Crochet Baby Clothes Designer Interview – Pin it now and read later

This is Bonnie, the amazing artist behind Woodland Stitchcraft. I came across her profile when I was browsing the hashtag for crochet for children. Instantly, I fell in love with her timeless and classic patterns. I couldn’t stop browsing her feed because along with the great baby and kid’s crochet patterns, she is a mama-maker like myself.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Well, I’m Bonnie. A 33-year-old mother of three: Cole and Luke, my 11-year-old twin boys and my three-year-old daughter, Autumn. We live in the foothills of California, near my home town.

Tell me a little about your business.

The Stanislaus National Forest was the backdrop of my childhood and is the “woodland” that inspired my shop name. Woodland Stitchcraft really began as a way to filter my hobby because I had all these things I made just taking up room so I started selling it. Having an online shop has been a great way to support myself in doing something I love and is growing into a way to contribute to the support of our family also.

How many years have you been crocheting for?

I began crocheting about five years ago. My nephew Maverick was about to be born and I wanted to make him a gift. I found a little aviator hat pattern on Pinterest and wanted to make it for him. My good friend Sarah was the only person I knew that could knit and crochet and so I asked her to teach me. She taught me how to read a pattern and begin a hat in the magic circle and once I finished that hat I just kept crocheting. I started designing crochet patterns for babies about two years ago. November 10th will actually be the 2 year anniversary of my first pattern release! More recently I have also designed a few crochet baby clothes.

What are your current WIPs?

I am always working on a million things at once. I have about three patterns in various stages of being written that I am jumping around between. The Crossing Paths Bonnet pattern is finished and being released on the 17th. I have a pattern with testers right now and as far as crocheting goes I have a Halloween costume to finish and a couple of cowls that need to be finished. I am sure I will just keep adding to that list too.

What is your favorite thing to design and why?

I love to design crochet baby clothes. I have a lot of fun with finding an outfit or a look I want to create with crochet for my daughter. It’s important for me to put a piece of crochet into every outfit she wears. One of my favorite ways to do this is bonnets. Crocheting hats is what I started with and I made every kind of hat you could when I was learning to crochet and bonnets just always were my favorite.

Currently, I am in the process of designing my fourth and fifth bonnet patterns actually. I made Autumn her first bonnet in February 2017 and have made so many over the past couple of years. I also started buying her handmade fabric bonnets too. She has more bonnets than any other accessory or piece of clothing. It’s just become a favorite part of her wardrobe for me. I also love a good crochet baby dress pattern and have designed a couple of pieces that pair well with dresses including the Wildflower Pinafore, Flouncy Halter, and the Farmhouse Pinafore!

What are your goals for this year?

My goal for the coming year is just to design more crochet patterns for babies as much as I can! I have really fallen in love with pattern writing and am just going to keep doing it until I run out of ideas. And I want to branch out into more patterns for moms and home décor. There is so much you can do with crochet that I haven’t even tried and I love learning more about this craft and then using that to continue creating designs for everyone else to make as well!

How do you balance mom-life and making?

Lots of coffee and podcasts. I honestly lucked out with a husband who worked really hard to make it possible for me to stay home and I started my business when my boys were about 7 so I have built-in help. They were and are at an age where chores and self-care have become apart of their routine so they take care of themselves and I delegate a portion of household tasks to them.

My toddler is another story, she is a bit harder to work with but you just find ways. Autumn loves to craft so I do like to set her up with a project and then I’ll sit with her with some rows to finish up or ends to weave in and we can just be creative together. It’s a great way to finish up those easier tasks that don’t require too much attention because I can still engage with her on her activity. This is a system that works for us. It’s just fitting all the stuff into your life where you can!

One piece of advice for fellow mama makers?

This is a hard question! I’m still learning how to do all this stuff myself. I think the best advice I can give is what I try to practice myself, which is don’t give up. Whatever it is you want to do in motherhood or making or business, just keep doing your best and you’ll get there. I’m one of those people that love quotes and one of my favorites is, “Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential.” You can become stronger, you can always learn more but only if you show up day after day to work towards what you want. This is the mindset I personally thrive in.

Crochet Baby Clothes – Lil Sprouts Shorts pattern

This is the Lil’ Sprout Shorts Pattern, a gender-neutral crochet pattern for babies! These are so cute for layering in the cold months! Great over tights and under cardigans for boys and girls. Grab this pattern on Etsy or Ravelry.

