About
Hi! I’m Jane, and I’m a knitter/spinner/crafter.
Welcome to my brain on crafting
This has been the source of my sanity when working stressful corporate jobs, my companion when travelling the world for work, the inspiration for some of my favourite holidays from work, and
Sometimes my relationship with my crafting is my best friend – sometimes it seems to highlight what I struggle with in the rest of my life. But either way – I can’t imagine life without it.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why Knitting?
I started seriously (obsessively) knitting when I was travelling a lot for work. There was a lot of hanging about time – waiting at airport gates, sitting on planes/trains – and I wanted to be doing something with my hands. I started knitting small things – baby hats for the many colleagues that were having babies at that point in time – and then wanted to learn more. And there’s always so much more to learn – lace knitting, cables, colour work (intarsia, fair isle/stranded), garment construction. And different ways to knit – flat or in the round (or entrelac or mosaic), british or continental (or backwards – super handy for entrelac). And then once you have the mechanics down, the whole world of colour choices and other design options opens up – it’s like painting with yarn.
Knitting is so flexible, so versatile – how could anyone ever get bored with it?
3. Isn’t spinning taking it a little bit too far?
I think when you work with yarn, it’s natural to start thinking more about how the yarn is constructed – why some yarn is great for cables, some is great for lace, some seems warmer than others while still being light, some is stronger or less likely to pill. So you start paying attention to things like whether it’s spun woollen or worsted, how the number of plies makes a difference to the yarn qualities. And then – you start to want to understand the yarn creation process. And the best way to understand that is to do it yourself.
2. Why Crochet?
Why indeed? Couple of reasons.
One is that as a left-hander, it took me a while to get the hang of knitting, to decide whether to knit like a right handed person or try to do the mirror image – and so as a child, I didn’t immediately take to knitting and instead I picked up a crochet hook – cos it doesn’t really matter whether you do that with your left hand or your right. So that covers the why did I start/learn.
But there are also times when I choose crochet over knitting (or weaving)? Not for many full garments – I find crocheted fabric quite heavy. But for edgings (alternative to knitted lace), for household items (cushion covers, say). I tend to use it for things that I want to be a more rigid fabric – like some hats. See my blog on finally using up my yarn find from Amarisu.
4. Do you even have time to work?
Well, I managed to combine knitting with work time in many ways. Travelling was the first one. But I’m also a big fan of knitting during meetings – did you know that doing something with your hands (I choose knitting, but other people doodle…) makes it easier to keep concentrating on what you are hearing?