When did you first start knitting / crocheting and where did you learn?
I started knitting really early in life. If I had to guess, I'd say sometime in between ages 5 and 8. Being homeschooled from a young age, my mom was always looking for stuff for the two of us to do together so that we wouldn't just sit around and watch tv, haha.
We tried crocheting, but neither one of us could get the hang of it. It wasn't until 3 or 4 years ago that I really started to teach myself crochet.
Can you remember the first thing you made?
The knitting set my mom bought came with this super ugly variegated yarn. It started out this reddish-purple color, then eased it's way into orange... It was super nasty! Haha! I would knit all of it up into a scarf, then unravel it because I didn't learn how to bind off. And I just kept making it over and over until my mom noticed and took me to the craft store to get more yarn.
My first *real* crochet project was an infinity scarf. It was 4 pastel colors- pink, yellow, teal, and purple.
Who are your favourite pattern designers and celebrity knitters & crocheters?
I wouldn't be where I am today if Anna Hrachovec didn't write "Knitting Mochi Mochi." I was super casual about knitting before I had picked up her book. I learned so much, and it really inspired me to look into more patterns and eventually start my Etsy shop. It's amazing to me now to see the commercial bumpers on Nickelodeon that featured her work!
And I absolutely adore Twinkie Chan! I found her book in my local library back when I was in highschool. Even though I couldn't crochet at the time, I still enjoyed looking through her crazy food designs. Now I'm one of her blog sponsors, and she's inspired me to do so much that I never dreamed of doing with crochet.
What are your favourite things to stitch and do you have a favorite item you've made?
Knitting in-the-round projects are probably my favorite. They're very cathartic to me. Unless there's increasing/decreasing or some weird stitch pattern involved, it's all smooth sailing.
I think my favorite thing that I've made was a Spiderman blanket! It was such a hassle to make (mostly because I severly underestimated how much yarn I would need, and my LYS ran out of the blue yarn I needed), but seeing it finished was one of the greatest things I've ever experienced. It came out so awesome, and the person I made it for loved it and still uses it.
What music/podcasts/TV shows do you love to stitch along to?
Oh, my gosh, there's so many. Haha! I Netflix-binge when I have an upcoming convention. Just before my last con, I finished the first 3 seasons of Arrested Development in less than a week! I'm planning on starting the X-Files soon since I have so many projects I want to get done! Haha!
As for music, I don't listen to as much music as I would like to. Everyone always recommends me all these bands I should listen to, but I usually just end up listening to the same instrumental movie soundtracks as always.
Do you do any other crafts and what are your hobbies?
When I'm not knitting, I love to draw. I've done some semi-realism, but I mostly stick with cartoons and comics. I'm super geeky, and I'd love to write a graphic novel some day. I also cosplay in my spare time. It's fun to try to put together a costume from what I have on hand and what I can knit. It's also fun to buy a more intricate costume and wait for it to come in the mail. (That's not fun for my bank account though, haha!)
Is there anything else you'd like to add?
I just joined instagram! Follow me @knitkritters
Also, I'm not sure if I'm at liberty to discuss this, but there's a knitting book coming out next summer that I contributed some patterns to! I'm pretty excited about that. And I'm hoping to write some of my own crafting books in the near future... I guess we'll see what happens. :)
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