You can find all of Bonnie’s patterns over in her Ravelry shop. You can also shop the patterns as well as her finished products from her Etsy shop. Get all of her updates and inspiration over on her Instagram and Blog. Read about her experience doing the Live interview over here.

You can check out the full recorded Live video conversation over on my YouTube Channel here.

If you are a POC and/or mom knit or crochet designer and would like to be featured, check out this blog post and fill out the form! Get to know some other great makers here.

Pin This Interview Now and Read Later

This is Hannah, the amazing artist behind Lalele Fibre Arts. I came across her profile when I was browsing the hashtag for crochet home decor. Instantly, I fell in love with her Walk Along the Shore Mat. I couldn’t stop browsing her feed because along with great patterns such as her crochet cozy patterns, she had some great reminders regarding self-care and mental health!

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

I’m Hannah. I’m a married mother of three children (8, 4, and 1 years old). I was born in the UK and lived there until we moved to Romania just over two years ago.

Being a maker can be lonely sometimes. I don’t know anyone in ‘real’ life who knits and crochets and where I live handcrafts are not that popular so there aren’t little yarn shops and knit nights. I miss being able to go into a shop to squish ALL the yarn! The online community is where I connect with other makers and I have ‘met’ some amazing and supportive people online.

Tell me a little about your business.

I started my business while I worked full time. After my second baby was born, I became a stay at home mother and sold finished items, mainly baby items, blankets, hats, and scarves online. We moved to Romania and I needed a new direction. My business didn’t feel like it represented who I was and I wasn’t enjoying making all the finished items needed to stock an Etsy shop. Modifying patterns that I was using was something I really enjoyed doing. I would think of a way to change things so that I liked the finished result more or so that the garment fit better. I started writing my first pattern and that was it, I was hooked!

Last year, I released that pattern, a crochet design, and then took the end of the year off to focus on self-care and better business planning. At the beginning of 2019, I re-branded my business. It finally felt like my brand was true to who I am and the journey that I am on. Lalele Fibre Arts is a values-led business with accessibility and inclusivity at its’ core. For this reason, you will find that my patterns have a ‘Pay What Works’ structure to allow for financial flexibility, while still valuing the work that goes into the designs. Feedback has been good so far.

I set myself a loose target of releasing 5 patterns by the end of the year. As it stands, I have released 4 more patterns, some of which are crochet cozy patterns, and have plenty more in the pipeline. I have upped the target to 8-10 patterns! Juggling motherhood, a house and small business can be really hard sometimes so I don’t set my targets in stone! If I do, I pressure myself too hard to meet those targets and that is no good for my health. I’ve learned that one the hard way!

How many years have you been knitting/crocheting for?

Twenty-plus for both. It’s a bit scary putting that on paper. I can’t believe it’s been so long. My late grandmother taught me the knitting basics. She was an incredible knitter. She was one of those people who could adapt patterns including lace patterns in her head, on the needles without the need for paper and a pen. As a child, I didn’t realize how skilled she was and didn’t appreciate all of the time that she put into knitting us the endless supply of knitted sweaters. I bet she never could have imagined that those hours I sat on her bed with some plastic knitting needles would set me on the path to becoming a knit and crochet designer. I like to think that she would be proud of the legacy that she left behind.

What are your current WIPs?

At the minute I have a couple of WIPs. A new knit cowl design which I am hoping to have finished very soon and also the Breeze Racerback pattern from Jessie Mae Martinson. I am also searching for the right yarn for a sweater for my husband. He is LONG overdue this sweater. I told him I would have one finished for last winter and somehow it never happened. Since then, I have frogged the sweater and used the yarn in a pattern test (oops!). The Marshland Sweater by Tin Can Knits is what I finally settled on since I want to make him something special. I can’t wait to start another WIP. I really am not a one-WIP kind of person!

What is your favorite thing to design and why?

I go backward and forwards on this one. Designing bits for the home like the crochet cozy patterns I have in my store has been really great, but I have also loved designing my shawl and the cowl that I am currently working on. I have a whole mix of designs dotted down in my notebook. What I work on next really does depend upon how I’m feeling at the time.

What are your goals for this year?

