About me and Yarned
I have knitted so long that I’m not able to remember time, when I wasn’t. My mother taught me the basics and I have always been very self steering when learning new about the things I love.
There is a good probability that I am a material snob, but hey - part of the idea of handknitting is to get lovely items from luxurious materials, seldom seen in middle priced ready to wear clothing. I love the process of knitting and sometimes pick patterns just for knitting fun. But mainly I try to make pieces which I (or someone else) can actually wear.
I have all skills to design my own patterns, but do this too seldom. And when I do I tend to just knit along, I need some discipline to write down what I’m actually doing.
I love fashion. Or actually that is not true. I love people with personal style, I love clothing, skillful tailoring, striking materials, touch of handwork, history of fashion, tattooing, piercings, make up, jewelry - everything about how people wear and decorate themselves. But I don’t consider myself as a “fashionista” or something like that…
I work in media industry, and sort of love it. But i would love even more to work with more tactile things. My family is small: my dear husband and two cats. We live almost in center of Helsinki in a house built in twenties and I really feel home in this atmosphere. Still dreaming of moving to larger city, though, some day…
Yarned was born for several reasons. I started blogging in English in my Finnish blog, Reunasilmukka just to improve my written English (and probably have some international feedback). But as much as I love WordPress I can’t say that the basic templates work well with two language options. I implemented the English section brutally by using categories and the result was confusing, if not worse. I know that there is much one can do with some PHP skills, but my knowledge is limited to very basics of programming and I don’t know PHP syntax at all. Very simple way to solve this is manage two separate blogs.
I have some aspirations to progress from somewhat experienced knitter to knitwear designer. At least in small scale by publishing free patterns and perhaps some patterns to buy in my blog. I think that it might be more rewarding to publish those in English, too.
Last but not least I’m very interested of all possibilities Internet offers to small independent companies and even for single people in fields of retail and marketing - this interest raises at least partially from my job. This site will be my experimentation lab in this area. I have no intentions to get rich, but I will be very happy if I get some new knowledge and small income to cover the hosting bills via Google ads and Amazon affiliate program!
A warm welcome for you!
January 12th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Hoi Jaana,
Congratulations with your new blog! Looks really nice, especially the colours of the yarn above your blog. I like your (taste for)knitwear so I’m looking forward to your patterns.
I completely understand your wish to work more with tactile things; that’s why I became a ‘textile-teacher’(on a secundary school). Wish you good luck with all your plans!
Petronella
January 13th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Thanks! That beautiful yarn is Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock on colourway Baltic Sea.
February 2nd, 2008 at 6:03 pm
I found your blog today and was very excited with your work. Are the things other than Twinkle your own patterns the cable thing and there is a cardigan with seed stitch in your photos? I would be interested in carrying your patterns when you are ready..lovely lovely lovely..sandy
February 4th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Sandy, thanks a lot!
That gray cable overcoat is a knockoff from Anthropologie design, so practically it is not my design. But that brass coloured little cardigan is.
I’m planning to publish a free pattern of both of those - and the patterns will be free to distribute in their original format, too. So I will let you know when they are available!
February 10th, 2008 at 5:13 am
Oh, how cool!
I am so impressed by your new website and the fact that you are publishing your own patterns. I can’t wait to see what exciting new thing you introduce next!
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:57 am
I’m an admirer of you stuff on Ravelry and I’m excited to hear you’ll be publishing your patterns, you have great style! My knitting skills are pretty basic as yet but hopefully there’ll be something I can attempt!
February 25th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Tirlittan: Thanks!
Kate: you make me blush! I will certainly write patterns for all skill levels. And I don’t have to stay in the compact basic format of patterns, all necessary technical details can be included - or linked from other sites to explain the details of projects.
March 22nd, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Kamicha, I just found your blog via Ravelry when I came across your lovely Wabisabi pattern. It is so inspirational! I love your sense of style and design, and your finished projects are so wonderful. Also, as a Foreign Languages major in college (Japanese, Spanish, etc…), I’m equally inspired by your language abilities! I hope to one day be able to blog in Japanese just as naturally as you are able to blog in English.
April 2nd, 2008 at 1:46 am
Hi, I’m wondering if you are based out of Vancouver?
April 3rd, 2008 at 9:38 am
Janna: Nope, I live in Helsinki, Finland