You want to do what?!

When I decided I wanted to pursue a career in knitting, people thought I was crazy. In actual fact, they still do. And so do I!

I begun my educational career with my GCSE's about 6 years ago now, not completely sure what it was that I wanted to do with my life, I just knew I wanted to do some form of drawing. I took Graphic Design, and Fine Art as my subjects, and passed with flying colours. I decided graphics was the only route for me to take so pursued this, going on to do Product Design for A-Level and specialising in graphics. I realised towards the end of my A-Levels that I wasn't entirely happy doing this, but wasn't certain what I would do instead, so applied for a foundation course in Art and Design. I thought this would broaden my horizons and help me figure out which path to take.

In the holidays before I started college, I was bored and decided I wanted to learn to knit, more to give me something to do than anything else. When I started college I put my knitting down and started with the graphics again. After doing one week of graphics, I HATED it. I went into the textiles class on a whim, and have never left. I saw a photo of some really "extreme knitting" (I love that phrase!) and remembered the iPod case I had knitted in the summer. I turned to my tutor (Who is a knitter herself) and told her I wanted to try knitting out. She seemed shocked but gave me some materials for it, and since then it's one of the main factors of my work. I also do a lot of crochet, weaving, and embroidery, all for fine art purposes. None of my work is commercial, and is usually quite wacky, and a little strange. But I love it! My heart is set on wool and I think it is something I will pursue forever, until my fingers curl up into claws, and I'm blind, and it's no longer physically possible.

This blog is going to be a way of keeping track of my progress, my work, my discoveries and ideas and so on. Almost like an online sketchbook. If I ever get time, I intend to create tutorials on knitting, crochet and so on. Not necessarily the set-in-stone methods, but my methods. Which are definitely different to the way my Nan used to do it, but still work well for me!

I really hope you enjoy looking at my work, and I can inspire other people to take up this retro pass-time. Many people see knitting as something solely for the elderly, but I'm 19 and spend every waking minute surrounded by wool. Knitting has become cool. Let me know what you think of my work, all comments are appreciated, and I want people to become involved!

Ciao for now!