knitwear began like many of us, when I was taught to knit as a child by my Nan. I was always a very creative child. As a teenager, I knew I wanted to work in fashion, I knew I wanted to do something creative and work with my hands, so when I was 16 I went to college to study fashion and textiles. During my first year we made a hand knit project and all the knitting skills that I had learned as a child came flooding back to me, almost as if I had never stopped. I don’t actually remember much about learning to knit; for me it’s almost like I was born with these skills. After completing the project at college, I loved it so much that I taught myself how to crochet from books and videos online. I spent the whole of the summer between my first and second year knitting anything and everything I could. I had fallen in love and knew instantly that this was what I wanted to do.
For me, the beauty of knitting is in getting to create the fabric yourself, being able choose the fibre, colour, texture, and the pattern and individually creating each and every stitch with your own hands. I feel it’s important to bring your own personality into everything you knit – even if you are following a pattern, choosing your own yarn and colour, or being able to change the length or the cast-on method is so important. This really allows you to knit something unique and is where the idea of this book began. I obsess over sweaters and I live in them throughout the winter, always pairing them with my favourite jeans. If I could, I would wear them all year round – and occasionally I do! I love the way that a sweater can easily be dressed up or down. I particularly love that knitting your own sweater fits in with the idea of slow fashion, which is so important in today’s climate; that the sustainability of how the yarn is made, the fibre you choose and how it is dyed can be thoroughly thought out when choosing the yarn for your project. Every project that you knit is a blank canvas and a great opportunity to advance and further your skills.