I would like to continue to learn and grow. I will focus on self-care, making sure that my mental health is in a good place. Without this, I can’t do anything! This year I will be releasing more patterns. My long term target is to start designing garments. I am learning as much as I can about sizing and grading at the moment so that I can put out beautiful, size inclusive designs. I have made a good start on this goal already. By the end of 2019, I would like to have a clearer understanding of sizing and grading (no one should feel excluded from making patterns because they stop at an M or L!)

I also started the SWATCH Studio Course by Francoise of Aroha Knits this year. By the end of the year, I would like to have finished the main parts of this course by the end of the year. I already had a lot of the skills, but hearing them set out as a good way to do things, has really increased my confidence and I have picked up some great time-saving tips so far.

How do you balance mom-life and making?

This is a hard one! I mainly work at night so that I can be present and be a mum during the day. Looking after them and managing the house is a full-time job in itself. Children are only small for a short amount of time and I don’t want to miss that! It means a lot of late nights but little fingers playing with your yarn is no help at all and untangling those knots takes FOREVER!

It can be hard knowing how much faster patterns and makes could be completed if I was working on them full time. I constantly have to remind myself that this is my journey, at my own pace and not to compare myself to any of the other designers or makers I see online.

Hannah’s mental health journey as a mama maker.

At the end of last year, I was really struggling with my mental health. I couldn’t focus to create and that was a hard place to be in. I didn’t feel like my husband or children were getting the best from me. After I talked to my husband about it, I had to take a step back to refocus and take time to take care of ‘me’ without feeling pressured to carry on as normal online.

Hannah’s reflections and resources for maintaining positive mental health.

I have started bullet journaling. This has helped me more than I could ever have imagined. Setting up the months is relaxing for me. I enjoy doing some drawing and coloring. I’m not an artist but that doesn’t matter! I make a basic plan for the month ahead and every evening I complete my journal and fill in the tasks for the next day.

I have never really been consistent with standard diaries. They always felt too rigid and didn’t have space to properly track the things that I needed. Bullet journaling is great because it is so flexible. You can use it for whatever YOU need. I track my personal and work life, as well as self-care. Planning pages and business tracker are things I use daily. I track my moods and my health. A monthly habit tracker is also something I use to track my daily routine, self-care, cleaning plan, water intake, etc. I don’t feel overwhelmed anymore. Everything is written down in small tasks which I can tick off as I do them. It keeps me focused.

This year I started a cleaning plan called ‘The Organised Mum Method’. I used to spend far too long cleaning and this has helped me to break it down. Every day has a different room to focus on It with the end goal of everything being cleaner, all the time because you are focusing on one room at a time rather than trying to do everything at once and missing bits. It really works!. Cleaning doesn’t feel like an effort anymore and I don’t feel anxious about it. I have a clean house, spend less time cleaning and more time with the children and I like that!

One piece of advice for fellow mama makers?

I posted about my mental health on Instagram. People seemed to appreciate the openness and honesty. I will continue to share more about this on my online platform. I think it is important to be ‘human’ and to get away from only showing the perfect side of everything. You look online and all the photos are perfect, edited beautifully, the wording is happy and everyone is smiling. That is great but isn’t a reflection of real life. By being open about our struggles, our feelings, and experiences, we and others feel less alone. We are real people with real emotions and real lives. It does not make you less of a person to share those. I want other people to know they are not alone and it is ok, not to be ok sometimes.

Don’t be too hard on yourself and remember to look after yourself and your mental health. Although it is hard, do not compare yourself to others that you see online. Your journey is your journey. It is ok to take time off to rest and regroup. If you are not feeling yourself everything is harder.

Hannah’s crochet cozy patterns and more

I released ‘The Explore Collection’ which is a collection of three crochet cozy patterns. These crochet cozy patterns were inspired by nature and the sea: Pebbles, a boardwalk and little stones. The crochet cozy patterns have been designed to complement one another as a set or to shine as stand-alone pieces. For this reason, I made these crochet cozy patterns available to purchase as single patterns. My own covered cans sit on my desk and I use them every day!

You can find all of Hannah’s patterns over on Ravelry and you can get all of her updates as well as great maker motivation over on her Instagram.

You can check out the full recorded Live video conversation over on my YouTube Channel here.

If you are a POC and/or mom knit or crochet designer and would like to be featured, check out this blog post and fill out the form! Get to know some other great makers here.