Meet Mandy ~ Discovering the Artist Within

 

Mandy joined Creative Knitters in the spring of 2024 after taking part in the Faye Fringe Bag Knitting Challenge. Since then, she's found that her creative practice has deepened by all that Creative Knitters has to offer.

 

"There's something to be said and valued when you are a creative person and you feel completely cocooned in a loving, passionate environment that allows you to break all the rules, while still being yourself, and that values the artist inside you––because we all have one!"

 

Mandy believes deeply that we all have an artist within that deserves to be nourished. "Every single one of us has this little Picasso inside that wants to get out," she says. "We sometimes forget that we have that. We grow up. We work. We forget to play."

Mandy says that Creative Knitters has helped her to find joy, fulfillment, and that childlike sense of wonder, through her knitting practice and connecting with other makers in the community. 

 

 

As a person who struggles with anxiety, Mandy always turned to the set rules of knitting and the comfort of following a pattern as a way to decompress and feel like she didn't have to be in control.

 

It wasn't until she discovered Knit Collage that she actually gave herself the permission slip to break all those rules. 

 

Discovering Daisy Chain yarn for the first time felt like coming home.

 

"Every single yarn, every single pattern, my kid inside was just jumping up and down screaming that I didn't have to make this up, it was already there and I was home."

 

"I clicked on Knit Collage and my jaw just hit the floor," she says. "It just makes my heart so happy to have found this for myself."

 

 

"I know that my life would look a lot different if I hadn't taken the chance and joined Creative Knitters," she says.

 

The support of the membership has helped her to grow her confidence, trust herself more, and not feel so overwhelmed when it comes time to pick up her needles.

 

"I really have met so many wonderful people," she says. "I think having that daily connection with myself from a creative perspective has helped me believe in myself more as an artist and as a knitter."

 

"By finding my people, I've found myself."

 

 

"For me, this sweater [her Sunbeam Stripe Cardi] is one of the biggest expressions of self love that I have experienced," she says, "It's a beautiful gift to see over and over and over with the lovely makers that are a part of this beautiful community.