BE INSPRED FIBRES

Finally, I have managed to get myself started on the blog scene and it is because I am beginning a new adventure into business and self employment. The whole process fills me with both fear and excitement, but I really do feel very passionate about knitting and selling wool. There is no going back now, I have to continue what I have started: the business is incorporated, the online shop is being prepared and I have signed up to the Edinyarnfest on Sat 16th March. It will be the launch date for “Be Inspired Fibres”. The festival would be a great starting point to showcase a selection of unusual yarns. I have to thank the organisers, because they have given me an impetus to get things moving, no more procrastinating.

The internet and social media have really changed how we reach out to people and to create communities of like minded people. Before embarking on this yarn business venture, I was a complete technophobe and dinosaur, but within a month, I have managed to put together a social media strategy and an online platform to showcase the yarn collection and it is now time to implement that.

Why wool and knitting – a background?

Cotton Fairisle Cardigan

I learnt to knit when I was 7 years old from my mum and at school in Co. Down, N.Ireland. I remembered vividly always making things. I did stop knitting for a while and then only resumed after the birth of my second child in 2005. I remembered I was really nervous picking up the knitting needles again and in particular reading patterns, I was afraid that I had forgotten everything. But I soon got into the flow of things. Small toy projects were quickly followed by children’s garments and a subscription to Rowan, inspired me further to complete a fairisle cardigan. Knitting and buying wool immediately became an obsession, but it was also totally therapeutic, as it kept me busy in the evenings, as I was home alone with the kids most of the time, whilst my husband was working abroad.

Actually, it was while I was living in Beijing, China, that I got to know a Chinese cashmere yarn company and started to help them with distributing their yarns abroad and supplying the local SnB knitting group in Beijing, that was how I got involved in the yarn business.

The new company is called “Be Inspired Fibres”, because, I aim to supply knitters with a choice of unusual, hard to find and beautiful fibres and yarns, both undyed and dyed. I hope knitters will be inspired to make things which they will treasure and keep or to give as a special present. We are surrounded by so many pattern resources these days, and are totally empowered to be creative.

Currently uploading goodies onto the shop, http://www.beinspiredfibres.tictail.com. I will keep you informed when it is actually opened.